Lemon Hummus to Elevate Your Plant-Rich Meals

Salad dressings, dips, and sauces can often either make a simple salad to taste absolutely wonderful or make an entire meal miserable. I like to make my dressings and dips instead of purchasing store-bought versions since most of them are full of preservatives, added salt and sugar, rancid vegetable oils, and dodgy chemicals. Therefore, our beautiful intention to nourish our cells with healthy and delicious whole foods can be ruined by the weirdest ingredients. One of my favourite dips is hummus. It’s a great topping to various meals: salads, bowls, or it can be served with veggie sticks, wraps, and crackers. Home-made hummus tastes so much better than the store-bought versions and is super quick and easy to make. Moreover, you don’t need to worry about ingesting those above-mentioned inflammatory vegetable oils! 

This is my basic hummus recipe. Sometimes I like to swap the lemon for orange juice for extra sweetness. Hummus made of chickpeas provides plenty of fiber and plant-protein to keep you satisfied. Chickpeas are also super affordable, especially if you buy dried chickpeas and cook them in batches and freeze the leftovers. You can also use pre-cooked chickpeas if you like, just be sure to drain and rinse them well before using. Choose carton vs. can to limit your exposure to chemicals often used in the lining of cans.

For the Mediterranean-inspired salad I used fresh arugula, spinach, sprouts, pomegranate seeds, tempeh, cucumber, and heirloom tomatoes, and topped the salad with my lemon hummus. No matter how cold it gets outside, it’s a good idea to add some raw foods into your diet to get live enzymes and vitamins that are often destroyed by heat during cooking and processing. 

Lemon Hummus 

Ingredients: 

230g (or one cup) chickpeas 

1 lemon, juiced 

2 tablespoons tahini (preferably raw, unsalted)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 

1-4 tablespoons water (depending on how smooth you like it)

1 clove garlic 

1/3 teaspoon ground cumin

Fresh basil leaves (optional) 

Himalayan sea salt, to taste 

Directions: 

Place all the ingredients into a food processor, or use a hand blender. Blend until perfectly smooth. Store leftovers in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. 

Nourish Your Body and Soul with Bliss.