Sumac and roast pumpkin hummus – recipe

One of my favourite foods is hummus.

While I never get bored with the traditional version, I do like to mix it up a bit at times. Such as subbing out the lemon juice for orange juice, or adding some herbs or spices.

This version was created when I had a heap of left over roast pumpkin that needed to be eaten, and I just couldn’t face it in yet another salad or frittata. While often I would use it up in a soup, the recent spate of revoltingly hot and humid weather didn’t lend itself to that.

I make this in my Thermomix, but you could use any good food processor, a stick blender or even a large mortar and pestle (particularly good for bashing out aggression!).

Roast pumpkin hummus is a fab way to repurpose leftovers and gives a new flavour to a favourite snack Click To Tweet

Sumac and roast pumpkin hummus
by Mel Kettle, The cook’s notebook

What you need:

• 250-300g of leftover cooked pumpkin
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 tbs tahini (I prefer hulled)
• 1-2 lemons, juiced (start with 1, add more to taste)
• 1tbs sumac
• 1/2 cup of iced water (I use tap water with ice cubes in it to quickly chill)
• salt to taste

What you do:

Place everything EXCEPT the water and salt in your Thermomix/ food processor/ large bowl and blitz on Sp6 for 30 seconds. Scrape down and blitz again on Sp9 for 10 seconds, adding the ice water until it has a consistency you like. Taste and add salt, extra sumac or extra lemon to taste. I’ll often also add some lemon zest. I like it quite smooth so I blitz again for another 30 seconds on Sp9.

Store in the fridge. I like to leave it for at least 3-4 hours before eating it as this gives the flavours time to develop.

Enjoy as either a snack with crackers or veggie sticks, or as part of a meal.

Do you like hummus? Do you stick to the traditional or do you make flavours? Have you tried pumpkin hummus?