Healthy hummus recipe

Our healthy hummus recipe will turn any dull salad into a delight. Let's be honest; your greens can be a bit dull, day after week, month in and out. Yet that is what we all ought to be doing.

This looks like a bit of a dog's breakfast, but it simply scrumptious and to boot contains five of the mandatory eight coloured foods we should be enjoying every day; actually we aim for fifteen. That's where the bioactive nutrients that promote wellness and help prevent disease are to be found.

It also has all four of the vitamins that have been shown by scientists to prevent the onset and progression of frailty syndrome. Do you know what they are? Is granny getting them?

Avocado and hummus salad.Avocado and hummus salad

This page was last updated by Bernard Preston on 2nd January, 2024.

It is the coloured foods that contain the phytochemicals that protect our bodies from serious disease; and keep our arteries well polished. The basis of every salad is a foundation of lettuce on which we build with our more interesting treats; enter the many healthy hummus recipes.

Then just add a generous dribble of olive oil, and a good squirt of lime or lemon juice and you have a delicious meal, generous in plant protein, plenty of the healthy oils and so low in carbs that even the banting folk are happy with the small amount of low GI start in the chickpeas

Yes, nutritious food really can taste good, and nowhere is this better demonstrated than with a good dollop of homemade hummus. One of its great virtues is that it is full of antioxidants.

Hummus is perfect vegan food because it contains two amino acids that vegetarians battle to get; methionine and lysine.

Lysine is rich in chickpeas, the first main ingredient of our healthy hummus recipe; and methionine is found in the sesame seeds that are the other.

Roasted butternut with hummus.Roasted butternut and hummus

Healthy hummus recipe

An authentic healthy hummus recipe contains chickpeas, ground sesame seeds, olive oil, parsley and cumin.

Today we are going to add roast butternut. It gives your hummus a smoothness, a richness that is just delightful.

Butternut is particularly rich in beta carotene, a vital phytochemical if you want to enjoy sparkling good health, and has a low glycemic index; that makes is acceptable for those who are banting. True, roasting it does raise the GI.

Our roasted butternut hummus contains

  • Soaked and cooked Chickpeas
  • Tahini, a sesame seed paste
  • A handful of parsley
  • An optional clove of garlic and a slither of chili.
  • A couple tablespoons of water and the same of olive oil.
  • Salt and pepper
  • A good scoop of your roasted butternut.

Healthy hummus recipe

First follow our authentic hummus recipe; with practice you can make it in four minutes. I do, twice a week.

As you can see from the above link, I advocate use of pressure cooker, always a bonus in any kitchen but particularly for the busy cook.

Cooking time is reduced by two thirds. Otherwise, chickpeas take for ever. You can use the canned ones, but the cost increases by a not insignificant four-fold.

You can roast and grind your sesame seeds too, but there I advocate using tahini which you can get in any middle eastern store.

Then, after making our roasted butternut recipe, take a scoop or two and add it to your hummus; it becomes smooth and takes on a rich texture. I like to scoop some of the melted butter and fresh thyme juice along with the butternut.

You can enjoy our healthy hummus recipe with any number of dishes, but I particularly like it with a salad.

No difficulty reaching your eight mandatory colours with a salad like this.

Salad with roasted butternut hummusSalad with hummus

Our low GI bread finishes off any salad. Yes, butter is back, and today I added the good wife's cherry guava jelly. True, some sugar, but full of phytochemicals including the mystic resveratrol.

For the record, there are three different lettuces, raw green peas, sweet red pepper and cherry tomatoes, half an avocado and some feta cheese. Of course, olives and, not shown, EVOO and fresh lime juice.

That's extra virgin olive oil, of course.

Chickpeas incidentally are the richest source of vitamin B6, one of the four linked to progressive frailty in the elderly; make sure granny knows about them.


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I would have liked a little Norwegian salmon, or a leg of free range chicken but not today.

Oh, and of course a good scoop of our healthy butternut hummus recipe.

Did you notice those tomatoes? They are mandatory, along with avocado in every man's diet; they reduce the incidence of prostate cancer by a half. It's purely anecdotal, but the urologist phoned this morning with my PSA check. He's pleased with anything under 4; mine was under 1.0. I give the credit to my fascination with health choice foods.

  • Prostate gland health is vital for every family. Find it using the site search function on your left.

Incidentally, did you know that statins actually increase the risk of prostate CA? And enjoying citrus with the pulp reduces it?

Sesame tahini

Roasted sesame seeds

Sesame tahini is definitely a paste to sample if you're into healthy living; it's like peanut butter only nicer, and has some unusual amino acids that vegans may miss. Your healthy hummus recipe has a good dollop.

You can find sesame tahini in any Greek, Turkish or Lebanese shop. Or, if you have lots of energy you can roast and grind them yourself; I've tried it, and don't think it's worth the bother.

It's an essential part of any hummus recipe, complementing the amino acids in chickpeas to provide a rounded, full protein source.

What is cumin?

Hummus ingredients chickpeas cumin.Cumin for the hummus

What is cumin is a subject for every food lover. Don't buy it in little bottles; it loses it's flavour very quickly and it is so easy to roast and grind; this one is worth doing. You will have to find the whole seeds. Use your cumin in curries, your healthy hummus recipe, of course, on roast chicken and all your spicy dishes.

  • What is cumin? Use the site search function.

That's the cumin in the teaspoon; I keep the roasted and ground seeds in the bottle on the right. It takes about five minutes to prepare enough for a few weeks; longer than that it loses its special flavour; keep it under olive oil.

Non biodegradable waste is choking our world. Do your bit for king and country and wean off plastic. That means reusing whatever you can, as in the bags and containers above, and recycling the rest.

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Bernard Preston

Bernard Preston is a semi retired chiropractor. Making this healthy hummus recipe and in general bringing simple nutritious dishes to the fore is part of his commitment to a better lifestyle.

If you want to live long in the land, with no cancer, heart disease and stroke, look to a return to the food that your grandmother once served, and more exercise.

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