Tonight I went to a Mary Kay party. The rep was one of my brides! I decided to take some veggies and hummus with me! I had a ton left over….I personally LOVE my Old Bay hummus….and apparently my veggies do too!

Here’s the recipe!

15 oz can chickpeas
1/2 cup tahini*
5 tbsp oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 medium garlic cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1 tbsp oil (optional)

Drain and rinse chickpeas, reserving 1/2 cup of the liquid. Combine all ingredients in a food processor (or blender**). Process until mixture is smooth. If mixture is too thick, add 1-2 tbsp of reserved chickpea liquid***. Move to serving dish and add 1 tbsp oil, if desired.

Old Bay Hummus
Same as above, minus salt, pepper or ground red pepper. I added about 2-3 tbsp of Old Bay instead. This is a “to taste” ingredient. I put in a bit…then poured in some more…thought it was too much…but after I tasted it, realized it was perfect. If you are from Baltimore, you know that there is no such thing as “too much Old Bay.”

Tomato Basil Hummus
Same as above, minus salt, pepper or ground red pepper. I added one full tomato and a bunch of basil. I used dried basil, but I would imagine fresh basil would be tasty! Now, since I used a whole tomato, it made the mixture a little watery, so I just opened another can of chickpeas and added about 1/4-1/3 of the can.

* find this near the peanut butter in the store. I have purchased it at Wal-Mart. This is also one of the messy ingredients.
** I have NOT had luck making a double batch in the blender
*** I typically will add 2 tbsp of the chickpea liquid at the beginning. I’ve also found that if you drain the liquid into a measuring cup (I use a 3 cup), it’s much easier (and cleaner) when adding more to the hummus.