Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

I think this is the tastiest houmous I’ve ever made. It’s creamy and nutty, it works well as a dip, or spread onto sandwiches or crackers, or you can thin it down and use it as a salad dressing. It takes a little bit of planning, as the chickpeas take three days to sprout. But I quite like the sprouting process and watching them grow

Yield; Roughly 400g houmous Cook time; 15 minutes

You’ll need;

1. 125g dried chickpeas
2. One tablespoon of lemon juice
3. One tablespoon of tahini
4. One large clove of garlic, chopped
5. Salt to taste
6. 125ml water

Method;

• Start by measuring out the chickpeas and put them into a jar, I used a sprouting jar, but a jar with a mesh lid will work too. Fill the jar with water and rinse the chickpeas well, then fill the jar with fresh water and leave the chickpeas to soak for 8-12 hours
• Drain the water away from the chickpeas and tip the jar up so any remaining water can drain out. Water the chickpeas two or three times a day, for three days. To water them, simply fill the jar with fresh water, gently shake the jar, then drain the water away. After three days you’ll see that they have sprouted, and now they’re ready to cook
• Once again, fill the jar with water and rinse the chickpeas. Then half fill a small saucepan with water, bring it to a boil, then add the chickpeas. Pop a lid on the saucepan, reduce the heat to the lowest setting, and cook for 15 minutes
• When the chickpeas are cooked, rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking process. Add them into a blender with the lemon juice, tahini, garlic, salt and water. Finally blend until the houmous is smooth and creamy

Making houmous like this increases the natural nutty flavour, it’s also higher in protein, has more nutritional benefits, and is easier to digest. Sprouting the chickpeas is really easy too, it’s just a case of soaking and then watering them. It’s also much cheap to make houmous like this, rather than buying tinned or jarred chickpeas, as dried chickpeas are so cheap