Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

A deliciously creamy houmous, with a spicy warmth from pickled jalapeños, and a little citrus sweetness from the lime. This copycat recipe of shop bought jalapeño houmous is easy to make and much cheaper too, especially if you use dried chickpeas. Lately, I’ve been soaking my chickpeas with bicarbonate of soda, which really cuts down on the cooking time. The bicarb helps to soften the chickpeas so they more readily absorb water. This means that you can really cut down on the cooking time, taking it from around an hour to just 15 minutes

You’ll need;

1. Either; 125g dried chickpeas and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, or; one 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2. Two cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
3. One tablespoon of tahini
4. 50g of pickled jalapeños
5. Both the juice and the zest of one lime
6. Between 75ml-100ml water
7. Salt to taste

If you’re using tinned chickpeas instead of dried, skip the first step and move onto the second

Method;

• Start by soaking the chickpeas in 450ml of cold water and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda for 8 hours. Once soaked, drain the chickpeas from the soaking liquid and give them a good rinse. Bring a small saucepan of water to a simmer, add the chickpeas and cover with a lid. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cook for 15 minutes. Once cooked, drain the chickpeas and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process
• Add the chickpeas, garlic, tahini, jalapeños, lime juice, lime zest, water and salt into a blender/food processor. Blend until the houmous has achieved your desired consistency. You may need to pause and scrape down the sides
• You may find you only need 75ml of water, so start with 75ml and add more if needed. You could also opt to replace some of the water with a little oil if preferred

Serve with crisps, breadsticks, vegetable sticks or tortillas. You can also eat this on toast, with salads, or spread it onto sandwiches and wraps

I find that houmous keeps well in the fridge for up to a week, provided you store it in an airtight container. If you would like to keep houmous for longer, I would recommend freezing. After you make the houmous, portion it into small airtight containers and then freeze, this way it will remain as fresh as possible. Then simply defrost the houmous in the fridge as and when you need it

I’ve been really enjoying making different flavours of houmous lately, another one I’ve been really enjoying is this Lemon Pepper Houmous I’d recommend giving that one a try too