I can get pretty stubborn about food. Once I think I don’t like an ingredient or a dish, I will avoid it forever if I don’t make myself, from time to time, retry the foods that I’ve had bad experiences with.
Call it a very low-risk act of courage. If I can face cilantro or rutabagas, I don’t have to face my fear of heights or anything that has the potential to result in bodily harm. I’ve learned to like, even love, lots of foods, especially vegetables, just by giving them a second chance. (To be honest, I haven’t re-tried the dreaded rutabaga yet; some experiences are just too traumatic to go through again.)
About 9 years ago, I had a hummus pizza in a restaurant in Estes Park, Colorado, that left me convinced that I just didn’t like hummus that was heated above room temperature. (I wrote a few underwhelmed words about it here.) So, though I’ve recently embraced the joys of hot baba ganoush, I’ve stayed away from any recipe that would have me stick my precious chickpea dip into the oven.
But when I saw the absolutely gorgeous Turkish Hot Layered Hummus on a blog called Panning the Globe, I just couldn’t get the idea out of my mind. Go there and look at the photos and you’ll see what I mean.
Lisa, the blogger at Panning the Globe, created her recipe after enjoying a similar dish in Istanbul. She starts with hummus made creamier with Greek yogurt and olive oil–no-no’s for us oil-free vegans. For my vegan version, I could have easily replaced the yogurt with soy or coconut yogurt, but I find even the plain varieties of those to be too sweet, and I wasn’t willing to make my own yogurt just for one recipe.
So I did something a little different and used unsweetened cashew milk, hoping that it would add a little creaminess and very few calories (25 per cup). Honestly, I’m not sure it made a difference, so if you’re making my version, feel free to use non-dairy yogurt or even vegetable broth or the liquid from cooking chickpeas.
I made a few other changes to fit my tastes. I’m not a fan of sun dried tomatoes, so I replaced them with fresh yellow cherry tomatoes. And to give it a little of the flavor of olives without olive oil, I added kalamata olives to the salad. I came very close to including the pine nuts from the original recipe, but since I’d already used tahini and the olives, I didn’t want to add any more high-fat ingredients. If you’re not concerned about fat, I think a couple of tablespoons of toasted pine nuts would put this rich-tasting appetizer over the top.
If you’re wondering, I am now a fan of hot hummus–as is my entire family. Daughter E was initially a little skeptical, but as you can see in the photo above, she couldn’t stop eating it once she got started.
Hot Layered Hummus
Ingredients
HUMMUS
- 2 15-ounce cans chickpeas or 3 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
- 3/4 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used cashew milk)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2-3 cloves garlic peeled
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
SALAD TOPPING
- 1/2 cucumber peeled, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
- 5 small radishes sliced and cut into 1/4-inch strips
- 1/2 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
- 4 kalamata olives pitted and sliced
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate vinegar or white balsamic or white wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes or paprika see notes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly oil a shallow baking dish or pie pan.
- Place all hummus ingredients into a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until completely smooth. Spread into the prepared baking dish. Bake for about 20 minutes or until heated through.
- While hummus is in the oven, prepare the salad topping. Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
- Spread the salad over the hummus and serve hot with pita bread as an appetizer.
Notes
Adapted from Turkish Hot Layered Hummus at Panning the Globe.
Nutritional info is approximate.
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Danielle
Looks delicious! I love the colors. I will have to make this the next time I make homemade pita bread.
KathyF
How interesting! I don’t particularly care for the hummus I’ve had here in the US. Compared to the hummus in the UK it is dry and thick, not tasty at all. Maybe the addition of a non-dairy milk or yogurt will help.
I used to buy a hummus that was so lovely–asparagus, broad bean and mint. It was absolutely the best hummus I’ve had anywhere.
As for heated hummus, I make a white bean dip that is baked and is simply divine. I’ve been craving it a while, and as soon as my beans from Rancho Gordo come in I think I’ll make it with some of their beans. Thanks for the recipe; will definitely fiddle with it (I’d go back to sundried tomatoes instead of fresh, since, like you with rutabagas, fresh tomatoes are one thing I can’t get past :)) .
Art Mealer
I’ve appreciated the resource you provide for fat free recipes. This time I’m disappointed. This is not a fat free recipe. As the name of your blog promises, I look to you to find fat free recipes that help me with my serious health issues. I can find recipes that have fat content anywhere.
Maybe when you venture into fat included recipes, you could add something to the recipe name–such as, “Hot Layered Hummus (4.8 grams of fat)”– to let me know I don’t have to comb through paragraphs to be certain a given listing is actually a fat free recipe.
Jill
To be fair to Susan, this recipe fits within the guidelines of Eat to Live and Susan has other recipes that also fit the same guidelines.
And Dr. Fuhrman as far as I know only restricts his patients and interested readers to 1 ounce of nuts and seeds daily if they have heart disease or have lots of weight to lose.
At any rate, it should only take a few moments to peruse the ingredients list to see if it works for you. If you have concerns about any ingredients, but the recipe looks good to you, try making substitutions (as Susan suggests in the text).
Also, if you let a little time go by, commenters usually post what changes or omissions or additions they make, and somebody may mention making this or another recipe with substitutions that work for you.
Best of luck with your dietary regimen. I plan on trying this one, I think I could be a big fan of heated hummus! And I know from experience that Susan’s hummus recipes are the ones I use more than any others on the internet, so I’m sure this will be a winner, too.
Tom
Art with all respect to your feelings and experience, I’d love to remind all of us that maintaining an active blog, the cost of food preparation while experimenting with recipes before she is ready to share them with us, photographing gorgeously her dishes, keeping up to date with web design technology, attending blog conferences, creating new ideas for recipes, and sharing all this FREELY with such kindness and generosity, outside of visiting her amazon store, Susan is not getting rich off of this website. Im really happy to hear that you, like so many of us here are tending to our health through healthy lifestyle choices. It also sounds like you are very much aware of which food items work for you and which do not. Susan has long been supportive of readers modifying recipes to meet their dietary and taste preferences. In fact she has even welcomed such feedback. Continued success and good health to you. At the end of the day if one recipe doesn’t work for you and you don’t care to modify it to meet your needs perhaps you can just let that be. My hope is the hundreds if not thousands of other recipes on the site have brought you some joy and good healthy eating. May you allow your mind to dwell on those that serve you. T Colin Campbell, Fuhrman, et al all support a whole food plant based diet. Tahini is allowed as is some salt. The tahini is from a whole food (sesame seeds). If that does not work for you, by all means leave that out and enjoy!!! Life is short. All of us, including the greatest of creative plant based chefs also have feelings. Perhaps its just me, but while Im sure not intended, your post came across somewhat harsh and unkind in syntax and language. If you are here on the site, I trust you too have had much joy from reading and eating Susan’s delicious recipes.
Susan Voisin
Thank you, Tom, for this excellent response as well as your enduring support for this blog. You don’t know how much it is appreciated!
Tom
🙂
Susan Voisin
What a great suggestion! The commenters here are terrific adapters and very generous with their ideas. I know it won’t be long before someone posts about a tahini-less version of this recipe.
Susan Voisin
Hi Art,
First of all, I’m truly sorry about your health issues; believe me, I know how seriously they can affect one’s quality of life. I almost let this comment go because I know that usually when someone leaves a message like this it’s in the heat of the moment and they don’t come back to check the follow-ups. But in case anyone else is wondering about the issue of fat on a blog called FatFree Vegan Kitchen, I thought I would give a little more info about this recipe and my blog in general.
Starting with the blog, as you can see if you look at my About Me page, I have always allowed the inclusion of naturally occurring fats. If I didn’t, as Connie mentions below, I would be posting recipes for ice cubes and water only. All food has fat. What I eliminate here is basically oil–fat that has been extracted from the food. I also strictly limit the amount of high-fat whole foods such as nuts, seeds, olives, and avocados that I use so that even though some of my recipes include these ingredients, they are in much smaller amounts than you’d find in similar recipes. I try not to include such high-fat ingredients very often, so that maybe 1 in 4 recipes will include nuts or seeds in small amounts. When I look back over my last 4 recipes before this one, I see that I did indeed use nut butter in one of those 4 (a tablespoon in a recipe that serves 6), so in a way, I’m right on schedule. 😉
Many times when I use a high-fat ingredient, it’s because I think it improves the overall flavor of the recipe; when I don’t think that flavor is essential, I mark the ingredient optional (as the kalamata olives probably should have been labeled here). But other times I include the high-fat ingredient because the chemistry of the dish, so to speak, needs a little fat for some reason or other. In my last recipe that used tahini, Mushroom Seitan Roast, the oil in the tahini coasts and shortens the strands of gluten (wheat protein) making them more tender. Most seitan recipes use much more fat to accomplish the same goal.
In this recipe, I included tahini for two reasons. First, I don’t think hummus without at least a little tahini is hummus, but that’s a personal preference and a matter of taste. I often mark the tahini in my hummus recipes optional because others might not mind the flavor or texture of tahini-less hummus. The other, more important reason I included it in this recipe is that baking hummus dries it out. The original recipe used full-fat Greek yogurt, tahini, and half a cup of olive oil, which helps keep the hummus moist in the oven. My hummus was probably much drier than the original, but it would have been even more so without any tahini.
You may be surprised to learn that in this recipe, if you eliminate the tahini (2.4 grams of fat) and the olives (.66 grams of fat), you will still be left with 1.78 grams of fat per serving, mostly from the chickpeas (1.37 grams of fat). It truly is impossible to create a fat-free hummus.
I think I provide a pretty good service just including the nutritional information at the end of each recipe and tagging those that are above 15% calories from fat as Higher-Fat at the end of the post. Most bloggers don’t do this. Calculating nutrition is not easy in general, and these days it requires me to go to a different computer than the one I use for everything else, enter in each ingredient and amount individually, and then, in many cases, enter in the complete nutritional information for individual ingredients not in my database. I really don’t think it’s asking too much for readers to scroll down to the end of the recipe, where the fat grams are always listed.
Art Mealer
Hi Susan (and Tom, Jill, and others here),
Your blog is one of the few choices available that takes fat in the diet seriously. I eat (and modify) many of the meals here that I use weekly and monthly from your blog. It is my number one resource.
I am amazed how confused most people are about what constitutes fat in food. Butter, olive oil, cheese, sour cream, nuts and seeds, avocado’s, meats, baked goods, and so many more high fat content foods are healthy for people without heart disease or other health concerns. Some of us have metabolisms and chemistries that are unable to handle these well.
OH! A hummus recipe on fatfreevegan! I know hummus is nearly impossible to make without large amounts of fat. And I love(d) hummus, so when I saw you had a recipe for it, I was thrilled. How, I wondered, did she ever do it without fat? Yeah, maybe I just should have shrugged my shoulders. But in the moment, I was really disappointed and opened my keyboard. Wish I hadn’t. And you all have been kind in your reactions.
Like many other of your regular followers, I appreciate your labor. I do not want to be even a momentary discouragement, so my apologies on saying anything. I remain one of your fans and use your recipes every week.
As to my health, 18 months ago I was diagnosed with a blockage over 80% near my heart that can’t be reached with a stint (another blockage could be reached and the stint was an amazing improvement). If it gets much worse, it’s open heart surgery. I’ve been disciplined using the strict version of Dr Dean Ornish’s diet for reversing heart disease, and in the first 6 months following the discovery of these issues my cholesterol went from 209 (which wasn’t terrible) to 86. It’s been 18 months now, and I feel pretty healthy while remaining vigilant with what I eat.
Thanks again for your labors, Susan.
Kris
Art, you can make tahini/nut free hummus. Just leave out the tahini and nuts. There are other forums with those recipes if you don’t want to do that to these recipes. Engine2 and the McDougall forums have hummus recipes with no nuts/seeds or olives.
Janice Price
Art,
I am so sorry about your health issues, but glad to hear how well you are now doing due to your dietary commitment and vigilance.
I have been thinking about this recipe and wanted to suggest using cook eggplant in place of the tahini and add a little extra garlic and cumin. The cooked eggplant can help create the creamy texture that tahini would provide. I slice my eggplant into 1/4″ circles, lightly salt the eggplant and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Rinse off salt and pat dry. Place on baking sheet and broil in oven for 4-5 minutes on each side. Then place hot eggplant in a sealed bag and allow to ‘steam’ for about 5 minutes. Lastly, remove the eggplant peal…I would probably use about 1/2 cup cooked eggplant in this recipe.
I hope this suggestion works for you and helps you to once again enjoy hummus!
Michelle
If you read her description for her website she says it is more accurately called “oil-free vegan” meaning no added oils.
I also have a condition in which I have do drastically limit my fats. But I know of no diet that which allows zero fat. That wouldn’t be healthy at all.
Also, the main fat sources here are tahini and olives. You can easily modify the recipe to omit these.
Connie Fletcher
Oh, Susan…this looks delicious!!! I most definitely will be making this. I think I understand what fat free vegan means. I think it means you usually don’t add any fat, but allow for foods that contain some fat…..wouldn’t it be pretty hard to be completely fat free…if not impossible…unless, of course, you’re OK surviving on ice cubes…..
Connie Fletcher
I know, I’m perseverating…even one raw banana has 1 gram of fat…..
moonwatcher
Hi Susan,
This looks really good! And kudos for having a sense of adventure about it. I think it would be a great dish to bring to a potluck or for introducing folks to plant-based eating. It’s on my list now. 🙂 Mouth watering photos too. 🙂
xo
Maria
Marilyn
This looks so good!! I LOVE hummus…and if anyone is worried about the tahini…Cathy Fisher has a recipe for hummus using no tahini…….that said, I can’t wait to try this….thanks for sharing the recipe….
Tom
You are amazing Susan!!!
Honestly, you never cease to amaze me.
Your creativity, your drive and energy.
Huge admiration, respect and appreciation for you and all you do for us. You have been HUGELY instrumental in my plant based cooking skills over the years. I am forever appreciative. You have definitely made a difference in my life and health.
Thank you Susan!
Tom
Werner
Ditto!!!
Betsey riedl
I, too had a very bad experience with hummus. After my first round of chemotherapy, (10+ years ago) I ate lunch out and had a Mediterranean Plate. I don’t know what happened in my body, but it took 2 years to be able to eat cucumbers and olives. Hummus still makes me shudder. But this looks tempting! Thanks for sharing.
Janet
Sounds yummy. I always like my hummus hot. I heat my chickpeas before making hummus. It makes it so much smoother. Then I like to eat it while still hot, or reheat it if I’m eating leftovers. Adding the veggies to the top would be nice.
Anna
omg love this!!! it looks super delicious 🙂
Suzie Russell
Hot hummus with mushrooms. Kind of simmered in a rich broth with onions, then spooned in the middle of a circle of warm hummus. Gorgeous.
Christine
I’m kind of unsure about hot hummus too, given a strange experience I had making hummus-crusted tofu. But maybe I’m missing out…
I always re-try foods I dislike every few years. I couldn’t eat raw tomatoes until I was 28, and still forced myself a bit after that. I still have to remind myself that I eat them now and don’t need to avoid them. Beets, well, they’re still on my “no, thanks” list.
Kari
Sounds like a good way to take regular old hummus (which is delicious – I’m sure we can all agree) and make it into a hummus you would order at a fancy restaurant, but without the price tag!
Julie
I want to share something that transformed my hummus. I’ve always enjoyed what I made but it lacked the depth of flavor I’ve tasted. That’s until I read the hummus recipe from Delicious Istanbul blog. Secret (to me) make your chickpeas use the cooking broth (not the soaking water!) for liquid. I bathed in this stuff :o)
Susan Voisin
I’ve always used the cooking broth to make hummus, except for this recipe where I used non-dairy milk instead. I can’t imagine it any other way!
theveganjunction
Layered hummus, what an excellent idea. Sorry if this question is too particular, but did you use a field cucumber by chance? From the picture it kinda looks like it. I just thought it would provide a thicker, zucchini-like texture where long english might be too moist (I usually get long english, that’s why I’m checking ;)). I look forward to trying this nice, warm hummus dish and some pomegranate vinegar too!
Chris
Hi dear Susan,
What a great post!!! Aren’t we humans funny about tastes 🙂 Yes, it is really good if we give some veggies a 2nd chance.. especially veggies..I wish more people would. It’s often the way they are prepared…or, if we mix them with something, then suddenly..we “love” them!
And, it’s really funny what some people find horrible…others love…I have yet…to give okra a chance…
ya, I know…and I’m a Southerner “ta’ boot”…
Suddenly finding myself living way up north… I have learned to love many new veggies…
salsify, turnips…and rutabaga!!!!!! Here are some great recipes that perhaps can convince you.
You are one of my favorite vegan blogs. I always keep the positive hope that someday… we will convince all the “other’s? meateaters” to “switch over… 🙂 in the meantime…we are the luckiest people to enjoy such wonderful meals that are healthy for us, and kind to all beings on earth.
http://www.vegalicious.org/2014/11/27/mashed-rutabaga-and-pear/
Jill
I just made this and it’s fantastic. I cut the hummus recipe in half and was able to heat it in a small 2-cup ramekin dish. (I cheated and did it in the microwave.) I used soy milk instead of almond milk and kept the garlic and cumin amounts the same even though I halved the recipe. (I like really garlicky and cumin-y hummus!)
For the salad I used chopped Roma tomato, red onion, diced jalapeno, and a few tablespoons of reserved chickpeas from the can. Next time I’ll use the kalamata olives but I didn’t have any today.
I spread it on a toasted English muffin half. Thanks for the great recipe! I think heated hummus might become a staple!
Jay
absolutely J’ADORE humous so I’m keen to try this but a bit trepidatious as I’m wondering why after a few goes in the blender, my humous doesn’t taste as nice as ones I buy from the shops? Could it be my garlic is too ‘sharp’, or is it because I don’t de-skin my chickpeas after cooking them?
We only have dried chickpeas here. I haven’t tried de-skinning my chickpeas yet but I wondered if you did this yourself if you make it from dried? Also I’ve read to use bicarb of soda with dried chickpeas to soften them and remove gas, do you do this? And do you buy a particular type of garlic, (like sweet) to make humous? Thank you for your blog! I’m going back to veganism (from vegetarianism) proper once more, and as usual will be using your blog for inspiration, J 🙂
Susan Voisin
That’s a lot of questions, but I’ll try to answer them in order. I don’t de-skin chickpeas or use soda when cooking them. I just use regular garlic. The best hummus, to me, is when I cook the chickpeas in my pressure cooker and make the hummus when they’re still hot. (my daughter prefers canned chickpeas, though.) It comes out creamier with hot chickpeas, so you can even pre-heat canned chickpeas before blending.
Jay
Ooh, I’ve never tried whilst its still hot so I’ll give that a go and see if it helps <33 thank you Susan, for your inspiring blog
Kris
Thank you for your beautiful, delicious recipes! I refer everyone who asks about vegan or healthy recipes to your amazing forum. Susan, you ROCK!
Lisa
This looks great, but I don’t get the point of it. Maybe I just have an aversion to hot hummus, too! lol Does the hummus become crust like? Or is it simply nothing more than hot hummus? I’ve had warm hummus (right after cooking my chickpeas) with a pile of salad or raw veggies over the top, but I’ve never put it in the oven.
Lisa
Hi Susan,
I just want to say “hi” and thanks so much for sharing your enjoyment of my hot hummus recipe on your blog. Your blog looks great by the way! I’m a big fan of healthy & delicious recipes and that seems to interest you too. And I’m happy I helped get you over your aversion to hot hummus. (Hummus on pizza? Not sure I would go for that either!) Speaking of aversions, I need someone to help me like okra. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way. ~ Lisa
Willow
I have never heated hummus, but after reading this, I must give it a try! Looks delicious! I love your site. You have great recipes.
MommaJ
This looks so incredible! Its on my list to make this week. I’m thinking of incorporating it into a dinner….any suggestions on how to do that/what to serve with? Thanks so much for your blog – love love love your recipes! You are my “go-to”! 😉
MommaJ
In fact, looking over my list of meals this week, all but one are your recipes! too funny. 😉
Julie
uschi
wow – tasting very good, and easy to cook – I love it. thanks 🙂
Savita @ ChefDeHome
Hot hummus!! I never tried it! Now, you have fed the idea in my mind, Susan! I loved all the pictures. It is all putting it myself in the oven. PS: Even though I love eggplant, I still not able to convince myself to eat Baba Ganoush 🙂 Looks like I also have to try your Baba Ganoush Pizza 🙂
Charles
This looks delicious. I have to say I’ve been following your site for about a year now. I can’t thank you enough! You’ve really helped change the way me and my family eat for the better. You are amazing and are really, really making positive change in people’s life. It’s not easy to change old habits, but you make it easier and delicious!
Richard
Loved this hot hummus. Love all things vegan
aka claus
This sounds so good. Although you had to bad experience with hummus pizza this recipe seems like it would be a perfect pizza.
And if you not ready to make your own pizza dough use the recommended pita bread (I think I shall split the pita bread in half because we like thin crust). I’m going to try it in the air fryer first.
Rebecca Carp
I’m sorry to hear about your bad encounter with rutabagas, but you’re missing out! Cut up in soups or roasted with other root veggies, they add an earthy, spicy flavour that can’t be duplicated. One of my favourite comfort foods is Finnish rutabaga casserole, a traditional Christmas food. It’s a bit heavy on dairy, so if you could veganize it, I’d be so grateful!
Link to recipe: http://www.dlc.fi/~marianna/gourmet/xmas5.htm