Homemade Roasted Garlic Hummus

This roasted garlic hummus recipe is so easy to make at home! Kitchen staples along with plenty of easily roasted garlic make this homemade hummus a delicious appetizer or healthy snack.

As much as I daydream about it, I will never be the type of person who makes everything from scratch. Armed with ambition and plenty of time, my sourdough starter lasted all of 10 days before I threw in the towel.

That said, two things I opt for homemade most of the time are pestos (spinach pesto and arugula are real treats) and hummus. (Sometimes I even combine them, like in kale pesto hummus). Both are simple kinds of recipes where you can easily switch up flavors without the need for precision. Works for me!

Note: If you're returning from a saved link, this recipe has been updated slightly from its initial publish date in 2019. A range is now given for the tahini, the quantities of salt, pepper, and lemon juice are slightly bumped up, and I've included the addition of one raw garlic clove for extra flavor.

Reasons to Love This Recipe

• This homemade roasted garlic hummus recipe is simple for two reasons: it uses pantry/kitchen staples and just needs to be thrown in the food processor for it to work its magic (after roasting the garlic).
• Hummus is comprised of good-for-you ingredients, such as chickpeas, tahini, and olive oil, that may help support a nutritious eating pattern (NIH source).
• Roasted garlic hummus is so versatile! Besides a dip, it makes a wonderful sandwich spread and can be thinned out for hummus salad dressing.

Recipe Ingredients

• Chickpeas: For convenience I use canned chickpeas in homemade hummus, though you can certainly cook your own to use here. One 15.5-ounce can is the equivalent of about 1 ½ cups of cooked chickpeas. And don't toss away the liquid! Six tablespoons help make this hummus creamy without diluting the flavor.
• Tahini: Tahini is a paste made from ground sesame seeds that imparts a nutty-like flavor to hummus. It can be found in the "international" aisle of the grocery store. I've tested this recipe with anywhere between ¼-cup and ½-cup of tahini and any amount in that range works. It's just up to your taste preference. If you love tahini flavor go with the higher amount, if you're not sure stick with the lower.
• Roasted garlic: It's not a mistake, this hummus recipe uses two heads of garlic. Not cloves, whole heads! Roasting the garlic significantly mellows the flavor and takes away the bite that you get with fresh garlic. Instead you're left with a rich and almost caramelized flavor.
• Raw garlic: While definitely not required, in the years since first posting this recipe I've started adding one raw garlic clove in addition to the roasted. This amplifies the garlic flavor just enough without being too much, like some store-bought varieties.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. While hummus is a classic throw-everything-in-the-food-processor-and-enjoy kind of dish, this one requires a step to prep ahead of time: roasting the garlic. This how to roast garlic tutorial features the steps I follow to roast heads of garlic to reliably golden and soft cloves. Roasting the garlic can be done up to a few days ahead of time. Just keep the heads refrigerated.

2. Next is to stir up the tahini. The oil always separates in the container, so you'll want to stir it up really well before measuring it out for this recipe. It might take a little elbow grease to get the bottom layer up as it can be surprisingly stuck in there, but the goal is to get it looking from the left picture below (unstirred) to the right (stirred).

3. Add all of the roasted garlic hummus ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides as needed to incorporate all of the ingredients. The food processor pictured here has a seven-cup capacity and fits everything comfortably with room to spare.

4. At this point take a taste and add whatever seasonings you like. Salt and pepper are included, but crushed red pepper will bring spice, fresh herbs, more lemon juice, etc. Lots of things mesh well with the flavor of roasted garlic.

Expert Tips

• If you're having trouble mixing up the tahini in its container, you can transfer everything into a mixing bowl and mix until cohesive and creamy using a hand mixer. For extra tricky cases you can use a food processor.
• The slight chunkiness of this quick hummus doesn't bother me in the slightest (I am all about rustic) but if you would prefer super smooth hummus you can peel the chickpeas before using in the recipe. There are tips out there such as boiling chickpeas with baking soda that aren't as tedious as hand-removing each skin, but I haven't attempted it to know how it would work.

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