Creamy Fresh Chickpea Hummus

Rich, savory, green, complex and amazing, we’ve made this fresh chickpea hummus several times now and just can’t get enough! Perfect for pairing with pitas, crackers, sliced radishes, and more, like any good dip this fresh chickpea hummus elevates the ordinary into something special. It has all the freshness of spring, with the rich, savory, nutty goodness of hummus. Use it in place of traditional hummus in all your favorite applications. This recipe can be made with fresh or frozen green chickpeas. Add it to toasts or wraps, it will be a favorite in no time.

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Finding Fresh Chickpeas

Fresh chickpeas (or green garbanzo beans) are a treat I find in grocery stores occasionally. More often I can find them at my local Indian market, and sometimes at farmers markets or produce stands. Shocking, I know, but chickpeas don’t always come in cans! The grow in small, slightly fuzzy pods each of which contains between zero and two peas. The pods themselves are not edible (or at least not very good eats), so you have to do some work to get to the peas inside. They have a flavor different to dried or canned chickpeas- you can taste the “pea” quality in them. They are fresh and spring-like, but unlike English peas they are more hearty, rich, and savory. They feel like to me a cross between chickpeas, edamame, and green peas. My favorite way to eat fresh chickpeas is my snacking them like edamame after frying them in the shell- you can find my recipe for Miso-Glazed Fresh Garbanzo Beans for that- because it takes the work of shelling and gives it to the eater. And that right there is the real downfall of fresh chickpeas- shelling. Because each pod has only 2 peas at most, and often none at all, you have to go through a lot of shell to get the amount of peas you need (2 cups worth, in the case of this hummus). The first time I made this hummus I put on a podcast and spent about half an hour methodically shelling chickpeas. The process was fairly meditative and relaxing and the resulting hummus delicious, but there are very few days where I have the time and energy to spend shelling chickpeas for a snack. And this hummus is so good, I didn’t want for it to have to be a special occasion food, only for when I had the chickpeas and time to spend shelling them.

Fortunately, I found the solution. Fresh chickpea hummus is now within my grasp at just a moments notice. I’ve mentioned my local Indian grocery before- I go there usually for cheap, fresh produce, unique snacks, spices, nuts, grains, and flours, as well as because basically everything is well marked if it’s vegan. But there was a section of the store I hadn’t explored- the frozen foods. And there behind the frosted doors were the answer- shelled, frozen green chickpeas. All the hard work done for me, perfect for whipping up a batch of green hummus on a moment’s notice.

After doing a quick peek, I found this website that says they can deliver frozen green chickpeas to you. I haven’t tried it out yet, but you can check it out here if you like.

Now fresh (and not frozen) green chickpeas do taste a little brighter, but once it’s blended with tahini, cilantro, garlic, and lemon the difference is minimal. If you can find frozen green chickpeas, I highly recommend using them for this recipe and saving your never-frozen pods for pan frying.

Looking for Chickpea Recipes? Try one of these!

• Vegan Spinach and Chickpea Curry
• Stinging Nettle Recipe: Falafel with Nettle Yogurt Sauce
• Smokey Butternut Squash Hummus
• Spicy Garlic Roasted Chickpeas Snack
• Miso-Glazed Fresh Garbanzo Beans
• Vegan Lion’s Mane Crab Cakes with Hollandaise Sauce
• Simple Wild Garlic Recipe- Allium vineale Hummus

Digging Dips? Try one of these!

• Creamy Cauliflower Buffalo Dip
• Simple Wild Garlic Recipe- Allium vineale Hummus
• Creamy Vegan Nopales Dip
• Vegan Dip with Roasted Peppers and Pumpkin Seeds
• Thai Red Curry Sweet Potato Dip
• High-Protein Vegan French Onion Dip
• Briny Summer Burdock Stalk Tapenade
• Smokey Butternut Squash Hummus
• Vegan Fondue with Caramelized Onions and Ale
• Zucchini-Ganoush- An Easy Vegan Zucchini Recipe

How to Make Fresh Chickpea Hummus

Homemade hummus is so easy to make, the only downside is you have to wash the food processor. Or make your partner wash it. Even without green chickpeas homemade hummus is so much better than what you get at the store – it’s creamier, richer, smoother, and can be customized to whatever flavor you like. The first step to making this hummus is to prep your chickpeas. If you are using frozen chickpeas, this is as simple as tossing them in a pot of boiling water for them to cook for about 1-2 minutes. Afterwards run them under cool water so they stop cooking and don’t lose any of that beautiful green color. If you are using not frozen green chickpeas, you will have to do a little more work as all of the chickpeas need to be shelled before boiling. You can see my thoughts on that in the paragraph above and make your decision from there.

The good news is whether you’re taking the quick route of frozen chickpeas, or the slower route of fresh chickpeas once your your garbanzos are prepped you’ve done almost all the work. Now it’s time to let your food processor do the work for you. Drain the chickpeas and combine them in the food processor with the remaining ingredients. Let your food processor run until hummus is perfectly smooth, stopping and scraping down the sides as needed so everything is well incorporated. You may find yourself wanting to add a little water as well, to thin the hummus out. And that is it. I threw a few chickpeas in some oil and crisped them up to put on top as a garnish. While they were delicious and (pretty cute in my opinion) I will give you a heads up that if you try to do the same they will explode like popcorn if you let them go too long. I may or may not have spent a good amount of time afterwards cleaning exploded garbanzo from all my kitchen surfaces.

Creamy Fresh Chickpea Hummus

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