Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus

Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus is a smoky and spicy alternative to classic hummus. Chunks of sweet potato are roasted with spices such as cumin, coriander and fennel seed before combining with the usual chickpeas, tahini sesame paste and lemon plus a hit of smoked paprika. And don’t worry if you’ve never made hummus before, in this post I also provide a re-cap of traditional hummus.

Is there anyone in Britain who doesn’t know what hummus is? Whether they make this Middle Eastern chickpea and tahini dip at home, buy it ready made, or have seen it in stores or on pub and restaurant menus, there can’t be many who haven’t at least heard of it.

And I think it’s popularity is deserved. Served as a dip with crudités, or stuffed in a pita with salad, it’s a winner.

CLASSIC HUMMUS

The ingredients for traditional hummus are simple and familiar enough: chickpeas, tahini sesame paste, garlic, lemon, water (preferably the reserved water you cooked the chickpeas in) and salt. Personally, I would add another essential ingredient: cumin.

If I’ve remembered to put them to soak the night before, I prefer dried chickpeas rather than tinned. I think the flavour and texture is better. Plus, you can use the cooking liquor to thin the hummus to your liking.

Next day, I cook the soaked and drained chickpeas in my Instant Pot pressure cooker which takes only 30 minutes. If you’re going to cook the chickpeas on the stove, then you’ll need to simmer for around an hour to an hour and a half.

You’ll need a stick blender or food processor to get the hummus to a creamy consistency. Simply add your drained chickpeas plus the rest of the ingredients and whizz everything together.

The great thing about hummus is that you can vary the amount of each ingredient according to your own taste. You can add more or less garlic, cumin and lemon, or increase the water for a thinner consistency.

For 4 servings you’ll need around 250g of cooked chickpeas (that’s very roughly 110g of dried) plus 2 tablespoons of tahini, the juice of 1-2 lemons, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, 1-2 teaspoons of cumin plus salt and pepper to taste. If you don’t have any chickpea cooking water, use a little vegetable stock if you have it, if not then plain water.

The hummus is now ready to eat, but I think it better left in the fridge for a few hours for the flavours to meld. Bring back to room temperature before serving.

Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus

My Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus came about as I wanted to serve something alongside a Moroccan-style Spicy Mutton Stew. For that strongly fIavoured dish I wanted the hummus to have a complementary, spicier than usual flavour.

Due to the inclusion of the sweet potato, for this version I reduced the amount of chickpeas. Otherwise I would have had a whole mountain of Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus!

I roasted the diced potatoes with coriander, cumin and fennel seeds, plus chilli flakes, chopped garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. In a moderate oven, turning occasionally, they took around 25 minutes to get good and browned.

The Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus is whizzed up in exactly the same way as the classic version. When you add the cooked potato to the rest of the ingredients, make sure you include any oil and browned spices from the oven dish. This will give a richer, deeper flavour. For a smoky edge, I add some smoked paprika too. You could add some crushed, fresh garlic if you like but I found the garlic roasted with the potatoes to be plenty.

SERVING ROASTED SWEET POTATO HUMMUS

Enjoy Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus as you would the classic version, e.g. with crudités or stuffed in a pita with salad. Some chunks of grilled lamb would be nice too. I like it with some olive oil drizzled over, a sprinkling of ground cumin, smoked paprika and chopped coriander leaf.

This smoky version of hummus went really well with my Moroccan-style Spicy Mutton Stew and Rice with Peas, Broad Beans, Griddled Artichoke Hearts & Mint.

There was some left the next day too, so we had it with crudités for lunch.

In the evening, I mixed the few remaining tablespoons with equal amounts of plain yogurt, another squeeze of lemon and some mint.

It was delicious as a dressing for roasted vegetables, served with salmon.

I hope you’ll try my spicy, smoky variation on the classic hummus. As you can see, it’s so much more versatile than a dip!

Print

Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus

Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus is a smoky and spicy alternative to classic hummus. Chunks of sweet potato are roasted with spices such as cumin, coriander and fennel seed before combining with the usual chickpeas, tahini sesame paste and lemon plus a hit of smoked paprika.

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish, Salad

Cuisine Mediterranean, Middle Eastern

Keyword hummus, sweet potato hummus

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 tsp cumin seed
• 1 tsp coriander seed
• 1 tsp fennel seed
• 0.5 tsp chilli flakes
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 250 g sweet potato peeled and in 2cm dice
• 1.5 tbsp olive oil
• 0.5 tsp ground black pepper
• 150 g cooked chickpeas
• 2-3 tbsp tahini sesame paste
• 150-200 ml cooking liquor from chickpeas, vegetable stock or water
• 75-100 ml lemon juice
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• to taste ground cumin

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
   

2. Sprinkle all the spices over the sweet potato chunks, add the garlic, drizzle with the olive oil, season with salt and pepper then stir all together.

3. Roast in the oven until the sweet potato is soft and browned (20-30 mins). Remove the dish from the oven and set aside.

4. In a large jug or food processor, combine all the contents of the oven dish with the chickpeas, 2 tb tahini, 150ml stock, 75ml lemon juice and the smoked paprika.
   

5. Use a stick blender or process until combined and smooth. Add more stock, lemon juice, tahini, seasoning, smoked paprika or ground cumin to achieve your preferred taste and consistency.

6. Leave in the fridge for an hour or so to meld the flavours. Best served at room temperature
   

Save