I have plenty of recipes for houmous on my blog because it is something we do enjoy to eat. I’ve made Baked Houmous before. It was not a vegan recipe, but a vegetarian one, see here. Because I was curious how would my usual recipe would be like baked, I’ve made this vegan baked houmous. It turned out amazingly delicious.

At first I was a bit concerned it will dry out in the oven. That didn’t happen, the houmous was smooth and moist. As I didn’t have any pine nuts like in the previous baked houmous recipe I’ve made, I’ve decided to swap them for sunflower seeds. They are delicious and it’s a very good alternative, also much cheaper if you want to save a few pennies.

I’ve made this houmous the day before I’ve baked it. To make things easier, I’ve made a big bowl of houmous. We had some on the day and half of it I put in the ceramic tray overnight. While I was making the seeds topping, the oven was heating, so preparation time took less than 5 minutes. If you don’t want to bother to make your own, I imagine it works nicely with shop-bought houmous too. I might give it a try and update the recipe after that.

Ingredients for 2 servings of Vegan Baked Houmous as a main:

– 600g boiled chickpeas
– juice from 1-2 lemons
– 3 garlic cloves
– 3 spoons of tahini paste
– salt, black pepper, paprika, cumin, dried parsley
– 2 spoons of oil
– 50g sunflower seeds
– 1/2 tsp of chilli oil

Preheat the oven at 200C or 180C fan.

Meanwhile, put the drained chickpeas in a food processor. Pour the tahini, lemon juice, mashed garlic, salt, cumin, paprika, pepper. Now blitz all the ingredients until they are incorporated. Mix in the food processor until the houmous is smooth. If the houmous is not smooth enough, then add a few spoons of water, and blitz again. Transfer the houmous in a heatproof dish and smooth the top with a spoon.

In a frying pan heat the oil over medium heat. Add the paprika and the dried parsley and stir with a spoon. Toss in the sunflower seeds and stir, add the chilli oil and stir again. Leave them on the hob for a couple of minutes, stirring, so they don’t burn. Take them off the heat and scoop the sunflower seeds over the houmous.

Bake the houmous for 15 minutes. Serve hot with fresh pitta bread. You can heat it up in the oven for 5 minutes. It will be delicious.

Have you ever tried baked houmous before?