Over the dozens of picnics, parties and lunches you’ll attend this summer season, hummus is almost guaranteed to make an appearance. This chickpea dish has been celebrated in Arabic cookbooks for close to 800 years. The thing is, however, those earliest recipes for hummus often had a whole lot more going on than the classic combo of chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon juice that we know today. That got me thinking of simple ways to amp up your hummus – whether it’s shop-bought or homemade. 

Customising your hummus is as simple as amplifying its beauty by adding veg, herbs or something spicy for extra flavour, or playing up to the texture with extra contrasting creaminess or crunch. You can even loosen it with extra lemon juice, yoghurt or something similar to turn it into a sauce for your falafels or souvas. Whether you are serving your hummus with triangles of warm flatbread, crackers, crudites or even potato chips (you rebel you) your guests with thank you.

Here are a few delicious ways to cut hummus loose and let it party too. 

Note: If you want to make your own hummus, read my 2020 guide to the best hummus. Just remember to always use more tahini than recipes demand, and to invest in the best tahini you can afford. Those made with Ethiopian sesame seeds tend to be the best (and most expensive, but are worth it). Also, for the smoothest hummus, do rub the translucent skins off your chickpeas and, even if they come from a can, cook them a little more first to ensure that they’re properly mushy.

SPICY SPEED-DATE HUMMUS 

Squeeze lemon juice in a small bowl and dice plump juicy dates into the juice. Mix ground cumin and coriander into your prepared (or bought) hummus. Mix a little harissa with olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Spread your spiced-up hummus over your serving dish and top with the dates and a few swooshes of the harissa oil. For some extra colour, add chopped parsley, lemon zest and toasted almonds. Serve with warm flatbread. Adding some grilled lamb skewers turns this into something more substantial for a carnivorous dinner. But get in there quick as this will go fast – hence the name.

HUMMUS WITH CRISPY MERGUEZ CRUMB 

They’ve been eating spiced merguez sausages in North Africa since the 12th century, so it’s little wonder their flavour goes so well against the smooth canvas of pureed chickpeas. Dice or skin and crumble the meat of your spiced merguez sausage to fry in a little olive oil. Add pine nuts to toast alongside it in the pan when it starts to crisp up. Finish with a squeeze of orange juice and some zest, then immediately pour the contents of the pan over your hummus, including all the red rendered fat – very dramatic. You can add a little shredded mint, a sprinkling of lemony sumac powder or diced fresh red chilli, if you fancy. If you want something a bit different than warmed pitas to serve it with, try slices of baguette (these skinny mutton and/or beef snags are also well loved in France).

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CREAMY ROAST EGGPLANT AND HUMMUS 

It was Jewish settlers arriving in Israel from Iraq who brought the idea of eating hummus in flatbread with eggplant and hard-boiled eggs as a sabich sandwich. Rather than dicing the eggplant, though, I like to cut it into long quarters and roast until soft and burnished from the oven’s heat. It should be properly collapsed. Carefully plate the eggplant wedges on the hummus and dress with crumbled feta or labneh, wedges of egg and pickled radishes, or finely shaved and lightly pickled red cabbage. A gentle sprinkle of za’atar or a fine drizzle of pomegranate molasses and yoghurt also works well. Given that this is all pretty slippery and potentially very, very messy, it’s best stuffed in split pitas – sabich style – or eaten on a side plate with a fork rather than as a dip. 

CRUNCHY CHILLI HUMMUS 

This could be the easiest hummus hack of them all. Spread hummus on a plate. Load generously with crispy Chinese chilli oil (or better yet, crispy chilli and black bean oil) and a good squeeze of lemon or Meyer lemon. Scoop up this addictive combo with sweet chilli potato chips – these will also mean the hummus becomes prettily marbled with the vermillion oil from the chillies. If you’re serving it with chilli and sour cream chips, amp up the sour cream aspect by folding little nuggets of cold cream cheese into your hummus before plating. You could also serve sweet potato oven fries cooked in the air fryer with this – in which case you should definitely add the cream cheese then. 

ROAST PUMPKIN HUMMUS WITH PEPITA CRACKNEL 

I’ve flavoured hummus with everything from beetroot and feta, or roast garlic and roast capsicum, to pureed steamed broccoli – but I still think blending in roasted pumpkin is the best by far. The pumpkin’s roasting intensifies the sweetness and adds toasty edges, but do remember to save the choicest roast pieces for garnish. Not that you’ll notice it hidden under the mound of pepitas fried with maple syrup, brown sugar and sriracha chilli sauce that I like to serve on top. These pumpkin seeds need to be fried until the sugar and syrup thickens stickily. If you feel like it, you can start by frying some diced smoked bacon as a base. This is, after all, a place of no rules… Except the one rule that matters: never put grated carrot in a salad.

You could step this up by borrowing a trick from chef Darren Robertson. In this recipe for delicious., he’s roasted half a butternut squash sliced hasselback-style and served it on a hummus made of white beans rather than chickpeas. 

WHOLE ROAST CAULIFLOWER with HUMMUS and YOGHURT (or Zhug)

This whole ‘roasting veg and putting them on hummus’ vibe also leads me to suggesting a cheat’s roast cauliflower. Cook a cauliflower in the microwave for ten minutes or until starting to soften, then add a rub of olive oil and a favourite spice combo such as ras el hanout (or just good old cumin seeds) and roast in a hot oven. Serve the whole cauliflower on a bed of hummus and Greek yoghurt, with a profusion of tea-plumped currants, toasted pine nuts, and marinated feta casually thrown over the top. Alternatively, serve your cauliflower on the same hummus and yoghurt base, but top it off with loads of Yemeni zhug. This is a fresh herb and chilli sauce which is very falafel and hummus friendly, made by blending deseeded and deveined green chillies with a bunch of coriander, garlic, black pepper and olive oil. Flavour with green cardamom, caraway and cumin seeds to your taste. Easy as…

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