Recipe

Stop Wasting Money on Store-Bought Hummus and Make Your Own

By Lauren Arendt at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Hummus may be the perfect snack: it is packed with nutrients, tastes amazing, and can be enjoyed with other healthy foods. It is vegan, gluten-free, and low in caloric density.  

There's really only one problem: it can be expensive. About $6.50 for 7 ounces to be exact. That adds up to nearly $340 a year if you were to buy a new package every week.

Before continuing to spend an unnecessary amount of money or giving up hummus altogether, consider making your own. It is simple to make and the ingredients are much cheaper than buying it in stores. 

You will need garbanzo beans/chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. Only .44 cents worth of tahini, $2 worth of garbanzo beans, 4 cents worth of olive oil, 10 cents worth of garlic, and 25 cents worth of lemon will be used to make a batch of hummus at home.

That comes out to less than $3 for almost double the amount of hummus you would get from the store. You will save almost $200 on hummus a year if that batch only lasts you a week, and even more if it lasts longer. 

These are substantial savings for less than ten minutes of your time a week. Plus, when you make hummus yourself, you can modify the recipe to make it suit your taste exactly. It will be cheaper and more delicious.

Classic At-Home Hummus

  • Prep Time: 8 mins
  • Total Time: 8 mins
  • Servings: 10
Ingredients
  • 1 can garbanzo beans or chickpeas drained liquid preserved
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons tahini
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 large garlic clove
  • 2 tablespoons preserved bean liquid
  • Salt to taste

Lauren Arendt

Step 1

Drain the garbanzo beans, making sure to keep the separated liquid. Set aside.

Lauren Arendt

Step 2

Roughly chop garlic.

Lauren Arendt

Step 3

Combine garbanzo beans, olive oil, tahini, garlic, salt, and lemon juice in a food processor. Pulse for about thirty seconds. Scrape sides and pulse again until smooth.

Lauren Aendt

Step 4

Add preserved bean liquid and continue to pulse until well incorporated and smooth.

Lauren Arendt

Step 5

Do a taste test! Make sure the hummus suits your taste. If you want it thicker, add more tahini. If you want it runnier, add more preserved liquid. Add more lemon or garlic to make it more pungent. Add sun-dried tomatoes, basil, or curry powder to give it a more unique twist. Or be like me and leave it as is.

Lauren Arendt

Step 6

Stick it in a container to have delicious, cheap, homemade hummus for days.

Lauren Arendt