Houmous is a great food to eat if you’re watching your cholesterol. I love the plain houmous you get from the supermarket, but make my own whenever I can to make it healthier, and it also means I can add extra cholesterol-reducing ingredients.
Chickpeas contain cholesterol-reducing soluble fibre, so the more you add to your diet the better. Houmous also contains garlic, which research suggests can help lower cholesterol. Adding flaxseeds can increase its cholesterol-lowering benefits even more, and if you use olive oil, which is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, you’ll increase the health benefits further. I love eating it with pitta bread, carrot sticks or slices of pepper.
It’s so easy to make homemade houmous in a food processor. You basically just bung all the ingredients in together and blend it until you’re happy with the consistency. I would recommend adding a little bit of the garlic and lemon juice to start with, then blend it, taste it and add more depending on your personal taste.
Here’s the recipe:-
Information
- Serves: 4-6
- Preparation time: 10 mins
- Cooking time: 0 mins
- Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1-2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds (optional)
- 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp olive oil (see notes)
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1-2 tsp tahini (sesame seed paste)
- Salt to taste
- Water
- Carrots, sliced peppers or pitta bread to serve it with.
- Oil, Chilli flakes or pine nuts to sprinkle on top (optional)
Method
- Put the chickpeas, 1 garlic clove, flaxseeds, 1 tbsp lemon juice, olive oil, cumin, 1 tsp tahini and a pinch of salt into your food processor.
- Blend to desired consistency. Add water and blend again until you get the consistency you want.
- Add more garlic, lemon juice, tahini and salt to suit your personal taste.
- Spoon it into a dish, and sprinkle chilli flakes, pine nuts or extra chickpeas on top with a drizzle of oil.
Notes
- You can add all sorts of additional ingredients for different flavours, such as paprika, chilli flakes or chopped basil leaves.
- Chopped up sundried tomatoes make a great topping (or mixed into the houmous).
- Sometimes I replace the olive oil with an infused olive oil, like these ones from Tesco (the chilli one gives it a really nice kick):-