Ina Garten’s Easy No-Cook Appetizer Is a Barefoot Contessa Hummus Dip That’s Perfect for Summer
Ina Garten has the perfect make-ahead appetizer that doesn’t require any cooking. Find out how to make the Barefoot Contessa star’s easy hummus recipe — a flavorful dip that can feed a crowd.
Ina Garten’s hummus recipe is full of bold flavors
Garten shared how to make her easy hummus recipe on the Barefoot Contessa cooking show. “It’s a dip made with chickpeas,” Garten explained. “It requires no cooking at all and I have most of the ingredients in my pantry.”
The Barefoot Contessa star made the hummus in a food processor, beginning with chopping whole garlic cloves. “There’s a terrific way in the food processor to chop them up really fine,” Garten shared. “It minces them perfectly.”
She then added the other hummus ingredients in the food processor. “The main thing is chickpeas, which is the base of this,” she explained. “I’ve drained about two cups, which is about a can. And none of these ingredients are exact — you really want to do them so that they’re to your taste.”
The tahini goes in next. “Tahini is great. It’s a sesame seed paste,” she explained as she stirred the to incorporate the oil. “It’s sort of like peanut butter but it’s made with sesame seeds.”
Ina Garten’s hummus recipe is an easy dip to make
Garten continued, explaining how quick her hummus recipe comes together. “This recipe is so simple because the ingredients all just go right in,” she shared. Garten noted how her hummus is bursting with delicious flavors. “A lot of hummus recipes can be really bland,” she said. “I like to just give it enormous flavor by adding lots of lemon juice and garlic and actually salt is an important ingredient.”
She added lemon juice, salt, and tabasco sauce. “It’s so important to trust your own taste buds,” Garten explained. “I mean really just taste it, see what you like. Just because I like it doesn’t mean you’re going to like it.”
“It’s important to me that it has a lot of texture,” she said as she pulsed the ingredients together in the food processor “until it looks like it’s smooth but still has the kind of texture I want.”
Garten reserved some of the chickpeas’ liquid in case she needed to add some to thin out the hummus.
You can find the full recipe on the Food Network website.
Hummus is a great make-ahead dip for entertaining
Once everything was combined and the consistency that Garten liked, she spooned the hummus into a bowl and explained how it’s the perfect make-ahead appetizer. “The good news about hummus is the earlier you make it, the better,” she shared. “So just before I serve it, I’m going to drizzle it with olive oil, toss some pignoli nuts on it, and it’ll be so good with pita bread.”
Ina Garten also has a sweet red pepper hummus recipe which uses slightly different measurements of the ingredients in her traditional hummus. She combines everything in the food processor and adds roasted red peppers for additional flavor (the recipe is available on the Food Network website).
