Your Hummus Is Good, But A Fall Upgrade Makes It Better

If there was one food that could bring together vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores at the speed of sound, it just might be hummus. It's one food that has successfully shut down the outdated myth that nutritious food (that's plant-based, to boot) lacks flavor. That's because hummus is absolutely delicious, totally nutritious, and comes in about as many flavors as international potato chips. Despite the fact that hummus is classically a savory spread, even sweet, dessert hummus is a thing now. As for myself and my humble opinion, a homemade, classic hummus made with chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, and a little cumin is about as close as you can get to condiment nirvana. Of course, now that I know that pumpkin hummus exists, I may need to reevaluate my favorite.

Pumpkin hummus looks like fall-in-a-bowl, with its bright orange color and various garnishes you can add to the top, like toasted pumpkin seeds, and colorful spices. The best part is, if you can make classic, homemade hummus, you can make the pumpkin version, too, because it's essentially the same recipe with some canned pumpkin, and some different spices. You certainly can sweeten pumpkin hummus up and serve it for dessert, but we'll get to that in a minute. For a perfect autumn appetizer, all of your ingredients simply get blitzed in a food processor until the hummus is smooth and creamy. In addition to the canned pumpkin, some excellent spices include smoked paprika and a dash of cinnamon. You can include ruby-red pomegranate arils in the garnish to make it look smashing. You can serve the dish with seeded crackers, crunchy vegetables, and pita bread.

Pumpkin is naturally associated with dessert because of fall treats like pumpkin pie, moist pumpkin bread, and pumpkin spice lattes. So, if you want to put pumpkin hummus in the dessert category, it would be delicious. The first rule of thumb is keep the aromatics on the cutting room floor; this means, no garlic. And, instead of tahini, which is made with sesame seeds, try a natural nut butter like almond or peanut. If you're trying to get your hummus creamier and need a little more moisture, coconut oil is a great substitute for olive oil.

Make your sweet pumpkin hummus just the way you'd make classic hummus, in a food processor. Flavor with a touch of maple syrup for sweetness, vanilla extract or seeds from a vanilla bean pod, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger...or just use pumpkin pie spice in place of all three of those warm spices. Taste the mixture and adjust the flavors as you see fit. As far as garnishes go, toasted pepitas will work as well as a sprinkle of any spices you've used, or a couple of cinnamon sticks, and a drizzle of syrup. For serving, try sliced apples and pears, graham crackers, pita chips, ginger cookies and pretzels.