Holidays
Easy Pumpkin Hummus with Roasted Garlic
Prep
10 minutes
Cook
20 minutes
Yield
1
The holiday season is upon us! Okay, well Canadian Thanksgiving is over, but American Thanksgiving is coming up, and before we know it holiday/Christmas parties will be in full swing. With holidays, it becomes next to impossible to keep up with all the hosting or party go-ing. I find you hardly ever have time to breathe during the holidays because you’re so busy with friends and family obligations, so I love to create good food that is quick, easy and doesn’t require a lot of cooking in the kitchen, like the pumpkin hummus I create in the recipe below.
Charcuterie boards are such a good way to whip together easy munchies for those nights that you’re staying in with friends or family or have to bring a snack to an event or pot luck. Charcuterie boards are also a beautiful centrepiece. They are so simple but you can fill them with colour, texture, and so many different treats to snack on. People will be impressed by the presentation and completely forget you actually didn’t have to cook to pull this one-off. Seriously though, if you’re a bad cook, a charcuterie board needs to be your go-to.
For my charcuterie boards, I usually like to still make up some sort of dip on my own. You know you can’t keep me out of the kitchen completely! However, this recipe is super simple and adds that fall and holiday flavour of pumpkin to your board.
Many people think hummus must be hard to make, and always buy the stuff in the grocery store, but it’s actually so easy and tastes 100 times better to make it homemade. All you need is some chickpeas, pumpkin, and a few other simple ingredients you probably already have on hand, and voila, a tasty, beautiful dip for your charcuterie board.
Simply7 Snacks = a charcuterie board staple
One of my biggest secrets that I also love to add to charcuterie boards is Simple 7 Snacks. Their snacks are made from clean ingredients and have no added preservatives. They also have 0 trans fat, no artificial colours or flavours, and who doesn’t love a delicious snack you can grab-and-go without feeling guilty. I’m obsessed with Simple 7’s Lentil and Quinoa Chips in particular. These chips are perfect when you’re craving something salty with a crunch, but are so much better for you than a typical processed chip. Each of these chips come in a variety of flavours too, and I love to dip them in my pumpkin hummus. Yum! I’m drooling over here. I even used some crushed Simply7 Sea Salt Chips to top my stuffed figs for a little crunch. These figs you can either eat raw or baked, and they really add that “WOW” factor to your charcuterie board.
Anyway, back to the pumpkin hummus recipe…
The perfect holiday hummus
This hummus recipe makes the perfect dip. It’s sweet, with a bit of a spice, and super flavourful. The star ingredients are obviously the pumpkin and chickpeas. Chickpeas, of course, have so many health benefits. They’re so good for you! With some of their highlights being:
- Can help keep your diet under control
- Rich in plant-based protein
- Can support blood sugar control
- Can help benefit digestion
- Protect you from certain chronic diseases
- Inexpensive and so easy to add to your diet
The pumpkin in this recipe is high in antioxidants, packed with vitamins which can boost your immunity during cold and flu season especially, help promote healthy skin, and it’s super underrated considering you can add it to almost anything. Throw it in your smoothie, bake with it, add it to soups or pasta sauces, or use it in one of these recipes I have up on my blog:
Throw some fresh vegetables, vegan cheeses, and pickled veggies to your board for colour, and voila, an easy appetizer that will please a crowd!
Easy Pumpkin Hummus with Roasted Garlic
Ingredients
For the Roasted Garlic:
- 1 large bulb of garlic
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
For the Pumpkin Hummus:
- 3-4 cloves roasted garlic
- 1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree unsweetened
- 1 heaped tbsp. Tahini
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
- 1 tbsp. Lemon juice
- 1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
- Season salt to taste
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 2 tbsp. ice-cold water
For the stuffed Figs:
- 10-12 fresh figs
- 1 tsp vegan feta per fig
- 10-12 small walnut chunks
- Simply7 Lightly Salted snacks crumbled
- drizzling of honey optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Grab a large bulb of garlic and discard any scrappy bits on the outer layers.
- Cut around 1/4 to 1/2 an inch off the top of the garlic bulb and drizzle around 1-2 tbsp of good quality olive oil over the top.
- Cover with foil and place top side up onto the parchment paper. Bake for around 30-40 minutes or until still soft to touch and lightly brown.
- Cool before pressing and removing garlic cloves.
- Into a food processor add the roasted garlic, chickpeas, pumpkin, tahini, maple syrup, lemon juice, thyme and salt. Blend till well combined then begin adding olive oil from the top opening of the processor. Do the same with the cold water and add as much water 1 tbsp. at a time till you reach your desired consistency (I used 2 tbsp. cold water).
- For the figs, preheat your oven to broil. Trim off stems of figs and cut an "X" in the top of each fig 1/3 way through. Place the figs on a lightly greased, parchment tray or baking sheet. If they are a little wobbly, you can shave a bit off the bottoms of the figs so they stand upright.
- Stuff each fig with 1 little piece of walnut and 1 tsp vegan feta. Top with Simply7 chips and broil for around 5 minutes or until the cheese looks softer and more gooey-like. Remove from oven and enjoy hot. You can drizzle with honey but that is completely optional.
- Enjoy on a platter of veggies and fruit. Enjoy the Hummus with Simply7 Chips.
This Pumpkin Hummus is as good as simple. Half made by the oven, half by the blender 🙂
Very good!
Yes, this makes me so happy! Thank you so much for the love, Francesca!