This roasted garlic white bean hummus is vegan, gluten free and full of flavor!
Roasted Garlic White Bean Hummus
For years I thought I disliked hummus. I found it boring and often bland with a flavor that did absolutely nothing for me. The problem? I wasn’t making it myself. When I finally tasted homemade hummus I was sold instantly. I’m sure there will be many who disagree with me but I have yet to find a store bought version that tastes good to me. Trust me, I’ve tried all the brands that people seem to go crazy for. Blech. Homemade hummus is one of the easiest things to make. There is no good reason not to make it from scratch!
Beans. Garlic. Tahini. Lemon Juice. Olive oil. Salt and pepper. You might already have all of these items in your kitchen and if not, they’re cheap and easy to find at the local grocery store. I can pretty much guarantee that making it from scratch is cheaper than buying it pre-made. You basically put everything in a food processor, puree the hell out of it and it’s done. There is no excuse! You can even make it in a blender if you don’t have a food processor. If you think you don’t like hummus, give this a try. I wasted years of precious hummus eating time. Life is short!
For this recipe I’m using white beans instead of the standard garbanzos. Honestly I almost always use white beans now because I love the smooth texture. You can make smooth chickpea hummus by peeling the skins off each individual bean but I tried that once and nope. Not doing it again. White bean hummus is all I need. Most hummus recipes have one or two cloves of raw garlic but I prefer roasted garlic when I have the time. It’s milder and slightly sweeter. You can use a lot more of it. The last time I made this hummus I believe I used the entire head of garlic. Warning: roasting takes away much of the bite but you might not be kissable for a few hours if you use too much. I recommend roasting the entire head and adding 1 tablespoon at a time until you’re happy with the flavor. Or do as I did and make sure to feed a whole lot of it to your significant other while enjoying it.
Roasted Garlic White Bean Hummus
Ingredients
- 1 whole bulb garlic
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 14.5 ounce can cannellini beans
- ½ cup tahini
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup water
- Kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Slice off the top of the garlic head so that a small amount of each clove shows through. Place the garlic in a small ramekin and drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil on top. Sprinkle with a bit of salt. Cover the ramekin with foil and roast the garlic for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool. Once the head is cool enough to handle, squeeze the roasted garlic cloves into a small bowl and smash with a spoon to make a paste.
- In a food processor, puree the beans, tahini, olive oil, lemon and water. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add 1 tablespoon or more of the garlic puree and process until smooth.
Notes
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
Nutrition
Recipe Troubleshooting
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Ali says
Absolutely gorgeous photos! I love all of the roasted garlic in this! :)
Jennifer Farley says
Thanks, Ali!!
tasteful life says
Totally agree!
Just found your site and these pics stunned me before I thought about how delicious of the recipes.
Jennifer, you’re such talent in both cooking and photographing.
Jennifer Farley says
Thank you so much!
Paula says
I make hummus constantly, and throw in whatever is lying around sometimes, like roasted eggplant or peppers and on occasion white beans, but always with the chickpeas. I never tried them alone, but I bet roasted garlic makes a huge difference! I had the same thing with store bought until my brother made it for me. Wow, completely different! I have to try it with roasted garlic in my next batch.
Jennifer Farley says
It really is a great kitchen sink type of dip! I’ve been partial to adding sriracha lately :)
Laura Dembowski says
I have never like hummus as much as I have tried. Now I want to make my own to see if I like it. It’s so interesting that making it yourself made you like it.
Jennifer Farley says
It makes a huge difference! Give it a try. If you’ve never made it from scratch I recommend just trying it with a raw clove of garlic before going through the process of roasting. You can see how different regular hummus is from the crap at the grocery store!
Lorraine says
And as luck would have it, I have everything in my pantry! Win win! :D
Grubarazzi ( says
Really beautiful photography (as per usual). I really love the combination of white beans and roasted garlic. This looks like the perfect ratio. I’ve made something similar, but instead of tahini I used parmesan and rosemary. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you try that combo as well.
Jennifer Farley says
That sounds just wonderful!
Lisa says
This is delicious! You have great recipes and I love your blog. I echo the suggestion for parmesan and rosemary ( fresh) with the white beans. Very yummy. Also, if you add water to hummus, I learned the hard way to make sure it is room temp, not cold. Cold water can thicken your olive oil, and you end up thinking you need more water or oil to compensate. The exact amounts of water and oil sometimes vary a little bit depending on how much juice your lemon gives you, the brand of beans you use, how big your garlic is…
I took a Lebanese cooking class once and the instructor used soaked, cooked, dried beans instead of canned, and a mortar and pestle instead of a food processor for her hummus. It did take more time, but the flavor and taste were significantly improved over food processing. Plus, the skins of the beans would often separate during cooking, making it easier to control the consistency, and dried beans are cheaper than canned. But if you prefer your hummus completely smooth, she said you can remove the skins from the beans by laying them between two dish towels and gently rolling them around. I haven’t tried that (I like mine chunky), but it might be worth a try?
Carol says
My favorite hummus…can’t wait to try your version with cannelloni beans! Lovely, Jen…perfect for my Sunday!
Valerie says
Isn’t it wonderful the way garlic, if enjoyed by two people, is not at all offensive! *Love* garlic. I actually like store bought hummus – but I usually by the version that’s so heavy on the garlic that it cancels out all other flavours. Can’t wait to try this homemade recipe! Good call on the white beans – there is nothing worse than a garbanzo bean skin that’s stuck to the back of your throat. :P
Kate says
I LOVE this hummus! All that garlic takes it just over the top! Beautiful.
I’m with you – homemade all the way. I don’t like any of the store brands, either.
Jennifer says
I love hummus and I can only imagine how wonderful it must tasted with roasted garlic! Yum!
Kare says
Roasting the garlic is such a great idea. This looks so great. And I can’t imagine peeling the skin off of every chickpea – yeah I don’t think so!
Jennifer Farley says
Yeah, that was 20 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.
Anne says
Love homemade hummus! This looks wonderful!
Lauren says
This looks delicious! I have to agree with you on store-bought hummus — I have tried dozens of kind, including super-expensive locally made ones, and there’s nothing that quite tastes like homemade.
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
I love hummus and eat it daily – I can only imagine how tasty this is with the roasted garlic and white beans!
Liz says
Gorgeous photographs!!!! I love anything with roasted garlic!!