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I love houmous. As a side to a chicken kebab, with crudités or pitta to dip, heaped into jacket potatoes or simply added to a salad.

I’ve added two of my favourite ingredients lemons and garlic to bring all the flavour with this delicious version. I can’t believe how quick and simple it was to make!

Some people like to remove the skins of each chickpea before blending but seriously?! I’m far too impatient and surely life is too short for that even in these pandemic, scraping the barrel times for fun! If lockdown goes on much longer I might give it a go though and I’ll let you know what I reckon!

Ingredients

1 can of chickpeas – drained and rinsed

Juice of 2 lemons

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons tahini

2 cloves garlic – minced

2 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and extra to drizzle

Method

Add the tahini and lemon juice to a large bowl and blend with a hand blender for a minute. It should start to look like the consistency of smooth peanut butter.

Now add your olive oil, garlic and salt and stir to combine. Blast for a few seconds with the hand blender, add your chickpeas and blend away some more for a couple of minutes, adding your tablespoons of water until creamy and smooth.

Heap into your bowl and add your own delights to dip in. We love toasted, warm pitta cut into strips, crudités and extra lemon juice squeezed on to serve.

Tip: Drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil and dust a little cayenne pepper or smoked paprika to serve.