Italian Hummus
Posted On 27 September 2025
My wife hates garbanzo beans, so hummus is generally a non-starter. Saw this variation and thought, “That might be good.” It’s very good. Tweaked a lot from the original as it lacked acidity.
Italian Hummus
A creamy, garlicky hummus-variation using cannellini beans
Equipment
- 1 Food processor
Ingredients
- 1 15 oz can 15oz can cannellini beans
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 3 sprigs Italian parsley (+/-) (see notes)
- 4-5 basil leaves (+/-) (see notes)
- 2 cloves garlic, mashed (+/-)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil (up to 1 tablespoon more)
- Kosher Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Crushed Red Pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the beans. Add to a food processor.
- Zest the lemon then cut in half and juice.
- Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.
- If too thick, add the additional 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Taste and adjust seasonings. (I added probably ½ teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper total.)
- If desired, add the crushed red pepper flakes.
- Chill for 1 to 2 hours before serving. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
Notes
- If you have Calabrian Chili Flakes, these work well here to add a bit of kick.
- On my second attempt I used 4-5 basil leaves and it really worked well. Garlicky, basily, creamy. And, let’s face it: Italian Parsley really doesn’t do much of anything.
- Thinking that if you made this with red kidney beans at Halloween that’d be quite a look.
- I used this in place of a mayonnaise on a sandwich this week. Awesome.
