Pizza hummus with sun-dried tomatoes

Pizza hummus takes the spirit of pizza and adds it into everyone’s favorite dip.

Garnish it with your preferred pizza toppings for a vegan & gluten-free optional appetizer that your guests will love.

Creamy pizza hummus swirled in bowl and garnished with cilantro and red pepper flakes.

If there is one thing we can all agree on, it’s the deliciousness of pizza & hummus.

Now those two party favorites are coming together in pizza hummus.

This garbanzo bean spread is a melding of sun-dried tomatoes, tahini, lemon juice, oregano, basil, onion powder, and garlic.

After blending the hummus, it’s finished with a pinch of red pepper flakes, fresh basil, and a drizzle of oil from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes.

You can amp up the pizza homage by adding your preferred pizza toppings to the hummus as a garnish. Think vegan pepperoni, olives, red bell pepper, or spinach.

Serve pizza hummus with your choice of toasted pizza crust wedges, pita chips, olive bread, focaccia, or red bell pepper slices.

In this post:

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Ingredients
Step by step instructions
Serving suggestions
Storage instructions
More hummus recipes
FAQ
📖 Recipe

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe.

Chickpeas: Canned chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) are convenient, but home-cooked work just as well. (You’ll need 1 ½ cups of cooked chickpeas for this recipe.)

Be aware that some chickpeas are softer than others. That may affect how much liquid you need to make your hummus smooth.

Aquafaba: Aquafaba is the liquid inside of a can of chickpeas or other beans, or the cooking liquid from home-cooked beans. It can take the place of olive oil in hummus recipes. It adds creaminess without diluting flavor.

Sun-dried tomatoes & oil: Choose jarred sun-dried tomatoes that are packed in oil for this recipe, since you’ll use both the dried tomatoes & some of the flavorful oil from inside the jar.

Look for sun-dried tomatoes near the Italian ingredients in the center aisles of the grocery store.

Tahini: Tahini is similar to peanut butter, but it’s made with sesame seeds instead of peanuts.

You can find tahini in the Mediterranean section of most grocery stores or online. (Here is my favorite brand!)

Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed is best. Lime juice also works beautifully here, if you’d prefer.

Garlic: Fresh garlic has the most bite, but if you prefer a more muted flavor, use granulated garlic.

Dried spices & seasonings: Dried oregano, dried basil, onion powder, salt, and red chili pepper flakes.

Fresh basil: Even though there’s dried basil in this recipe already, finishing it with freshly chopped basil takes it to the next level.

For topping & dipping

Pizza toppings: To maximize the pizza vibes, garnish the hummus with ¼ cup of your favorite pizza toppings.

Here are some ideas:

Sliced seitan pepperoni (The pepperoni in The Herbivorous Butcher Cookbook, shown here, is terrific!)
Sliced olives
Sliced green onions
Quartered grilled artichoke hearts from a jar
Chopped spinach
Diced bell pepper
Sautéed mushrooms

Dippers: Scoop up your hummus with toasted pre-made pizza crust from the shelf stable section of the grocery store, homemade pita chips, focaccia, olive bread, crackers, or bell pepper wedges.

Step by step instructions

Here’s how to make this recipe at a glance. For complete ingredient amounts & instructions, keep scrolling to the recipe card below.

4-panel collage showing how to make pizza hummus by draining chickpeas (and reserving aquafaba), adding ingredients to food processor, blending, and then garnishing with pizza toppings.

1. Use a fine mesh sieve over a bowl to strain the chickpeas from a can.

Note: You’ll need the chickpea liquid, also known as aquafaba. So don’t throw the liquid down the drain. Not a fan of aquafaba? Use water or extra virgin olive oil instead.

2. Put the following into the food processor:

Chickpeas
Aquafaba
Sun-dried tomatoes & oil
Tahini
Lemon juice
Dried oregano
Dried basil
Onion powder
Minced garlic (or granulated garlic)
Salt

3. Blend until fully combined.

4. Transfer hummus to a serving bowl. Drizzle with more sun-dried tomato oil, and top with sliced seitan pepperoni or your preferred pizza toppings.

Finish with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes and freshly chopped basil.

Hand holding bread topped with pizza hummus, fresh basil, and seitan pepperoni over bowl of hummus.

Serve with warmed pizza crust, focaccia, pita chips, crackers, olive bread, or bell pepper wedges.

Serving suggestions

2-panel collage - Trader Joe's pizza crust and crust wedges toasting in pan.

While this hummus works well with any warmed bread, it’s fun to continue the pizza theme by serving it with slices of grilled pizza crust for dipping.

There are many crust options out there, but Trader Joe’s sells shelf-stable pizza crusts that come two to a pack.

Use kitchen shears to cut them into triangles, and then toast them in a grill pan or skillet. (You can add a little oil to the pan if you like, but it’s not essential.)

Warm the crust for a few minutes on both sides until the slices get a little nutty brown on top.

Storage instructions

Pizza flavored hummus with vegan pepperoni, fresh basil, red pepper flakes, and sun-dried tomato oil.

Store leftover hummus in an airtight container in the fridge. It will keep for 4 or 5 days.

Note: If the chopped basil starts looking browned & oxidized, remove it, and replace it with freshly cut basil before serving.

The hummus may thicken in the refrigerator. If gets too firm, thin it out by stirring in a splash of water, extra virgin olive oil, or more sun-dried tomato oil.

Swirls of pizza hummus in bowl garnished with seitan pepperoni and fresh basil.

More hummus recipes

Here are even more hummus ideas for your next gathering!

Hand pushing toasted bread through bowl of pizza hummus.

FAQ

What is aquafaba?

Aquafaba is the liquid inside of a can of chickpeas or other beans.
It’s surprisingly helpful in recipes. I use it to brown the top of pastry in my vegan pot pie. People also use it as an egg replacer in baking recipes.

In this recipe for sun-dried tomato hummus, aquafaba is used in place of olive oil. It makes for creamy hummus without gobs of oil or diluted flavor.

(Note that this is not an oil-free recipe, though, because it uses a small amount of sun-dried tomato oil.)

By using chickpea liquid, you keep all of that garbanzo bean flavor while thinning out the hummus, so that it’s not overly thick.

Can this recipe be made gluten-free?

Yes! For a gluten-free spread, don’t use seitan pepperoni for garnish. Instead, use a gluten-free garnish like grilled artichoke hearts, spinach, or sliced olives.

Then for the dippers, serve with bell pepper wedges or gluten-free crackers.

How can I use leftover pizza hummus?

Use leftover pizza hummus on a vegan bagel sandwich, roll it into tortilla pinwheels, or add it to a veggie platter.

Comments

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