Add This To Hummus For The Easiest Fall Appetizer You'll Ever Make

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While a simple, creamy hummus can be a comforting delight without any adulteration, this chickpea and tahini-based dip offers such a tempting canvas for other flavors it practically begs for fun upgrades. With fall almost upon us, you should know the one addition that will transform your next batch of hummus into the easiest seasonal appetizer you'll ever make: pumpkin purée.

If your consideration of pumpkin extends no further than a classic Thanksgiving-style pumpkin pie or a certain eponymous spiced latte, you should broaden your horizons and embrace the gourd's range of savory applications, with hummus being one of the quickest and least complicated. The pumpkin purée will blend thickly and smoothly into your hummus due to the texture of the purée, which, depending on the type you use, can be comparable to ricotta cheese or applesauce. The subtle, fruity sweetness it brings can be offset and complemented as much as you desire by traditional hummus ingredients like garlic and lemon juice, as well as further seasonings such as paprika and cumin.

The absolute simplest method for achieving this dip is to stir some canned pumpkin purée into your store-bought hummus of choice, adjusting the amount depending on how strong you wish the pumpkin flavor to be. However, making your own hummus is hardly a labor-intensive process — just blend up some cooked chickpeas, tahini, pumpkin purée, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and whatever other seasonings you prefer. A sustained spell in a blender or food processor will render the hummus just as smooth as the store-bought kind, while also being superior in taste. 

If you're already making your hummus from scratch, you may be wondering if you should go the extra mile and whip up a homemade version of your secret ingredient. You can do this by slicing a pie or "sugar" pumpkin in half, removing the seeds from within (just like on Halloween), roasting it until soft, then puréeing in a blender (if necessary, you can add a little water, or if your purée has too much liquid, you can strain it in a cheesecloth). Although the homemade stuff has its devotees, it is, in one expert's opinion, not really worth it to make your own pumpkin purée, with others complaining that it is time-consuming and delivers results not noticeably better than a good quality, canned purée, such as Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin.  

Garnishing your hummus can be almost as much fun as making and eating it, and possibilities include roasted pumpkin seeds, toasted pepitas, black and white sesame seeds, pomegranate seeds, smoked paprika,  fried sage leaves, or a little pumpkin pie spice. For a somewhat more complex alternative, you might prefer our recipe for roasted garlic pumpkin hummus, in which the earthy, fragrant notes of the garlic act as a more equal contender to the pumpkin in the dip's flavor profile.