Vegan Chestnut Hummus
This fall inspired hummus is so creamy and delicious that you will want to eat the whole bowl! Enjoy it with lots of cut up vegetables and crispy baked Turkish bread.
Hummus is, in my humble opinion, one of the best dishes ever. The fact that you can transform the relatively unspectacular looking chickpea into something so delicious and creamy as hummus blows my mind a little bit. And let's be honest, tahini in itself is already absolutely delicious. Am I the only one who likes to eat tahini just like that? Let me know!
There are obviously many variations of hummus out there. Here in Germany the most common ones – beside original hummus – seem to be beetroot hummus and roasted pepper hummus. Both are nice! I have also seen recipes for pumpkin hummus which also sounds delicious. But I wanted to create a different spin on hummus and just happened to have a bag of chestnuts in my kitchen waiting to be roasted.
Now, if you're not familiar with chestnuts, there are two kinds and only one is edible. In order to not eat the wrong one, here's a great article about the differences. You can buy them in the shops either pre-cooked or raw around this time of the year. I like chestnuts a lot but I like them the most freshly roasted from a stall while wandering around Munich.
So I roasted my chestnuts and then boiled them additionally to make sure they are as soft as canned chickpeas. That way I knew I would be able to create a creamy uniform texture for my chestnut hummus! This of course meant a bit more work but I enjoyed roasting them myself. You could also just use pre-cooked chestnuts if you were under time pressure. Be aware that I roasted more chestnuts than I used in this recipe because I didn't want to use the oven for just a small amount of them. You can always snack on them straight out of the oven or use them on other recipes (I have another one coming up soon!).
Other than chestnuts, I used canned chickpeas, tahini, aquafaba (the liquid in which the chickpeas lie in the can), olive oil, lemon juice, salt and a little bit of smoked chipotle powder for this hummus. The flavor of the chestnuts is definitely there but it's also not super overpowering. I might have eaten the whole bowl for lunch cause it was soooo creamy and delicious! Psssst... don't tell anyone!
Will you make this lovely hummus soon? Or how about my Roasted Veg Salad & Tahini Dressing?
This fall inspired hummus is so creamy and delicious that you will want to eat the whole bowl! Enjoy it with lots of cut up vegetables and crispy baked Turkish bread.
- 1/2 pound chestnuts (see notes!! You will only need 1/2 cup boiled chestnuts for this recipe)
- 1 can chickpeas (400g)
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon smoked chipotle powder
- 1/4 + 1/8 cup aquafaba (see notes)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (plus more as a topping)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- sesame seeds (optional)
Pre-heat oven to 200°C (392°F). Place parchment paper on a baking tray.
Make a cut cross-wise into each chestnut. It doesn't matter if you cut into the flesh. Place the chestnuts cut side up onto the tray. Roast them at 200°C (392°F) for 20 minutes. Peel when they're still warm and make sure you get the "fuzzy" peel under the hard shell off as well.
The peel is easier to remove when the chestnuts are still warm.Add the roasted and peeled chestnuts to a pot with 1/2 cup of water and simmer them for 30 minutes. Depending on if you're boiling all of them or not, you might need to start with more water at the beginning already. Make sure to check on them every now and then and add some more water if necessary. The chestnuts soak up some of the water so make sure they don't burn! Let cool off afterwards.
Drain the can of chickpeas but keep the aquafaba! Add the chickpeas to a blender together with 1/2 cup of the boiled chestnuts, tahini, salt, smoked chipotle powder, olive oil, lemon juice and 1/2 cup of the aquafaba you just reserved.
Blend until all is super smooth. Add more salt if desired. Pour into a bowl and top with some olive oil, sesame seeds and some chopped chestnuts. Enjoy!
Chestnuts: I roasted more chestnuts than I needed (1/2 pound) because you can use them for other recipes or just eat them fresh out of the oven. However, I only used 1/2 cup of the roasted and boiled chestnuts for this recipe.
Aquafaba: Aquafaba is the viscous water in which legume seeds such as chickpeas have been cooked. Due to its ability to mimic functional properties of egg whites in cooking, aquafaba can be used as a direct replacement for them in some cases, including meringues and marshmallows. (source: Wikipedia)
