You’ll love this Greek take on hummus! This savoury olive hummus is made with chickpeas, Kalamata olives, garlic and tahini. Serve with pita, crackers or fresh vegetables. This post was originally published on March 8, 2011 and updated on May 26, 2021.
Recently a friend and I were talking about how much fun a “bring your own dip” party would be. Everyone brings their own dip and “dippables”. I’m sure this already exists (everything does!), but it’s a pretty simple and straightforward idea for the summer.
It’s like a potluck with guidelines! This way you don’t end up with three different pasta salads or potato salads.
Roasted eggplant dip (Melitzanosalata) or avocado feta dip are both great bring your own dip ideas.
Olives are one of my favourite snacks, so it made sense to add them to a delicious and creamy homemade hummus. They add savoury, salty notes to this dish.
I’m using Greek Kalamata olives–they are a very flavourful variety of olive that doesn’t necessarily work in every dish, but they stand up well to homemade hummus.
I also love to chop up some extra olives and serve them swirled into the hummus when serving.
How to make smooth and creamy hummus?
I find the key to making your dip smooth and creamy comes from processing the ingredients long enough in the food processor. There are many opinions on this on the internet, but that’s what I’ve found has worked best for me when working with canned chickpeas.
I also find adding very cold water helps to keep it smooth.
Aside from the olives, this recipe uses all of the typical ingredients you find in hummus. The base is canned chickpeas, garlic, olive oil, tahini, lemon juice and olive oil.
Does your recipe use canned or dried chickpeas?
I always used canned chickpeas for convenience, but you can absolutely use dried chickpeas, and cook them from scratch. In my experience, I’ve found a homemade hummus can be just as delicious with canned chickpeas.
Olive Hummus
Ingredients
- 1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ⅔ cup pitted Kalamata olives, divided
- ¼ cup tahini
- 3 tablespoon olive oil, divided
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon cumin
- 2 tablespoon cold water
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Instructions
- Process chickpeas, ½ cup Kalamata olives, tahini, 2 tablespoon olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and cumin in a food processor until smooth. Add cold water and continue processing until very smooth, adding more water, a teaspoon at a time if needed, until hummus is desired consistency.
- Chop remaining olives. Serve hummus in a bowl, drizzle with remaining olive oil, sprinkle with chopped olives and parsley.
Lawrence
worked great and so was the taste!
Louisa Clements
So glad you enjoyed, Lawrence!
Fiori Isabella
I absolutely love how you have presented the hummus with the drizzle of olive oil, extra chopped olives and parsley on top. The cold water tip works!
Louisa Clements
Thank you Fiori! So glad you enjoyed this recipe
Patrizio
Fabulous recipe. Looks great. I’d cut lemon juice to 2 and splash EVOO on top a bit.
Louisa Clements
Thanks Patrizio! That sounds like a great addition. :)
Tina @ MOMS CRAZY COOKING
My twins love hummus, and I haven’t ventured out to make it from scratch yet! Hopefully someday!
Thank you for being a part of Secret Recipe Club, I really enjoy this group and being your hostesss. My recipe for this month was Frozen Breakfaast Burritos, even though I made these a few weeks ago for Monday’s post, I just made a second batch today!
If you haven’t checked them out yet, please stop by!
http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/2011/10/frozen-breakfast-burritos-secret-recipe.html
amy
Yum! Looks great! Fun to participate in SRC with you!
Lisa~~
My husband especially would love the addition of olives and the spices used, I’ll have to give this recipe a try.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my group “A” SRC recipe this month: Levain Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
Kristen
Olive hummus sounds so delicious. I love adding extra flavors to hummus.
Trisha
I’ve made hummus once before but never thought of putting olives in it … nice way to up the health factor!
gloria
What nice and delicious recipe ! gloria
Alli
I have never had olive hummus. I am so intrigued.
Jeanie
I love hummus and this sound slike a fun spin.
Jenny @ Savour the Senses
AH! I am obsessed with hummus. I have this lemon artichoke recipe that I always make, but I love olives too so I think I need to make this!
Miz Helen
I just love Hummus and this recipe looks so good, we would really enjoy it. Thanks for sharing and it is fun cooking with you in the SRC!
Miz Helen
Southwest Chicken and Potato Soup
Danielle Marie
Oh my that looks delicious! I love hummus but have never made it myself. I’m totally going to try this.
Melanie
I adore hummus and olive sound like just the right thing to jazz it up a little! Thanks for the great idea.
Island Vittles
Olives are a great addition to hummus — even more salty goodness…yum! Theresa
Aimee @ ShugarySweets
What a great looking hummus. Love the olives!
amanda @ fake ginger
I loooooove olive hummus but I’ve never tried making my own. This looks fantastic!
eilonwy
Oh, I’m so glad you found something useful! Also, that you enjoyed the music.
I’ll have to try the olive variation, as I should make this again, and I adore kalamata olives.