Edamame Hummus, How to Make a Protein-packed Dip

This recipe for Edamame Hummus adds a touch of green to your girl dinner of hummus and veges! And the recipe is made conveniently with frozen edamame, so it's too easy not to make. Shall we?

Explore More

• What is Edamame Hummus
• What Ingredients You Need for Edamame Hummus
• How Much Edamame is in 1 Bag Frozen?
• What is the Best Sesame Paste or Tahini for Hummus?
• How to Make Edamame Hummus
• How and Where to Eat Homemade Hummus
• Best Variations of Homemade Hummus
• FAQs
• Edamame Hummus Recipe

What is Edamame Hummus

I have been making homemade hummus ever since I realized I could make it at home myself instead of buying plastic container after plastic container of the stuff either at the grocery store or as a special "extra large side" from my favorite Mediterranean restaurants. Admittedly, these days hummus generally isn't that much cheaper to make at home, but it's always nice to know where every single ingredient comes from, and of course, it's infinitely more fun.

What Ingredients You Need for Edamame Hummus

• edamame, 2 cups shelled
• sesame paste, ¼ cup tahini (Mediterranean) or sesame paste (Asian)
• lemon juice, ¼ cup
• garlic. 1 clove
• salt, 1 teaspoon plus more to taste
• olive oil for finishing
• ice water, ¼-½ cup
• toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Chopped fresh herbs like green onions and cilantro are optional for garnish.

How Much Edamame is in 1 Bag Frozen?

Edamame is usually sold frozen in bag either as pods, like you get as an appetizer in Japanese restaurants, or shelled. For Edamame Hummus, you need 2 cups of shelled edamame, which is about 10-ounces (1 cup shelled edamame weighs about 5 ounces.)

If you accidentally buy the edamame pods, you will need about two 12-ounce bags. Once you cook them in the pods, and then remove the pods, you will have a little more than 2 cups of shelled edamame.

What is the Best Sesame Paste or Tahini for Hummus?

At its simplest, sesame paste is a smooth, thick puree of sesame seeds, essentially a seed butter. It adds a nutty, umami, toasted flavor to foods and because it's high in oil content, it emulsifies with liquids to create a fluffy texture in sauces, spreads, and dips.

There are two main types of sesame paste, either made from unroasted/raw sesame seeds, and made from roasted/toasted sesame seeds. Tahini is Mediterranean cuisines based sesame paste made from raw or only very lightly toasted sesame seeds, and is a key ingredient in traditional chickpea hummus. Chinese sesame paste is made from toasted sesame seeds.

For this recipe, I use 100% pure roasted sesame paste that I buy at H Mart (Korean market) or 99 Ranch Market (Chinese).

I have tried and liked Artisana Organic, Joyva, Kevala Organic, Whole Foods 365 Organic and a few other brands that aren't memorable, but all of which I was able to find either online or in a regular grocery store in Los Angeles. The one I like the most is Soom, which I first saw in the little shop at Suraya restaurant in Philadelphia (photo above).

Ingredients Notes and Shopping Resources for Homemade Hummus

Edamame. This hummus recipe is specific for frozen edamame. .

Sesame Paste. Tahini is a Mediterranean-based smooth puree of sesame seeds, essentially a seed butter. It adds a nutty, umami, toasted flavor to foods and a fluffy texture to hummus. I have tried and liked Artisana Organic, Joyva, Kevala Organic, Whole Foods 365 Organic and a few other brands that aren't memorable, but all of which I was able to find either online or in a regular grocery store in Los Angeles. The one I like the most is Soom, which I first saw in the little shop at Suraya restaurant in Philadelphia (photo above). If you can't find tahini, or are new to tahini and don't want to spend money on an entire jar, you can substitute with half the amount of sesame oil, or leave the tahini out (use this hummus recipe with no tahini here), with the understanding that the final hummus will be good, but will taste very different.

Salt. I use Diamond Crystal brand Kosher salt, which is in the burgundy red box. I also have Redmond's Ancient Sea Salt.

Olive Oil. The olive oil here is for garnish at the end so use your favorite. I use California Olive Ranch.

How to Make Edamame Hummus

Transfer the Edamame Hummus to a bowl, cover the surface with plastic wrap, and let it rest for at least 30 minutes to allow the garlic and sesame flavors mellow out. If not using straightaway, refrigerate until needed.

Take Edamame Hummus out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before serving, drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

How and Where to Eat Homemade Hummus

Wait. I don't understand the question? You mean there are ways to eat Homemade Hummus other than just immediately out of the food processor with a spoon?

These are some awesome ways to serve and eat Homemade Hummus, which you can treat as a dip, spread, salad base, and it doesn't have to be considered just an appetizer:

• as a snack by itself with pita chips (here's my homemade Pita Chips recipe!)
• on the Epic Mediterranean Mezze Platter as a dip with pita bread and crudites
• spread hummus on toast, grilled flatbread (you can make this 3-ingredient flatbread yourself in a skillet!), or baked pizza piled with vibrant vegetables
• Loaded Hummus Platter as a dippable "salad," spooned onto a platter and loaded with chopped tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, avocado, and red onions

Best Variations of Homemade Hummus

Here are a few of my favorite variations:

• Avocado Hummus. half a small avocado added with the chickpeas for Avocado Hummus (you could use half lime juice for the lemon juice and add a jalapeno to make it even more interesting!)
• Roasted Beet Hummus. 1 small chopped roasted red beet added with the chickpeas makes a bright fuschia Roasted Beet Hummus with an earthy flavor
• Roasted Garlic Hummus. 1 full head of roasted garlic added with the chickpeas make the most insanely garlick-y Roasted Garlic Hummus ever
• Olive Hummus. ¼ cup chopped olives with the tahini and lemon juice
• Green Goddess Hummus. 1 tablespoon each chopped basil chives or green onion, dill, and parsley for a bright, herbal hummus
• Sriracha Hummus. 1-2 tablespoons sriracha or other hot sauce added with the tahini and about half lemon juice

Tools and Equipment You Need to Make Homemade Hummus

• MESH STRAINER. I have a set of three different sizes, and use the medium one to drain the chickpeas and give them a good shake. (The larger strainer is great for sifting flours and straining stock).
• FOOD PROCESSOR. I have been using my small 4-cup Cuisinart FOR YEARS. I will only "upgrade" when this one falls apart because it still works like a dream, but most importantly, it's easy to clean and PUT AWAY. This 4-cup capacity is the right size for small jobs like dips and spreads.
• KITCHEN TOWELS. I have purchased so many "fancy" branded kitchen towels over the years, but always come back to the inexpensive, no brand 100% cotton floursack cloths because they're absorbent and actually "dry" your hands or dishes or whatever you're wiping. Regular terry-cloth style towels are absorbent, but don't dry out themselves, and traditional tea towels are thin and dry out, but are also rough on the skin. Keep fancy kitchen towels for display, get the floursack cloths for actual work.
• CUTTING BOARD. This is my favorite very large cutting board that also doubles as a food/crudites/cheese board. It is very heavy.
• KNIFE. My daily, all-purpose knife, expensive, but definitely worth it

The next thing to conquer? That insanely, intensely delicious garlic sauce that they serve with roast chicken and lamb at Mediterranean restaurants, toum!

FAQs

Food for Afterthoughts

Just call me the world's fifth biggest hypocrite.

I would call myself the world's number one biggest hypocrite, but with corporate scandals, Martha Stewart, various politicians, I am relegated to the lower ranks of hypocrisy.

For all the hating I do on this blog on asian "fusion," rather f*ew!*sion, you'd think the last thing I'd do, if at all, is eek! around my kitchen like a damned monkey with a bowl of Japanese edamame that I've Mediterranean-ly pureed into hummus.

rendering sarah completely hypocritical

Mediterrasian. Japarranean.

Oh God, I hate myself.

For not only am I a hypocritous little wench, but I am also ig. Nor. Ant.

I have this thing for hummus. It tastes good, sure. But ever since I discovered that I could make an entire bowl of the creamy chickpea puree at home for all of about, oh, I don't know, seventy-five cents, instead of paying $7.95 for a miniature ice cream scoop-ful at any local Greek or other Mediterranean restaurant, I have been completely obsessed with it. Obsessed, I tell ye.

So obsessed that I drooled all over this past month's issue of Saveur that had a story about hummus, and did all kinds of nerdy research on the Internets before posting about my creation so that I could provide some truly valuable information at least once on this blog. Yes, the Internets. Get ready to be wowed by my intelli-brilliant expertise in all things hummus.

edamame and their dicotyledonous legumery

I, like many of us, thought hummus could be any sort of legume that has been pureed into a dip or spread, and that it just so happened that the most popular version of legume puree is the chickpea version with which I am so obsessed. In fact, I thought I was so breathtakingly brilliant in figuring out that if hummus were merely a puree of legumes, then peanut butter is really a peanut hummus because peanuts are legumes, and refried beans are a pinto bean hummus because beans are legumes, too! And though edamame, young soybeans, are not beans as many of us would mistakenly believe since it has the word "bean" in the name, but oilseeds, they are still legumes, which made them candidates for said "puree of legumes." I was so smug in my clever sleuthing and deductive prowess. Smug smug smug.

*shakes head* How wrong I was. How wrong we all were. Utterly utterly wrong. It is all...a myth.

Well, good thing I am here to dispel that myth! "Hummus" does not, in fact, mean "puree of," which is what we uneducated folk might have thought it was. The word "hummus" is Arabic for "chickpea" (or garbanzo bean or ceci bean or chana), so technically, hummus is always made from chickpeas. That certainly deserves to be repeated.

Hummus is always made from chickpeas!

I have been humbled by the Internets.

So technically, you can't have edamame hummus and think you're being all clever because it's a "puree of" edamame. I mean, if I call it edamame hummus, it really should be edamame and chickpeas. It is not. It is only edamame, and technically, it is just "edamame puree," sans chickpeas, sans "hummus."

But when I turn into my hypocritous and ignorant self, when I dub myself Iron Chef Creative Master, hummus can still be made from any sort of bean or lentil or legume, and it's edamame hummus anyway. Forget the Internets and all its wisdom. Let me live in my Kitchen Stadium of Stupid Fusion Hypocrisy and mashup Japanese ingredients with Mediterranean techniques and call it edamame hummus.

Hypocrisy sure tastes good.