Creamy Hummus Recipe Without Garlic

This creamy hummus recipe is so delicious you’d never know it doesn’t contain garlic.  I also share a secret ingredient that replaces raw garlic perfectly without making you smell.  This recipe is oil-free, vegan, and gluten free.

Sometimes you just want to avoid eating raw garlic but don’t want to sacrifice eating hummus. 

All of the hummus from grocery store contain garlic, so if you want to eat hummus without garlic, the only choice is to make your own hummus. 

This garlic-free hummus recipe will allow you to keep on eating delicious hummus even when you can’t eat garlic.  

Not only did I avoid adding garlic to this recipe, but this hummus is also oil-free because garlic tastes just as good without the additional oil and additional calories that come with it.  The store-bought hummus often contains rapeseed or canola oil that I prefer not to eat, so this recipe avoids these kinds of ingredients that we prefer not to eat.

Making your own hummus is actually much quicker and easier than you might think.  If you have a free 5 minutes, you can easily make this recipe.

This easy hummus recipe is so simple because you just add the ingredients into the food processor, process for around 1 minute, and you’ve got hummus.  It’s as simple as that.  No more steps are required.

I tested this recipe on my family and they actually didn’t believe that I hadn’t given them store-bought hummus. My daughter was so impressed that I had made my own hummus and she took a lot of convincing that I had indeed made my own hummus with such a lovely creamy texture.  

Garlic does provide a lot of the flavor in traditional hummus, and we don’t want to sacrifice the taste of our hummus.  I have a secret ingredient in this recipe that is very similar to garlic and gives this recipe a well-balanced flavor. 

My secret ingredient is onion powder.  You can also use onion granules which will work in a similar way.  Onion and garlic are often paired together and give a similar sort of taste in a recipe.  Onion powder or granules have been dried which intensifies and sweetens the onion flavor which is very similar to garlic.  But as the onion has been dried out, it doesn’t give you onion breath in the same way that raw onion does. 

I also have another secret to share…

Garlic powder (or granules) doesn’t cause bad breath either.  If you add 1-2 teaspoons of garlic powder to this recipe, you’ll get that same garlic flavor you love but none of the stinky breath you don’t love.  So it turns out you can still eat hummus with garlic.  Just make sure you use dried garlic rather than fresh garlic.

So why didn’t I add garlic powder to the recipe?  Because this is a hummus recipe without garlic.  And adding garlic to a recipe without garlic wouldn’t go down very well.   Give it a try yourself.  Add some garlic to half of the recipe, and no garlic to the other half.  Then see if you notice the difference.

Now that I’ve realized how quick and easy it is to make my own hummus, I’m making this recipe every week as it’s much more delicious and much cheaper for me to make my own hummus. 
This hummus goes really well with my Vegan Chicken Shawarma, Quick 3 Ingredient Gluten Free Dough Balls, 3 Ingredient Gluten Free Flatbread, and my Oil-free Sweet Potato Fries.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• This recipe contains 92 calories per serving
• This recipe contains 3.5g protein per serving
• One serving of this recipe contains 10% of your recommended daily intake of dietary fiber

• This easy recipe takes just 5 minutes of active preparation time and requires no cooking. 
• I have simplified this recipe by limiting the number of ingredients and using everyday, simple ingredients such as chickpeas and lemon juice.
• This recipe and all recipes on my website are vegan, plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, lactose-free, free from refined sugar, vegetarian, and are based on whole foods.  
• All of my recipes follow my own diet plan called the Plant Plate 400. In addition,  my recipes also adhere to the following diets, the Mediterranean diet, the 1200 Calories a Day diet, Clean eating, the Macrobiotic diet, the Alkaline diet, the Ornish diet, the Daniel Fast, and the Starch Solution diet.

Ingredients

Ingredient Substitutions

• Canned Chickpeas: Replace the canned chickpeas with any canned beans of your choice.  The recipe will work just as well with any canned beans.
• Tahini: Tahini is made from pureed sesame seeds which form a sesame paste.  You can replace this with sesame seeds if you make this recipe in a high-speed blender which is powerful enough to grind the seeds.  You can replace the tahini with any seed butter of your choice, but it will change the flavor considerably.  Even nut butter such as peanut butter would work but the recipe would take on the flavor of the nut butter.  You can also use homemade tahini for this recipe.
• Lemon Juice: You can replace the lemon juice with vegetable stock or even water, but the recipe won’t be as flavorful.  Lime juice would make a good replacement for lemon juice.
• Maple syrup: You can omit the syrup or replace it with any sweetener of your choice.
• Sea salt: You can replace the sea salt with any salt of your choice or 1 tablespoon of tamari.
• Onion Powder (or granules): You can replace the onion powder with garlic powder or granules.  Dried garlic won’t give you bad breath.
• Garlic Powder: If you do want to include garlic but want to avoid smelling of garlic, try using 1-2 teaspoons of garlic powder or granules in this recipe.  Dried garlic doesn’t give you garlic breath.

The Structure Of A Plant Based Plate

Each of the recipes I create fits into my Plant Plate System.  This system incorporates 5 food groups into every meal. 

The 5 food groups are 1) Plant Protein, 2), Leaves, Fruit, And Veg, 3) Aesthetic Additions, 4) Nutrient Packed Carbohydrates, and 5) Taste

This recipe adds flavor to any dish.  It falls under the “Taste” category on the Plant Based Plate and is not a complete meal.

The diagram below helps you visually see how this element features on a Plant-Based Plate.

Click here to discover more about my Plant Plate System and some of the benefits of eating this way.

Here’s how this recipe is structured according to the Plant Plate System.  

Adding each ingredient to the following categories helps you to easily see how to make substitutions.  It also lets you know the exact reason why the ingredient is in the recipe. 

Plant-Based Protein

• Chickpeas

Leaves, Fruit & Veg 

• n/a

Aesthetic Additions

• Ground pepper or paprika

Nutrient Packed Carbohydrates

• n/a

Taste 

• Tahini
• Lemon Juice
• Maple Syrup
• Sea Salt
• Onion Powder or garlic powder

Recommended Equipment

Here are the main kitchen equipment tools I have used to create this recipe.

How To Make This Recipe

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until you get the desired consistency of hummus.

Ways To Use This Recipe

Here are some of my favorite ways to use this recipe: 

• Serve it with some warm pita bread, tortilla chips, and some fresh raw vegetables such as red peppers, or raw carrots.  
• Spread it on some flatbread and make a Vegan Chicken Shawarma
• Use it as a dip for my Quick 3 Ingredient Gluten Free Dough Balls
• Dip my 3 Ingredient Gluten Free Flatbreads in it
• Serve it with my Oil-free Sweet Potato Fries

Vegan Vegetable Side Dishes

Here are some vegetable side dishes that go very nicely with this recipe which are all under 100 calories per serving.

• Easy Vegan Cheesy Broccoli
• Vegan Zucchini Fritters
• Spicy Vegan Cauliflower Buffalo Wings
• Nacho Cheese Baked Kale Chips

For more options, see all of my best gluten-free vegan vegetable side dishes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How To Reduce The Calories In Hummus

If you’d like a lower-calorie version of this hummus I suggest you make the hummus recipe without tahini.  Tahini provides half of the calories of the entire hummus recipe so if you remove the tahini, you have halved your calories.  The taste of the hummus will still be good, especially if you add more herbs and spices to the recipe.  If you take away the tahini from this recipe the calorie count drops to 48 calories per serving.

How To Store Leftovers

This recipe keeps for up to 4 days in the fridge in an airtight container. It also freezes well for up to 3 months.  Defrost it before using it. 

More Tasty Vegan Dips And Sauces

This recipe is part of my vegan sauce series.

If you’re looking for some easy, vegan sauces that are very quick to make, check out some of my other recipes:

• No Cook Marinara Sauce (this makes a great salsa or tomato sauce dip)
• Quick Gluten Free Vegan Gravy Recipe
• Vegan Ranch Dip Recipe
• Creamy Edamame Guacamole

For more options, see all of my best gluten-free vegan dip recipes.

Recipe

Now it’s your turn to make magic with food.