Turn Hummus into Your MVS (Most Valuable Sauce)

Even on my laziest grocery shopping weeks, I always have a container of hummus in my fridge. It’s the perfect thing to scoop up with crackers as a quick snack in between meetings, and as a lifelong (and proud) member of the mayo-hating community, it keeps my sandwiches from being dry disasters.

But hummus is so much more than a dip or a spread. My favorite way to eat it is to turn it into a creamy, lemony sauce that will make any meal feel less meh. 

The sauce couldn’t be easier to make. Just dollop some hummus in a bowl and whisk in lemon juice and a glug of olive oil until the mixture has a drizzly consistency. That’s it! It’s one of the supersimple sauces we turn to in our new cookbook Five-Ingredient Dinners to add quick flavor to dishes (such as chicken meatballs) without adding a laundry list of ingredients.

In the book, this recipe calls for ½ cup of hummus, 2½ tablespoons of lemon juice, and 4 teaspoons of extra-virgin olive oil, but you can play with the amounts of lemon juice and olive oil to suit your tartness threshold. (Sometimes I skip the olive oil altogether—the more lemony the better, as far as I’m concerned.) You can also change up the flavor profile depending on what type of hummus you use. My current favorite is lemon-dill from Ithaca Hummus, but you can never go wrong with good ol’ garlic.

This week, I used this magic sauce to perk up a dry-as-bones grain bowl with roasted carrots and cauliflower. It nestled into the little cauli crevices and added a creamy, saucy element that my sad little pile of vegetables was craving, with a bright hit of acidity to boot.

Convinced yet? Here are some of my other favorite ways to use it:

• Toss it with shaved Parmesan, romaine, and croutons for a Caesar-ish salad
• Drizzle it over a roasted vegetable platter 
• Use it to coat cold noodles and crunchy veggies
• Spoon it over lettuce wraps or falafel
• Dip your pizza in it (trust me)

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