Healthy Basil Lime Hummus (10 Minutes)

A serious amount of tangy sour flavor mixes beautifully with the spicy sweet complexity of fresh basil, to make a healthy basil lime hummus that will excite your palate, and have you coming back for more.

Eating a lot of basil lime hummus wouldn’t be a bad thing either, since this homemade hummus is so healthy.

It's an easily digestible source of vegetarian protein for most people, and you can include as much, or as little, fat as you desire.

Store-bought hummus can have as much as two to three times the fat content of our basil lime hummus, and store-bought is almost always made with refined oils.

On the other hand, making hummus yourself gives you full control over the quality of your ingredients. This is where you get to use your best olive oil, and your freshest basil.

There is so much flavor here that you can instantly create a tasty vegetarian sandwich spread, or use it as a dip for vegetables.

Pita chips dipped in basil lime hummus is one of my favorite ways to enjoy this, but I’ve got 8 flavor combos ready for you if you keep reading, with choices for snacks, parties, lunches, and dinner.

It takes less than 10 minutes to put this basil lime hummus recipe together, and there’s minimal cleanup.

In just minutes, you’ve got a versatile, protein-rich, healthy snack ready to go.

Traditional hummus ingredients

To create the incredibly satisfying flavor of this hummus, you’ll need just nine ingredients, not counting the water.

For any traditional hummus, the first two ingredients you need are extra virgin olive oil and tahini.

If you haven’t tried it before, tahini is simply sesame seeds that are blended into a paste.

If you don’t have tahini, you could get away with grinding whole sesame seeds in your food processor before adding the rest of the ingredients for the basil lime hummus.

The sesame seeds add a subtle bitter component to the hummus. Bitter is always necessary for a balanced taste profile, so this is good.

Next, we add lemon, which is another traditional hummus ingredient.

Innovative flavors

Now, we are going to get innovative with our flavors, especially the lime flavors.

In addition to fresh lime juice, we are using amchur.

Amchur is an Indian spice made from dried unripe green mangoes. Sounds interesting right?

This souring agent is commonly used in North Indian cuisine. It became popular back when lemons and limes weren’t available all year round in the northern climate, and transportation of ingredients over long distances was less common.

Amchur has a dry sour taste, and is a delight to use in the kitchen.

Ground Persian lime can also be used as a substitute for amchur if Persian food is more to your liking.

Isn’t it interesting that both cultures have a similar ingredient like this?

I can tell you that the dry lime taste of the amchur adds some serious umami pizzazz to the taste of this hummus.

Below are a few Amazon recommendations for amchur, as well as ground Persian lime.

In the absence of one of my recommended special sour ingredients, you can definitely use more fresh lime as a substitute.

This recipe also calls for cayenne pepper powder.

Cayenne is another dry heat, with a bright spicy flavor. It combines beautifully with the amchur, and we use just a bit so the hummus doesn’t taste spicy.

As for the fresh basil, it is summer in the Northern hemisphere, and that means basil season.

If you don’t have it growing in your garden, (or your friend’s), fresh basil should be easily available at your local farmer’s market or grocery store.

I don’t recommend dried basil for this recipe.

Once you’ve got all the ingredients together, all you need to do is blend them up. It is really this easy.

8 ways to enjoy hummus 

1. With falafel balls, on a plate, with rice or potatoes, and salad
2. With tofu as a sandwich, along with fresh tomato and onion
3. As a dip with fresh veggie sticks. I recommend bell peppers, cucumber, celery, jicama, and carrots.
4. As a dip with pita chips, or any kind of chips. 
5. As an appetizer on crackers or celery, topped with cherry tomatoes, diced cucumbers, and black olives.
6. Add a dollop to a rice bowl, as the protein component, along with braised greens and tofu.
7. On toast with a side of soup.
8. Simple. With hot pita bread. For extra yum, heat bread in olive oil and smother with fresh garlic.

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