This colourful and delicious plant based recipe is sure to please. My roasted squash and tomato hummus recipe is easy enough to make for every day meals and richly tasty enough for special occasions. It makes a gorgeous addition to festive buffets, and served with crudités an easily transportable contribution to holiday pot lucks. The hummus freezes well and so is a good dish to make in advance.

Squash is such a great vegetable: healthy, versatile and keeps for months in the house (mine is on kitchen shelves and a dresser in the living room!) For this recipe I used bright orange Uchiki Kuri squash, which can be roasted with the skin on and makes a jewel coloured hummus, but any firm squash that keeps its texture when cooked is fine, for example butternut or crown prince.

The squash are known by several different names and seeds are widely available in many online stores including Real Seeds in the UK (look for “Hokkaido”), Bingenheimer in Europe (“red kuri”) and Baker Creek in USA (“Red kuri/hokkaido”).

Making the most of the oven

Whenever I am cooking something in the oven, I try to make the most of the heat and fill the space. This is more economical, saves fuel and also helps to give me a head start on other meals. I recently roasted a tray of squash which I then used to make this recipe, put some in a casserole and some in the freezer for another day.  A favourite tasty winter squash salad is Roast Squash Salad with paprika tahini dressing.

Homemade dried tomatoes

The “sun-dried tomatoes” were actually dehydrated in my electric dehydrator, we just don’t have the climate for sun drying tomatoes here. They are some I dried from my last crop in my old garden in Somerset, such a pleasure to use and good memories of that lovely productive garden.

Of course it is absolutely fine to use a store bought squash and dried tomatoes. Sun dried tomatoes which come in jars in olive oil do not need soaking.

The tomatoes take the hummus to another level, adding a rich sweetness and extra colour.

 

 

 

Cooking seasonally

This hummus was always hugely popular on the lunches I made, when I was the chef for Homeacres courses, which I co-ran with Charles Dowding. They were real adventures in seasonal cooking! I never knew until the morning what ingredients Charles would bring into the kitchen for the day’s feast. Having grown a large herb garden for years, I always brought bunches of seasonal herbs from home too. It was great fun and I do hope to do something similar here in Wales in the future. Many of the recipes for the food I made on the courses are in my book The Creative Kitchen, which is filled with seasonal plant based recipes using many ingredients you can grow in your garden.

Chickpeas or beans?

For ease I used a can of organic chickpeas, net weight 400g/14 oz which makes about 2 cups of cooked chickpeas. That would be around 2/3 cup (134g) of dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked.  You can also use butterbeans or borlotti beans, for a different texture and flavour – I often use homegrown czar beans for hummus, such as this squash hummus recipe. Chickpea cooking liquor is known as “aquafaba”, a remarkable substance with many culinary uses.

Lighter coloured squashes make a paler hummus – still very tasty!

Easy measurements

I like to use American cups to make dishes like these, it’s so easy scooping up the ingredients and dolloping them into the food processor. 1 US cup is approximately 13 tablespoons. Sets of cup measures are widely available, from practical metal  cups to handmade pottery ones. Mine are from America, bought on one of my many trips there when my Dad lived in San Francisco, California (what great trips they were!) They hang from hooks near to the stove and kitchen island where I prepare meals.

Fortunately hummus is very forgiving and it doesn’t matter too much whether the quantities are exact, because the finished texture is decided as you blend the ingredients and add the chickpea cooking liquid, until it is the thickness you desire.

Roasted Squash and Dried Tomato Hummus

 

This makes enough for 4-6 people for a meal, or more as part of a party spread.

Dice the squash into 2cm/1″ pieces, drizzle with olive oil, season with sea salt and pepper, and roast in the oven 180˚C/356˚F for 20-30 minutes, turning every now and then for even cooking. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chickpeas with the aquafaba liquid  – that’s a 400g/14 oz net weight can of chickpeas

1 cup roasted squash (plus more to decorate, optional)

1/2 cup tahini

1/2 cup dried tomatoes, soaked in a little warm water until soft and drained – retain the liquid (or use drained from a jar)

1 tsp smoked paprika

2-4 cloves garlic – according to preference

juice of a lemon

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp fresh parsley (basil if in season)

olive oil – a drizzle or two

toppings (optional) – roasted squash, toasted pumpkin seeds, chopped tomatoes, chopped herbs, smoked salt, paprika,

 

Place the cooked chickpeas, tahini, squash, salt and pepper, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, paprika and a drizzle of olive oil into a food processor and whizz, adding a little of the aquafaba until the hummus is the consistency you like. If you ru out of aquafaba, use the tomato soaking liquid or a little water.

Using a spatula, dollop into a bowl, spread out and decorate. I chose roasted squash, paprika and parsley, with oak smoked salt crystals sprinkled on the top. Eat right away, or store in the fridge (keeps for 3 days). This hummus freezes beautifully too.

I love this on top of warm roasted vegetables, or stuffed into jacket potatoes. Yum! It’s good on toast, served with crudities, in sandwiches, thinned with extra water to make a salad dressing, and more …. How will you eat it?

More seasonal recipes to try

A few days ago I visited my friend Anastasia Eden and enjoyed a scrumptious lunch, which included these delicious gluten free beetroot flatbreads. We ate these with a seasonal carrot salad and quinoa. I am going to make these to go with some hummus: the colours will look divine together.

Ana’s online plant based courses are featured in my recent festive gift guide for the holidays, with a discount!