If you’ve always wanted to make The Best Creamy Hummus Without Oil, you’ve come to the right place! This recipe for oil-free hummus proves that low fat hummus can still be completely delicious (not to mention incredibly easy and cheap) without any oil.

A portrait-style side angle photo of a dark blue bowl full of swirled hummus with a light blue cloth napkin in the background.

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If you ask anyone who comes from a country where hummus is more commonplace than butter or sour cream, they’ll likely tell you that hummus must have olive oil. Hummus always includes oil as an ingredient and it often is served with more oil on top!

But here at FitLizKitchen, we don’t eat oil. We don’t cook with it, we don’t use it in dressings, and we don’t drizzle it on our food. It’s just not how we’d like to eat our calories (we’d rather enjoy Portobello pizzas, bell pepper nachos, or butter bean scramble!). And anyway, we don’t believe added oil is healthy for you.

But enough about that. Let’s talk about this awesome low fat creamy hummus without oil. It’s SO delicious! I have other oil-free hummus recipes on my site, such as butter bean hummus, beet hummus, and spinach artichoke hummus.

This recipe is the base recipe upon which I make new and interesting hummus recipes, like my upcoming pizza hummus, ranch hummus, smoky roasted red pepper hummus, and cheesy hummus… all coming soon!

But just because this hummus recipe is a base recipe doesn’t mean this hummus doesn’t have a ton of flavor! It’s SO good and the perfect hummus for making into a salad dressing as I do in my kale sweet potato salad recipe, using as a sauce for pasta salad or sweet potato salad (both coming soon!), and for putting on top of chili (coming soon!), and even for using as a spread in sandwiches like my hummus veggie sandwich (coming soon!).

But yeah, so we’ve established the following: this recipe contains no oil; this recipe is delicious.

It’s also EASY. All you have to do is throw the ingredients in a blender and blend on high for 90 seconds to 2 minutes. And there you go, smooth hummus! I like to refrigerate mine so it’s cold, but at that point it’s ready for your consumption depending on what temperature you prefer your hummus to be!

Ingredients

See the recipe card below for the full ingredients list (with amounts) and instructions.

Chickpeas: Also known as garbanzo beans, you’ll need about a can’s worth (or 1 ½ cups) of chickpeas. I like to buy chickpeas in a can with non-BPA lining and with no salt added. If you can’t find no-salt added chickpeas, you can also make your own from dried garbanzo beans! In fact, I do typically make my own chickpeas from dried in my Instant Pot. And save that cooking liquid!
Aquafaba: This is the liquid that the chickpeas are cooked in. It’s the same liquid in the can. Whether you’re using canned chickpeas or you made them yourself, make sure to save that aquafaba as it will help make our oil-free hummus smooth and creamy.
Sesame Seeds: Even though I limit my intake of dietary fat, I do always use sesame seeds or tahini in my hummus. If you have a high powered blender, you can use sesame seeds for slightly less fat. Some folks prefer to grind the sesame seeds first in a spice grinder. I blend my hummus for 90 seconds to 2 minutes so I don’t have the issue of gritty hummus, but if you do not have a Vitamix, you may want to either use ground sesame seeds or tahini. Or leave it out and it will still be a delicious dip.
Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice: I prefer fresh squeezed lemon juice but I have to be realistic and tell you I don’t always have it. Or sometimes I’m honestly too lazy to squeeze it. I LOVE the Italian Volcano brand of lemon juice (it’s organic and so much better than any other brand I’ve tried), which I often purchase in a 2-pack from Costco.
Raw or Granulated Garlic: I actually really love garlic and use either raw and granulated garlic in my hummus. But you can use whichever you like. They have different flavors, so use the kind you enjoy.
Granulated Onion: I use granulated onion in my hummus because I like the flavor it adds.
Ground Cumin: This is a classic spice used in most traditional hummus recipes. I love it in this recipe too, but I love it in relatively moderate amounts.
White or Yellow Miso Paste: This is to replace the salt in the recipe, but I also love the little hint of umami flavors. Per Dr. Michael Greger of NutritionFacts.org, the soy in miso has a protective effect so the sodium in miso paste will not affect us negatively. Please feel free to omit or use a pinch of salt if that is what you prefer.

A portrait-style photo looking down into a blender full of unblended hummus ingredients.

Substitutions

Chickpeas: White beans (navy beans, Great Northern beans, cannellini beans, butter beans (like my butter bean hummus!)) work very well instead of chickpeas.
Aquafaba: If you forgot to reserve the liquid from your can of beans (or if you cooked them yourself), a good substitute is ice water. Let the water get cold from the ice, but don’t add the ice itself to the blender.
Sesame Seeds: If you can’t have sesame seeds or tahini (which is just blended sesame seeds), try soaked raw cashews or raw sunflower seeds, or try cashew butter. Hulled hemp seeds also work well. If you are really watching your overt fats, you can omit them from the recipe.
Lemon Juice: You can use a vinegar you enjoy if you don’t have any lemon juice on hand.
Raw or Granulated Garlic: Just adds flavor. If you can’t have garlic, increase the other spices in the recipe.
Granulated Onion: Same thing with the onion. If you can’t have it, don’t worry about it.
Ground Cumin: If you don’t like cumin, feel free to add any spice you do enjoy. Smoked paprika or sweet paprika, for example, are wonderful in hummus.
White or Yellow Miso Paste: If you’re fine eating salt (or if you eat the potassium chloride salt substitute) you can go ahead and use that. If you are totally avoiding added sodium, you can leave it out. Maybe add an extra tablespoon of lemon juice! Feel free to add fresh herbs too.

How to Make Creamy Hummus Without Hummus

Add ingredients to the blender: Add all the ingredients to the blender and place the lid on tightly.
Blend it up: Blend on high for 90 seconds to 2 minutes, until smooth and creamy. If you do not have a high-powered blender (such as a Vitamix or Blendtec), you may need to either stop and scrape down the sides every so often with a spatula, or you may need a bit more liquid to blend. Try adding another tablespoon of aquafaba (or ice water) and using a spatula (stop the blender first!) to move the hummus to allow the liquid to get down to the blades.
Taste and adjust: Remove the lid and taste the hummus. Does it need more saltiness? Add a teaspoon of miso (or a quarter teaspoon of salt). Does it need more acidity? Add a tablespoon of lemon juice. Experiment! Sometimes I add other seasonings, nutritional yeast, etc.
Serve or store: This can be enjoyed immediately if you don’t mind it slightly warm from blending. If you prefer it chilled like I do, then add place it in an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 5 days.

A portrait-style photo looking down into a blender full of smooth blended oil-free hummus.

Expert Tips

Taste and Adjust: Though I’ve tested this recipe many times and fed it to other people, I can’t account for everyone’s tastes. Before removing the hummus from the blender, taste it. Does it need more saltiness? Add more miso. More tang? Add more lemon. Try adding more seasonings or a little nutritional yeast. Make this recipe your own! And write down what you change, so you can make it again at a later date!
Individual Portions: Taking your hummus to work or school? It makes a delicious snack with red peppers, cucumbers, etc. Place your individual portions of creamy hummus in small containers and throw one in your lunch box each day! The next time you need a quick snack, simply grab some baby carrots and a little container of your healthy homemade hummus!
Change Up The Spices: Customize the flavor by using the spices you like! Play around with combinations and write down your experiments. Eventually you’ll find some you really enjoy and you can make them on a regular basis!
Cooking Dried Beans: If you are using dried garbanzo beans instead of canned, you can make a big batch and freeze what you don’t use.
Loaded Hummus: One of my favorite dishes to take to gatherings with mixed eaters is loaded hummus! I spread a double batch of this hummus in an 11-cup rectangular glass food storage container and top it with diced seedless cucumber, quartered grape or cherry tomatoes, minced red onion, chopped parsley, and sometimes sliced pitted kalamata olives (omit if you dislike olives!). It’s always a huge hit, and no one questions me about the missing salt or oil. It always disappears.

Serving Suggestions

This creamy hummus without oil is delicious on its own with raw veggies or crackers! My favorite veggies to dip in hummus are cucumber, fennel, radishes, sugar snap peas, carrots, celery, and red/orange/yellow bell peppers (and I always serve with a big handful of grape or cherry tomatoes. My favorite oil-free crackers are Wasa Light Rye Crispbread, Mary’s Gone Crackers, or brown rice cakes/crackers.

I also frequently use this oil-free hummus as a sandwich filling. If you blend it until it’s smooth, you can still spread it on your toast and add your favorite toppings. My favorite veggie sandwich right now is spinach artichoke hummus, arugula, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, and pickles or pickled jalapeños. So good! Sometimes I do sauerkraut instead of the pickles or pickled jalapeños. I love Ezekiel Sprouted Whole Grain Bread (I buy the “low sodium” flavor), which I buy in the frozen section of my local grocery store.

Hummus is a great topping for a baked potato or a sweet potato too. I’ve also often mixed roasted vegetables with hummus and eaten that as-is. So tasty.

And if you check out my kale sweet potato salad, I use this creamy low fat hummus as a base for salad dressing, and it’s simply delish!

Coming up in future posts, I plan to share how I love to use hummus in dishes like sweet potato salad, pasta salad, collard wraps, and more.

More Dip and Sauce Recipes

A portrait-style overhead photo of a dark blue bowl full of swirled hummus with a light blue cloth napkin in the background.

The Best Creamy Hummus Recipe (No Oil!)