Caramelised Onion Hummus

This was my lunch today. We’ve often bought the Caramelised Onion Hummus from Aldi in the past, but it does contain refined sugar so I no longer eat it. I was out at a school function last night and my husband made hot dogs with caramelised onions for the boy’s tea. I know that many people do put sugar in their caramelised onions but we have found it is just not necessary. If you cook the onions slow enough and long enough they will caramelise in their own natural juices. There were some left-over onions so I used those to make my hummus, but I will give you instructions below to make it from scratch.  If you wish to you can make the caramelised onions the day before and keep in a sealed container overnight then make the hummus the next day. Alternatively, make LOTS of caramelised onions and keep the reminder in a sealed jar in the fridge. You can add them to wraps, sandwiches, Quiche, pizza, hot-dogs..oh and hummus!

Caramelised Onion Hummus (Serves 2)

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil

2 onions

Water as required

1 x 400g tin chick peas

juice of half a lemon

2 cloves garlic, chopped

half a teaspoon ground cumin

pinch of dried red chilli flakes

freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Method

Firstly make the caramelised onions. Literally chop the root off the onions, chop into quarters and then slice the quarters. Heat the oil to a medium heat in a frying pan with a lid. Put the onions in the pan and cover with the lid. Cook stirring occasionally, adding the water as required to stop the onions from drying out and catching. When you stir, scrape any bits off the bottom of the pan so as this improves the flavour. When the onions are a deep golden brown and any water used has been absorbed they are ready. Set to one side to cool.

Next, drain the chickpeas over the sink and put them into a medium sized bowl. Add the lemon juice, chopped garlic, cumin, chilli flakes and salt and pepper. Blitz until smooth with a hand blender.

Add half of the cooled caramelised onions to the chickpea mixture in the bowl. Blitz with the hand blender agin. Then either add the remaining caramellised onion to the bowl and stir in.

Serve on flatbread with feta cheese crumbled over the top and green salad leaves.

Image by Caroline Attwood via Unsplash