Instant Pot Hummus–This easy recipe for pressure cooker hummus is going to BLOW your mind! Made with dried chick-peas and wait for it—–sunflower seeds, this hummus recipe without tahini is going to become your new FAVORITE hummus recipe.
Have you ever suffered from a momentary lapse of all memory and purchased the wrong ingredient for a recipe?
Please tell me I am not alone in this, because it happens to me ALL the time.
My guess is that you often find yourself WITHOUT an ingredient, rather than the WRONG ingredient.
But when I went to make hummus in my instant pot, I found myself staring at a bag of raw sunflower seeds instead of raw sesame seeds.
And you guys, it was an mistake that turned into GOLD!
Instant Pot Hummus
So typically hummus is made with cooked or canned chickpeas, tahini, and lemon juice.
I knew that just like my recipe for instant pot dried beans, I could make chickpeas soft and perfect for blending up for a creamy hummus. And I am kind of obsessed with Instant Pot recipes at the moment.
And I thought, let’s forgo buying tahini (which is just ground up sesame seeds and can be very pricey), and instead cook sesame seeds with the chickpeas and blend them up together for an inexpensive homemade version of hummus without tahini–but still with the sesame flavor.
So as I was pulling out the ingredients to make Instant Pot Hummus, I realized that instead of sesame seeds, I had purchased a bag of raw sunflower seeds. My guess is I was trying to talk to someone or answer a text while I was grocery shopping.
I thought about running out to the store to buy sesame seeds, but as I thought about it, I realized, hummus is delicious WITHOUT tahini, so I would just skip the sesame seeds altogether and try my idea another time.
That was my plan, but as I added the chickpeas to my Instant Pot, I thought about sunflower seed butter and how it is creamy and gives a wonderful nutty, earthy taste to dishes.
And that is how my idea for hummus with sunflower seeds started.
And oh my word, this Instant Pot Hummus is the BEST hummus I have ever had–and everyone I served it to agreed.
My Sunflower Seed Hummus was creamy, rich, and mild in flavor. It was perfection and I do believe it was in part because of the sunflower seed addition in place of tahini BUT also due to my pressure cooker.
How to Make Hummus in Your Pressure Cooker
The best hummus recipes are made by soaking chickpeas at least 12 hours and then boiling them for hours. THEN skim the skins of the chickpeas off before blending up to make hummus.
The Instant Pot makes making homemade hummus an absolute breeze. The instant pot eliminates the hassle of soaking chickpeas and skimming off their skin, as it breaks down perfectly in the pressure cooker. The instant pot cooking process yields chickpeas that are beyond soft and blend up into an unbelievably creamy texture that rivals any Lebanese or Greek restaurant–just without the hard work.
And yes, I know you can just use canned chickpeas, but the taste of freshly cooked chickpeas is SUBLIME.
Steps for Instant Pot Hummus:
Step One: Put your dried chickpeas, sunflower seeds, garlic, salt and water into your instant pot.
Step Two: Cook on high pressure for 40 minutes (this is the PERFECT timing for your chickpeas to be perfectly soft and tender).
Step Three: Let pressure naturally release–this step is REALLY important to get the best texture.
Step Four: Drain the cooking liquid off chickpeas, garlic and sunflower seeds, into a large container. You need to reserve that cooking liquid to make hummus.
Step Five: Process the chickpeas, garlic, sunflower seeds in food processor with fresh lemon juice, a bit more salt, some of the reserved cooking liquid, and olive oil.
I tried to make this hummus by using a high powered immersion blender right in the inner pot of the instant pot, but that did not yield a creamy texture–a food processor is your best best for homemade hummus.
Why would use sunflower seeds instead of sesame seeds?
So as I stated before, the use of sunflower seeds was due to my mistake in purchasing sunflower seeds in place of sesame seeds–but the sunflower seeds give this Instant Pot Hummus a mild nutty flavor to the hummus that is is less assertive than sesame flavor.
And because the shelled raw sesame seeds cook with the dried chickpeas, they blend up easily into the hummus.
Can you use sesame seeds in this hummus?
I did experiment with sesame seeds in place of sunflower seeds for this Instant Pot Hummus. The sesame seeds work, but the sunflower seeds give a more mild flavor.
I had both versions of hummus out for several people to try, and every single person said they preferred the taste of the sunflower seed hummus!
Can you use tahini in this Instant Pot Hummus?
Absolutely. Just omit the sunflower seeds from this recipe and add in 1/4 cup tahini while processing the cooked chickpeas in the food processor.
Notes on Pressure Cooker Hummus with Dried Chickpeas
- I can not stress enough the importance of fresh lemon juice in this recipe. If you used jarred or bottled lemon juice your homemade hummus may taste a bit bitter.
- If you don’t like garlic, just omit it from the recipe. Such a small amount of garlic is used, you will find it just adds a bit of depth to this pressure cooker hummus–not an overly garlic taste.
- You may desire to add more salt or cumin to this hummus recipe. Process as stated and then taste to determine if additional salt needs added.
- You also may add up to 1/2 cup cooking liquid to your hummus recipe if you find your hummus is too thick for your preference.
- Homemade Hummus can be stored in your refrigerator for 3-5 days and in your freezer for up to 6 months. Just be sure to defrost in fridge, not in microwave, as that may change the consistency of the hummus.
- Homemade hummus is delicious with these Shish Tawook Kabobs from Rachel Cooks or as the base of this Hummus and Spiced Ground Beef Bowl from Inspired Taste.
More Instant Pot Recipes
- Instant Pot Lasagna
- Instant Pot Chicken Marsala
- Instant Pot Baked Beans
- Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats
- Instant Pot Yogurt
Let’s Make Instant Pot Hummus
Instant Pot Hummus
Ingredients
- 2 cups dry chickpeas
- 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds shelled
- 1 clove of garlic peeled
- 2 teaspoons salt divided
- 4 cups water
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/3 cup reserved cooking liquid
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Place chickpeas, sunflower seeds, garlic, water and 1 teaspoon of salt into the inner pot of pressure cooker.
- Place lid on pressure cooker and turn vent knob to "sealing." Set to cook on high pressure for 40 minutes.
- Let pressure release naturally.
- Strain chickpeas, garlic clove, and sunflower seeds over a large bowl to reserve the cooking liquid.
- Process the chickpeas (and seeds and garlic) along with the lemon juice remaining teaspoon of salt in a food processor until smooth.
- Add in the reserved cooking liquid and olive oil and process until smooth and creamy.
To Make Hummus in your Instant Pot, You May Need
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This sounds delicious. Not being an expert at cooking, I have a question about using the cooking liquid. I’ve always read that you should always soak and rinse legumes because of the lectins. Is this not necessary with chick peas? Thanks! Your recipes are great.
Thanks for the compliment 🙂 As far as chickpea cooking liquid–it is commonly used and referred to as “aquafaba”. It is used for egg free baking. If you are following a strict lectin-free diet, then I would soak then chickpeas overnight, drain and discard that liquid and the proceed with the recipe. Hope that helps.
Thanks you. No I’m not Lectin free. I didn’t even know about them until recently. Anyway this helps. Can’t wait to try it. Love the name…aquafaba. 🙂
YAY! If you aren’t lectin free, you have nothing to worry about. Lectins are talked a lot about for people following blood type diets.
If you only have canned chickpeas, would you do anything differently? Also, could somehow adapt this to roasted red pepper humus?
Hi Shannon, so if you have canned chickpeas, you don’t need to cook in your instant pot. Just drain 2 cans chickpeas, add 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 large roasted red pepper (for that flavor), 1/4 teaspoon, salt, lemon juice and olive oil and process as recipe states. If you aren’t cooking, you can either add in 2 tablespoons sunflower seed butter, or omit altogether.
If you want SUPER smooth hummus, you could cook drained chickpeas with 2 cups water, garlic clove, and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds on high in Instant Pot for ONLY 10 minutes. Follow recipe as stated from there.
Enjoy!
I love my Instant Pot and I love hummus. How had I never thought to combine the two? This is genius!
You will never want to make hummus another way Jessica–it is BEYOND easy and taste is superior to anything store bought.
I have just bought an instapot from USA and was looking for recipes to use it. Thank you for the recipe. I will make the hummus this weekend 😀
WAHOO!!!!! Shiho, you are going to LOVE your Instant Pot and can’t wait to hear how much you enjoy this hummus. Happy pressure cooking 🙂
I was looking at the nutrition information, it seems high calories, what is considered a serving
Hi Lillie! This is about 1/4 cup serving. So if you only use 2 tablespoons, it will be about half the calories.
How can I use tahini in the hummus recipe?
Absolutely. Just omit the sunflower seeds from this recipe and add in 1/4 cup tahini while processing the cooked chickpeas in the food processor.
How can I use the reserved cooking juice!
Hi Robert. You want to use some of that reserved liquid to help blend up your hummus to be nice and smooth. Any excess, I would personally discard.
Did you make this in a 6 qt. Instant Pot? Do you think any changes would need to be made to make it in a 3 qt?
Hi Rachel! I did make this hummus in the 6 quart. I would cut the recipe in half for your 3 quart (you don’t have to fill it more than 2/3rds of the way full), Cook time and instructions will remain the same.
Instead of tahini, I use peanut butter. Cheaper and I always have some on hand. No one knows the difference.
That’s a great tip Julie! Thank you!