This simple rainbow hummus is perfect for St. Patrick's Day, Pride, or any time you're looking to add some serious color to a party spread. I used cheats to make this recipe super easy.
I originally made this rainbow hummus recipe three years ago for my kid's fourth birthday party. Now, he's about to turn seven (AAAH!), and it felt like time to refresh this classic recipe with new photos and details.
More vegan party-friendly dips: spinach artichoke dip, buffalo almond dip
The secret to making easy rainbow hummus
There's one trick that makes this hummus so easy and that is not making the actual hummus from scratch. Save yourself some time and energy, and grab a couple of tubs of prepared hummus at the store.
If you do want to start with from-scratch hummus, you absolutely can! You want about 3 ½ cups total.
Now that the hummus situation is handled, let's add some COLOR!
Creating those colors
Let's make that rainbow, y'all!
Red pepper brings the first color to the mix. To make it, puree ¾ cup of the prepared hummus a half cup of jarred, roasted red pepper. You can roast a bell pepper, if you prefer, but you know I go for easy whenever I can!
Then, rinse your blender, so we can make the orange hummus: Carrot-Sesame. Start by using your blender to puree a carrot, then add more hummus and some toasted sesame oil and turmeric. Puree until it turns a lovely orange.
You can use either kale or spinach to get a vibrant green. Toss a handful of your green of choice with some fresh basil into the blender with more hummus and a little olive oil, and puree until smooth.
You could use blue food coloring or spirulina powder to make blue hummus, but I'm opting for blue corn chips to do the blue in this rainbow. Because I don't love using food coloring, and spirulina is pretty pricey.
For the final hummus, we're using beets to get a lovely pink-purple! Instead of roasting beets, which would add a lot of time to this recipe, we are going to use canned beets that you drain. You could also use pickled beets, if you want. They'd taste lovely!
How to serve it
I like to serve this in white or glass serving bowls, so the hummus colors really pop. As you can see in the photo, I used a white serving dish with five sections and placed the chips in the middle.
If you're using separate bowls, arrange the bowls on your table in rainbow order. Because that will look very cute!
You can also serve this all in a single bowl by gently spooning the hummus in rows, if you prefer. Do what works best for you!
Rainbow hummus
Ingredients
- 27 ounces prepared, plain hummus - A 17-ounce package plus a 10-ounce package will do the trick, or you can make 3 ½ cups of plain hummus before you start.
- ½ cup jarred roasted red peppers - drained
- 1 large carrot - chopped into big pieces
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- water - as needed
- ⅓ cup loosely packed kale or spinach
- 2 tablespoons packed fresh basil leaves
- ½ cup canned sliced beets - drained
- blue corn chips - for dipping
Instructions
Red pepper hummus
- In your blender, combine ¾ cup hummus with the red pepper. Puree until smooth, and transfer to a small serving bowl or one section of a sectioned serving dish.
Carrot hummus
- Rinse the blender, then add the carrot pieces and blend them to chop them up finely. Then add another ¾ cup hummus , 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon of turmeric. Puree until smooth. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if needed to get things moving. Transfer the carrot hummus to your next serving bowl or section of your serving dish.
Kale or spinach hummus
- Rinse the blender, then add another ¾ cup hummus plus the kale or spinach, the basil, and another tablespoon of olive oil. Puree until smooth, adding 1 tablespoon of water at a time, as needed, to get a smooth mixture. Transfer to another bowl or to your sectioned serving dish.
Beet juice hummus
- Rinse the blender one last time. Then, in the blender, combine ¾ cup hummus with the sliced beets. Puree until smooth, and transfer to a small serving bowl or another section of the sectioned serving dish.
For serving (complete the rainbow!)
- Serve with blue corn chips.
Equipment
Notes
- About rinsing the blender: You don't have to totally rinse out the blender between colors. Just a casual rinse will do the job. A little leftover color won't hurt anything, as long as you go in the order listed in the recipe.
- You'll need 5 bowls that hold about 1 cup apiece for this recipe, which includes a bowl to serve the chips. The hummus looks best in clear or white bowls, so the colors pop!
Hannah
This is so cute, Becky! And curry hummus sounds delicious 🙂
Becky Striepe
It's super good! The red pepper, carrot, and curry one are also yummy mixed together, I discovered.