Sweet Potato Hummus
Delicious vegan hummus recipe that's bursting with flavor, both sweet and spicy. Enjoy it as a snack with pita wedges and veggies or as a spread!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on December 19, 2024
Meet my new favorite snack, spicy sweet potato hummus! It’s brilliant orange and bursting with flavor, both savory and sweet. I’ve been eating it with everything: pita wedges, bite-sized vegetables, toasted bagels and quesadillas.
Whether you’re a vegan, vegetarian or self-professed carnivore, I’ve posted several savory sweet potato recipes you’ll love. This sweet potato chili is my end-all, be-all vegetarian chili recipe. It’s so good that I don’t even want to try any others. Then there’s my recipe for sweet potato fries, which includes my tips for attaining crispy fries. I’m so excited that sweet potatoes are in season that I’ve been snacking on sweet potato fries the past two nights in a row!
Just in case those aren’t enough to satisfy your sweet potato tooth, I also have an easy recipe for baked rosemary and parmesan sweet potatoes and sweet potato enchiladas over here.
Sweet Potato Hummus
This sweet potato hummus is bursting with flavor—it’s savory, a little sweet, and spicy if you wish. Enjoy it as a snack with pita wedges and veggies, or use it as a spread! This recipe yields about 3 cups of hummus (a lot!).
Ingredients
- 1 medium-to-somewhat-large sweet potato (8 to 14 ounces)
- ⅓ cup tahini
- 2 medium cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- Zest of ½ lemon (about 1 teaspoon)
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 to 3 tablespoons cool water, as needed
- 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas
- Up to ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional, for spice)*
- Optional garnishes: Olive oil, cayenne pepper, or sesame seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the sweet potato on the middle oven rack or in a baking dish for 45 minutes to 1 hour. It will yield to a gentle squeeze when it’s done baking.
- While the sweet potato is cooling, combine the tahini, garlic, lemon zest and juice, salt and cumin in a food processor. While processing the mixture, drizzle in 1 tablespoon of the water. Blend until the mixture is super creamy, pausing to scrape down the bottom or sides as necessary (you may need to add 1 to 2 more tablespoons of water if your tahini was thick).
- Add the drained chickpeas and process until the mixture is completely smooth, about 2 minutes. Once the sweet potato has cooled enough to handle, use a knife or your fingers to peel off the skin. Discard the skin and add the sweet potato flesh to the food processor.
- Blend until the mixture is completely smooth, about 1 minute. Taste, and blend in a pinch or two of cayenne pepper if you’d like your hummus to taste spicy. Enjoy as is, or garnish it with a drizzle of olive oil, a light sprinkle of cayenne pepper or sesame seeds. This hummus will keep well in the refrigerator for about 1 week.
Notes
Adapted from My New Roots and Whole Family Fare.
*Spice level: The recipe originally was quite spicy, calling for 1 ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (start with less, season to taste) and ½ teaspoon smoked paprika. My current jar of cayenne is so spicy that I could not tolerate the full amount and found it quite spicy at ¼ teaspoon. I also found that smoked paprika muddied the sweet potato flavor, so I omitted it. If your hummus tastes too spicy at first, just refrigerate it for a day and try it again—it should be just right!
2024 recipe adjustments: After retesting the recipe, I made the spice edits mentioned above, increased the tahini from 3 tablespoons to ⅓ cup for thicker hummus, omitted the olive oil, restructured the blending process and incorporated water, and increased the salt for more overall flavor.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
The hummus looks great and I’m definitely putting those fantastic black bean+sweet potato enchiladas on my list to do- perfect for a meatless Monday!
oh YUM. This sounds amazing!!!
Sweet potatoes are one of my very favorite foods, and this hummus looks fantastic!
Sweet Potatoes definitely rock my world. I’d say my favorite way to eat them…fries or in a stew!
girl you are the sweet potato queen! you have the best sweet potato recipes
This is a fantastic idea! Can’t wait to try.
Love this hummus! Can’t wait to make it!
I love hummus and I loooove sweet potatoes! Now why didn’t I ever think of combining them…? Thanks for the inspiration!
I love the Black Bean and Sweet Potato Hash from the Moosewood cookbooks! It’s perfect for chilly nights.
I love sweet potatoes with black beans! I have a Moosewood cookbook on my wish list, hope that recipe is in there.
There is a black bean and sweet potato burrito recipe in the ‘low fat’ Moosewood Cookbook. I’ve been making this recipe for years – it’s really a great combo.
Hi Kate- I just stumbled on your blog and you’ve pulled me in already! I could practically live off of hummus and pita, and I LOVE your spin with the spicy sweet potatoes. As for my favorite thing to do with sweet potatoes… nothing fancy, but I do love some sweet potato fries with spicy cajun seasoning. :)
Glad you found my blog! Always nice to hear from a fellow Kathryn(e) and sweet potato lover!
Spicy hummus! My fave!
I love sweet potatoes in my egg scramble for breakfast! And last weekend I made caramelized sweet potatoes.. so tasty! Now I’ve gotta give this hummus a go..
What a nice way to eat sweet potatoes, I usually like mine baked and topped like a baked potato.
Sweet potato pallooza!!! Your hummus looks crazy good. That colour is fantastic! I adore sweet potatoes in soup, with coconut milk and chili. Sweet and spicy!
I just made some sweet potato hummus last night! Such a great way to make a great vegetable even better!
I have made the sweet potato black bean enchiladas and they were a HIT even with my boyfriend and his roommate who are not vegan to say the least. Excited to try the hummus and the chili!
Glad to hear that you all enjoyed the enchiladas! I think you’ll like the chili and hummus just as much. I’m sure I’ll post even more sweet potato recipes this fall!
Perfect timing! Lots of sweet potatoes keep arriving from my CSA. Can’t wait to use some for this!
ooo hummus! My fav snack bite :) Never tried with sweet potato though … looks interesting.
Love the colors in this hummus. Looks delicious!
Mmmmm this sweet potato hummus looks just wonderful! Such a great idea. I love sweet potatoes! Just had chile-roasted sweet potato wedges with dinner last night, yummmm. I’ll have to go check out your post on One Green Planet, very cool!
ooooo! Amazing! I love sweet potatoes! I love adding them to chili. Homemade sweet potato fries are my go-to meal when I don’t feel like cooking a big dinner too.
Love the colour!! I can imagine how good that can taste :)
Lovely, I very much like the idea of a sweet potato hummus, delicious.
I’m a hummus addict :-) So I make it quite often, never thought of a sweet potato version, it’s definitely something I want to try! Thanks for sharing.
http://mandykoster.blogspot.com
That hummus is stunning! I’m totally nowhere close to living a vegan or even vegetarian lifestyle, but I do love my ” clean ” eating days, and this hummus is sure to be made very soon.
xx
this looks awesome & i keep seeing your recipes all over pinterest.
gorgeous photos!!!
made it this weekend – yum! but it was too dry and not easily mixed in my food processor. what do i need to do to make it smooth and creamy, and not grainy and dense? add more oil? water? please help!
Hey Jen! I’m at a loss—you used baked sweet potatoes and cooked chickpeas, right? I would try putting the hummus back in your food processor and slowly drizzling in a tablespoon or more olive oil. I’m not sure water is a good idea. Please let me know if that does the trick!
I had the same issue, it was very dry in the food processor.
I added some of the water I boiled the chickpeas in and loads more olive oil. I also doubled the spices and it turned out fantastic.
Lyzel, I’m sorry your hummus was dry at first, but glad you managed to rescue it! I’m not sure why your hummus was dry in the first place. Maybe because sweet potato’s moisture content varies? I don’t know.
These are great inspirations for sweet potatoes! I am always impressed with the combinations you come up with in your recipes. Lately, I have been enjoying sweet potatoes in tacos–roasted with some cajun spices and put in corn tortillas with melted pepper jack and avocado. Simple, but really good!
Yum, sweet potato tacos sound amazing! I will definitely have to try those soon. I love all of those ingredients.
Hi Kate- I just stumbled on your blog and you’ve pulled me in already! I could practically live off of hummus and pita, and I LOVE your spin with the spicy sweet potatoes. As for my favorite thing to do with sweet potatoes… nothing fancy, but I do love some sweet potato fries with spicy cajun seasoning. :)
+1
That looks absolutely delicious! I LOVE hummus, and the addition of sweet potato sounds amazing. The color is lovely too!
I love that this is spicy in addition to the sweet potato part! Yum! I must try this.
Hi Kate!
I found your post on one green planet and I absolutely love your blog! Gotta say I’m a cat lover, but anything associated with the words “cookie” and “hummus” is good with me!
Great pictures by the way
Thanks, Mekkie! So glad you found my blog. Cat lovers are welcome. :)
Love sweet potato for so many reasons and you have just given me one more…
Hey Foodies, Kate’s Special Spicy Hummus recipe has been selected by Knapkins to be featured in a Recipe Guessing Game. Invite fans to play: http://knapkins.com/guess_games/658?source=blog
I love the idea of sweet potato hummus, but am wondering how you keep your tahini from spoiling. I’ve found that each container of tahini I’ve bought has gone rancid very quickly, and I don’t know why. That stuff is too expensive to waste! Thanks!
Great question, Mia. I’ve hesitated to buy tahini because it is expensive! Are you storing yours in the refrigerator? I’ve had some last well over a month in my fridge. If you have access to a Whole Foods or similar store, you may be able to find tahini in the bulk section, which would let you just buy as much as you need. And if you are looking for other recipes to use up extra tahini, check out my roasted garlic hummus recipe, or you could substitute tahini for the peanut butter in my peanut soba noodle bowls! Hope that helps!
A friend uses sesame seeds. Just grind them first in the blender. Your hummus won’t be as smooth as with tahini, but most folks would not even notice.
That’s a great tip, Claudia! I’ve always wondered if that would work. Tahini can be expensive and hard to find, so that’s a terrific alternative.
You can freeze tahini for up to a year. I freeze it in small recipe size portions as I usually use it to make hummus. You’d be surprised at how many things you can freeze.
I often make my hummus with sesame seeds not tahini (I do both). I toast the sesame seeds first. I use a blender to make my hummus not a food processor. I have a Nutribullet and a Vitamix, but normally use the Nutribullet. Both will pulverize the sesame seeds and chick peas and will make a nice creamy hummus. I haven’t made this recipe yet but will give it a go for this Thanksgiving! I add carrots to my hummus almost every time I make it, so I’m excited to try sweet potatoes. I would have liked if the recipe would have showed the weight of sweet potatoes used as I have random sizes (or a ratio). I haven’t made this yet so my rating is based on expectations
Looks yummy! I just made Thai Curry hummus. Recipe called for pumpkin, but next time I will use sweet potatoes. My fave way to eat them (out of many) is Thai curry. I smash up the sweets to use in the sauce and add chunks of red peppers, broccoli and other veggies–chicken, too. Don’t forget to use coconut milk in the sauce!
Just make this and it is amazing! I never imagined in my wildest dreams that hummus and sweet potatoes would make such a perfect match. Thank you so much for the fabulous recipe!
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoy the hummus, Samantha! Thank you for commenting to let me know!
I just made this and it is fabulous! We are in the middle of baseball season and dinner is often late. I have been looking for some easy take-along snacks that pack a punch. This fits the bill perfectly. Thanks so much!
this recipe looks amazing. I just recently found out i was allergic to white potatoes, among other things, so i have rekindled my love of the sweet potato. thanks for some great ideas! i cant wait to make this
I’ve made this hummus twice. The first time i made it spicy. The second i made it more sweet with some spice. Both times everyone loved it ! Healthy and delicious.
Amanda
Happy to hear it, Amanda! Thank you for commenting to let me know.
& i give this 5 stars =)
I make a mixture of sweet potato and milk to bake over mac n’ cheese. Another is whipped sweet potato and applesauce. My son who loves butternut squash calls it applesquash (I disguised it as such) Shhhhh.
I made this for a laid-back superbowl night (just my husband and I) and we devoured half of it, it was so good! We loved the spiciness. I didn’t have tahini on hand but we didn’t miss it. Great recipe, really appreciated the variety from traditional hummus. Will be making this again for other get togethers with friends!
I just made this with a mixture of sweet potato and pumpkin and it tastes AMAZING!!!!!! Thank you so much for such a delicious recipe that is so EASY to make and delicious with fresh ingredients. There is no need to buy ‘fancy’ ones at the supermarket, you could even add cashews or pinenuts to alter the flavour!!
Thanks, Jodi! Sweet potato and pumpkin sounds like a great idea. I think I’ll make sun-dried tomato hummus next!
When I recently found myself swimming in sweet potatoes, I turned to your archives for inspiration and stumbled across this gem of a recipe. I have some picky eaters in my family, so I was skeptical about making it, but I’m so glad I did. Everyone LOVED it. The spices are simply perfect against the sweetness of the potatoes. Thank you so much!
Thank you, Victoria! Glad you all loved the hummus.
I love this hummus! I especially enjoy it as a snack on top of whole wheat Ritz crackers. Absolute perfection.
I featured my take (and some other thoughts) on it here!
Just wanted to let you know that I featured this recipe (with full credit and a link-back) in a hummus recipe roundup today on Foxes Love Lemons. Happy Friday!
I’ve made this recipe three times now and it’s turned out delicious every time!! I don’t have Tahini but I use natural peanut butter instead and that seems to work. I also usually add a tablespoon or two of agave just to give it a bit more sweetness.
Jas, glad you’re enjoying the hummus! Peanut butter sounds like a really interesting substitution. I love roasted sweet potatoes with peanut sauce, so I have no doubt the hummus is delicious with peanut butter!
Awesome recipe! We were looking to make something similar at our store, that and a beet hummus. Love the bright colours. Do you take your own photos?
Yes, I do!
This is super delicious but…I had to add almost 1/4 C water and at least an additional 1 T lemon juice to get it to the correct consistency so that my little food processor would get it smooth. I used 1 can of well-rinsed garbanzo beans. Maybe my sweet potatoes were too big but I don’t think so. That said, don’t let this stop you from making it because it is absolutely wonderful. Just work with it if it’s a bit too thick. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks, Holly. Glad you made this recipe work for you!