The Unconventional Way Ina Garten Adds Spice To Homemade Hummus

There's a quiet joy in watching culinary royalty like Ina Garten casually shake some humble Tabasco sauce into a dish like the rest of us. But what's more unconventional than Garten using Tabasco sauce is the recipe she uses it in — hummus! Traditionally, hummus is compromised of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, and for a kick of spice, a sprinkling of paprika. When Garten made her hummus recipe on an episode of "The Barefoot Contessa," she specifically mentioned using 8 dashes of Tabasco — not Frank's RedHot, Texas Pete, or Huy Fong Sriracha, but Tabasco, the brand made by the McIlhenny Company of Avery Island in southern Louisiana since 1868, and considered by many as the ideal hot sauce. When crafting recipes, Garten always considers the quality of the ingredients she uses — she tests a recipe an intense number of times before it goes into a cookbook —  so she must have chosen Tabasco for a good reason.

There are two possible reasons why Garten picked Tabasco: Its ingredients (distilled vinegar, red pepper, and salt) are essentially the same components as traditional hummus — acid, salt, and spice — but all in one bottle, and just a few dashes adds depth to the already-existing flavor profiles within her dip. The other reason could be that no other hot sauce has quite as developed a flavor as Tabasco does, due mainly to their slow-aging process; mashed Tabasco peppers are aged up to 3 years in white oak barrels before being blended with high-quality distilled vinegar and salt.

If classic Tabasco isn't accessible to make Garten's hummus recipe, any hot sauce with comparable ingredients will still produce a darn tasty dops. However, you should also know that other brands and varieties of hot sauces, such as sriracha, typically contain sugar, which could alter the balance of flavors in the hummus. Additionally, if you're sensitive to salt or are monitoring your sodium intake but still crave that unique Tabasco spice, you can reduce the salt amount specified in Garten's recipe. Alternatively, if you're sensitive to spice or steering clear of spicy foods during a heatwave, start with one to two dashes of Tabasco and adjust based on your preference.

Also, hummus isn't the only dish Garten has thought to enhance with Tabasco. The hot sauce is featured in many of her recipes, such as guacamole, buffalo chicken wing sauce, roasted shrimp cocktail sauce, and even in cocktails like her Virgin Mary and spicy Bloody Mary recipes. Just as you might sprinkle Tabasco hot sauce atop a meal or snack to boost the flavor, you can also do the same with almost any recipe or product that already has acid and salt in it and could use a kick of heat. A few dashes of Tabasco can instantly transform the flavor of sauces and salad dressings, especially creamy or tomato-based ones like ranch, blue cheese, ketchup, or mayonnaise; it's also one of the best hot sauces for pizza or pasta sauce.