A cool, creamy hummus dip with cucumbers, parsley and greek yogurt. Great summertime snack that packs a protein punch.
“Hummus for Bastille Day?!?” you may say. “Well that’s a day late and a dollar short! Harumph!”
All right you got me on the day late thing.
But, in my opinion, all the dollars are accounted for. Hear me out.
1) A significant portion of the population of modern day Paris is of Middle Eastern descent.
2) This recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen.
Hmmmm….
Truth is, despite being an ardent francophile, I really just wanted to make some hummus. But I wanted the coolest (enter cucumber,) smoothest (enter greek yogurt) hummus I could dream up. With bite (enter parsely.) And because half of what I know about history comes from Broadway musicals, I named it after Gavroche from Les Misérables. A street urchin that flies under the radar but packs a serious punch. He also “lives” in a half-built statue of an elephant at La Place de la Bastille.
A few years ago we were in actual Paris for actual Bastille Day, staying in an apartment in Montmartre. It was an “exciting” time to be in Paris. As in, there were fireworks. Right outside our window. Reverberating throughout our apartment. Very late at night.
Oh, how I wish I’d had a pot of this hummus back then. I’d have taken the hummus out of the pot, then used the pot to knock the guys senseless. In reality, we resorted to yelling “Airholes!” (an insult that means nothing to anyone) out the window and then ducking so on one could see us. Do NOT mess with les Américains!
Threats aside, the real time you want this hummus is late afternoon when your energy is flagging (perhaps because fireworks kept you up all night) but you’ve gotta keep going (because there’s a revolution to be won.) Serve yourself some of this with whole wheat pita, carrot sticks, or even just a spoon and you’ll be good to go. Vive la France!
Notes: If you really want the smoothest, silkiest hummus you can get you have to take those chick pea skins off. And you still may have to pulse and scrape down the sides longer than you’d expect but the creamy texture is worth the effort. If you’re not a fan of bitter, decrease the amount of parsely.

- 2 cups of chick peas
- 1/2 cup of cucumber; peeled seeded and chopped.
- 9 Tablespoons of tahini
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1/3 cup parsely finely diced
- 2 Tablespoons 0% plain greek yogurt
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 tsp olive oil
- up to 1/3 cup of water
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Place cucumber, tahini, garlic, parsely, yogurt, lemon juice and olive oil in the bowl of your food processor and process until smooth. Add water little by little if necessary.
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Once you've got that to your desired consistency, add the chick peas gradually making sure they get fully incorporated. Scrape down sides and stir with small plastic spatula if necessary.
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Once all chickpeas are incorporated add water to desired consistency and salt and black pepper to taste.
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Scoop into serving bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and garnish with toasted pine nuts, sumac, or whole chick peas if desired.
Serve with pita, chips, crackers or crudité.

We love all kinds of hummus and this will be a great addition ! Love your photos!
Thank you Sandhya! Hope you enjoy it ?
It looks and sounds very unique.
Hummus is something that we eat here on a daily basis, but I’ve never tried with cucumbers!
I love all kinds of hummus. The cucumber is a nice change of pace.
This looks delicious, I hope to make it soon. It’s pinned!
Thanks, Gerlinde! Hope you enjoy it.
With you on that C… I’m a Francophile too 😉 as for this hummus,,., umm… Enter DELISH!!!
Such a geek for France. I was listening to Edith Piaf when most of my peers were listening to The Smiths (but I loved the Smiths, too.)
Delicious and your little tip about taking the skins off the garbanzo beans is really true, painful and takes time but the difference is really stunning. I can’t wait to try this as I have everything in my crisper and pantry to make this over the weekend. Take Care
Hope you enjoyed it! The skins thing…I recognize that almost everyone doesn’t agree with me…but that’s the weird kind of specific sort of meditative task that I could do for hours. As long as the music is good. In this case, it was Joni Mitchell sooooo I could’ve gone on for hours.
I love that you added cucumber into the Hummus. Adds a cool factor to the dip. Delicious!
It really does!
What a lovely recipe!
Thanks, sis xo
Sounds so tasty! I do love hummus, and always up for trying different variations. I almost posted a French dish for bastille day but changed my mind at the last minute, it feels a better fit for another time…but hey, as Dini says, any excuse to eat croissants and lots of good cheese!
Agreed, Caroline. Of course, we could eat cheese, drink wine, and NOT blog about it. But does that really happen?
I love hummus! Seriously love any version of it! This is such a beautiful twist too Christine! I got my husband to love hummus too… I completely forgot about Bastille day… I probably should be paying more attention! 😀 A good excuse to have Croissants, baguettes, cheese and wine (My favourite kind of diet!)
Oh crap! We need an excuse to eat and drink those things???????