Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

The first thing I’ve decided to post is my favorite hummus recipe. After deciding to set up a blog, I then realised that i wasn’t sure what to post first, an elaborate Beef Bourguignon? A picture of me frying an egg in a flowery apron and a big thumbs up?

So this recipe is very much stolen from the BBC food site, unfortunately i haven’t got an entire catalogue of recipes made up by me….yet. So i usually take recipes, do them over and over whilst tweaking or incorporating tips picked up from elsewhere.

Ingredients

• 3 large red peppers, seeds removed and sliced
• 1 red chilli, seeds removed and halved
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander (if using seeds, use double the amount, toast and crush in a pestle and mortar, same goes for the cumin)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 x 400g can chickpeas/125g dried chickpeas (soaked overnight and simmered if you’ve got the time, if not, tinned is fine).
• ½ garlic clove
• ½ lemon, juice and zest finely grated
• 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses (optional)
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the grill to its hottest setting and line a grill pan with foil.
2. Slice the sides off the peppers (you should get three slices from each pepper – watch this if you need some help), cut the chillis in half lengthways and remove all seeds and as much white from the flesh as possible. Place them flesh side down on the foil.
3. Grill the peppers for 10-15 minutes or until the skins are black all over. With a pair of tongs, transfer the hot peppers to a bowl and cover with a plate. The steam will help finish cooking the peppers and loosen their skins. Leave to cool for 10 minutes or so.
4. Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the chopped onion and fry over a medium heat for five minutes, or until softened, stirring occasionally. Stir in the ground coriander and ground cumin for the last 30 seconds, then leave to cool.
5. When the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off their skins. There may be some little flecks of burnt pepper skin left on (don’t worry about this), do not rinse the peppers/chillis under any circumstances.
6. Scoop the spiced onion mixture into the bowl of a food processor with the pepper/chilli flesh and any juices from the bottom of the bowl. Then add the chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice and zest and pomegranate molasses, if using. Blend until the mixture is smooth. Add a couple of spoonfuls of water to thin the hummus to a lighter consistency.
7. Now, the key to good Hummus is the final step of seasoning. Add each ingredient below as needed, whizzing your food processor to mix, tasting and then adjusting seasoning until you’re happy.
   
   Sea salt – Add until you can taste a satisying “zing”
   Freshly grated pepper – to give it some heat at the back of your throat
   Lemon juice – Add until you’re happy, this should make the hummus taste lighter and fresher as well as balancing out other flavours
   Olive oil/butter – if it feels a bit stiff/dry/hollow – if you want to thin the consistency use olive oil, if not, use butter.
   
8. Spoon the dip into a serving dish and serve as a dip for carrot sticks, cucumber, hot flatbreads, crackers, anything you fancy really.
   Store it in the fridge and eat within three days.