You might wonder why I would even bother making something that is inexpensive and available at the grocery store, but I was curious to see if homemade hummus was better. And it is! Charles and I recently hosted a little party and I decided to try making hummus. When I told Charles that I had made roasted red pepper hummus from scratch he had the most confused look on his face and said, "You really roasted red peppers and made hummus with chick peas?". Yes I did.
My friends could notice the difference in taste, and Charles couldn't stop talking about how much he loved it. The good news is that hummus is really easy to make. I will point out that since store-bought hummus is so inexpensive, it does cost more to make it from scratch. One more thing: I do not have a food processor. I have a basic blender and it did the trick, and I didn't have to add any extra liquid to get the hummus to churn in the blender - the consistency of the hummus was just right.
Ingredients
- 2 Large Red Bell Peppers
- 2 cans Chick Peas
- ⅓ cup Tahini
- 2-3 tablespoons of the liquid from the Chick Peas
- 3 tablespoons Lemon Juice
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons Salt
- 2 cloves Garlic
Instructions
- Start by roasting the peppers. Place the peppers over a gas burner, and char the skin of the peppers, rotating the peppers every 2 minutes. Once all of the skin has charred, let the peppers chill for a few minutes. Then slice the peppers into large pieces removing the seeds and membranes and scrap the skin off with a knife. If you don't have a gas stove, slice the peppers into large pieces and roast them in the oven at 500 degrees.
- Once the peppers have been roasted, get to work on blending the hummus. Since I was using a blender and not a food processor, I started by adding half of the chick peas, half of the red pepper, and all the other ingredients to the blender. I blended on a medium speed until the consistency was smooth. Then I added the remaining ingredients and blended until smooth. If you overload a blender, sometimes it just can't get the job done.
- Chill the hummus and serve. Easy as that!
