Lately, I’ve been doing everything in my power to use up my garden vegetables.
Over the past week I’ve been enjoying Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto, Long Weekend Grilled Salad, Kale Chips, cucumbers and hummus, Weekend Glow Kale Salad, and Chocolate Chip Cookies. To balance out the vegetables of course.
This end of season bounty reminds me of the organic Plan B CSA that we had last summer. There is so much produce to use up!
I even started gathering “bouquets” of kale and giving it away to friends and neighbors as I beam with pride, “I brought this for you!”
“Oh, you shouldn’t have….really you shouldn’t have.”
I think I might be starting to lose friends.
We’ve been getting a lot of wet and humid weather lately and I realized if I leave the peppers on the plant too long the inside starts to grow mold. Never a good thing to discover when you slice one open!
I knew that I had to use up these beautiful peppers…or bust.
And because I seem to be obsessed with roasting and grilling things lately, I decided to roast my peppers. Roasting is a great way to “condense” a large amount of vegetables. Kale chips, I’m looking at you!
How To Roast Peppers
Ever roasted peppers before? I used to be scared to try because I thought it was really difficult. You want me to PEEL the skin off? How in the world…?
Turns out, it’s so easy Sketchie could do it! Although, he does have really long claws…
1. Start by preheating the broil setting on your oven (I used heat setting 4 out of a possible range of 5) and move the rack up to the top or second highest spot. Line a large baking sheet with tinfoil.
2. With a paring knife, carefully slice a circle around the top of the pepper. You can use any type of pepper you prefer! I used bell peppers and banana peppers, as that’s what I grew in my garden.
Discard the inner flesh and seeds as best as you can.
3. With the cut side down, slice down the middle of the pepper, creating two halves.
Like so. Remove rest of seeds.
4. With your hand, SQUASH each piece! Whee!
I’m sorry for this picture, I really am. I’m a one woman show, clearly.
Squashed!
5. Place all the flattened pieces onto your baking sheet. I roasted about 6 small peppers, but if using large ones, you could probably use 3?
P.S.- This baking sheet should be lined with tin foil not parchment– I changed this after I took the photo.
6. Broil for about 10-13 minutes, until blackened. My peppers were in there about 12-13 minutes at broil setting 4.
7. This is where your tin foil comes in handy! Carefully wrap up the peppers with the tin foil and let it steam for about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, you can prepare your hummus ingredients.
8. After 15-20 mins, gently peel off the blackened skin. This is why it’s important to really blacken your peppers; the more black the skin gets the easier it is to peel away. It really does come off easy.
Your discard pile on the left and your delicious roasted peppers on the right:
Now it’s time to make delicious, creamy roasted red pepper hummus. It’s just what you do!
Ultra Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Yield
2 cups
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Total time
This is one of the creamiest hummus recipes that has ever come out of my processor! It has a light sweetness with a lovely roasted flavour thanks to the roasted red peppers.
Ingredients
- 1 garlic clove
- One 14-ounce/400ml can chickpeas (about 1 1/2 cups cooked)
- 3/4 cup roasted red peppers
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons reserved chickpea brine (or water)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- Smoked paprika, for garnish
Directions
- Open the can of chickpeas and spoon off 2 tablespoons of the brine (liquid). Reserve this for the recipe. Now, drain the rest of the can and rinse the chickpeas well.
- Add the garlic clove into a food processor and process until finely chopped.
- Add the drained chickpeas, roasted red peppers, tahini, lemon juice, and reserved chickpea brine into the food processor. Process until the hummus is silky smooth. Scrape down as necessary.
- Now add in salt and cayenne, to taste, and process again until combined.
- Scoop into a bowl and drizzle with olive oil and garnish with paprika. This hummus will last about 4-5 days in the fridge in a sealed container.
Thanks to the delicious roasted peppers, this is the creamiest and silkiest hummus to come out of my processor!
I couldn’t get over how smooth it became once I put the roasted peppers in. It was as if I added a half cup of oil, only I didn’t. Yeehaw.
This counts as lunch, right?
You’re posts crack me up. So cute yet very informative.
Id take a kale bouquet anyday. :-)
Thank you so much for this – my partner’s favourite way to have pepper is roasted, but I’ve always thought of it as too hard (and thus the poor guy misses out!). I’ll be giving them a shot this week :)
Yummy wonderful hummus
Love red peppers…Love hummus…Love fresh peppers from the garden…Love chickpeas. Love your pics. Woot!
I love roasted bell pepper hummus! Ok and all other versions. But I have made another version of the roasted bell pepper hummus and am curious to try this one.
I wish you would bring me kale! :) I remember when I thought roasting peppers was a big thing too! Who woulda thought that it’s as easy as pie…mmmm..pie…roasted red pepper pie! lol :)
I just made this! It’s deeelicious. Thank you for the recipe :)
This was wonderful Angela! I used navy beans instead of garbanzos because that is all I had, an boy oh boy was it delicious. Definitely the creamiest hummus ever!
I want you to know that I have been cyber stalking your blog for a week or so and I am so inspired by your stories (leaving a job I hate is something I can completely relate to, as I am sure many of your other readers can). My husband and I are expecting in December and I decided this week that we needed to start working on getting rid of our unhealthy eating habits before the baby got here (or old enough to eat the junk we’ve been giving ourselves). I made my very first Green Monster this morning and I loved it. Besides that, the baby was literally leaping around inside like it was the best thing that ever happened to him. The Green Monster definitely gets baby Noah’s stamp of approval.
Hey Kasey! That is great to hear :) Congrats on your pregnancy!
I’ve made hummas before and it was a major fail … I am going to give it a chance and try it again with your recipe because those pictures make it look unbelievable! : )
I love hummus and I haven’t made it in years! Great reminder.
Wow, I had no idea the roasted peppers were so easy to prepare! I love the picture of you squashing them down. I actually burst out laughing!
Hi, Angela. This looks great. I’m going to be making some hummus this week, as well as your tomato basil pesto. I was wondering what your thoughts are about freezing hummus. If I make it, I tend to make a lot, and I don’t want it to go to waste. The same goes for pesto, although I’ve heard of people freezing the pesto in ice trays. What do you think (regarding the hummus)?
Also, I made your spicy rainbow bean salad last night, and enjoyed my first (and AMAZING) bowl of overnight oats this morning. thanks for sharing your wonderful craft, and I look forward to making as many dishes as possible with the great recipes you’ve provided! Cheers.
Hey Olivia, So happy you are enjoying the recipes! I’m not sure if you can freeze hummus! Pesto yes (and ice cube trays is a great idea!). I would try googling it to see if someone else has already figured that out.
Thought I’d let you know that the amazing blogger from “karla’s closet” mentioned your blog in her August 29th post!
I know, I saw that and was completely honoured! :)
Do you “shell” your chickpeas? Like pop them out of their little skins or leave them as is?
I risk house and home every time I roast peppers, because I roast them over my gas burner like a mad woman! ;)
I LOVE roasted red pepper hummus… but my homemade hummus never tastes as good as store bought… thats pretty messed up right…!?!? and believe me I have TRIED. I may have to stick with chocolate tarts when it comes to cooking! xox
Hummus is addicting…especially roasted rep pepper!!
This is the first red pepper hummus recipe I’ve ever tried – it was as smooth and creamy as store-bought but was even tastier. I used red peppers from the garden so had the added satisfaction factor blended right in! This is getting filed in my favorites and will be used again and again!
Glad you enjoyed it Jane!
I always thought people were crazy when they claimed to “crave” something like hummus and vegetables after a workout. Until I ate your roasted red pepper hummus, and fantasized about it during my run yesterday. LOL. Needless to say, I hate a big heaping scoop of it with a cucumber and carrots when I got home. Hit the spot!