Roasted Red Pepper Hummus with Toasted Pignolis and Garlic Naan

I had too many cans of chick peas and some roasted red peppers and thought – YUM! After whipping this up we ended up heading to a pot luck that night where this was well loved and fully devoured! It’s found a place on the BBQ/entertaining list!

It does contain homemade Tahini, which I give you a recipe for. It’s so much tastier than store bought, but you can substitute store bought if time or effort isn’t available.

Also, I’ve made it with quite a lovely garlic taste. Feel free to adust the amount of garlic to suit your taste. You can also adjust the spice level with your favorite chili powder.

Homemade Tahini

Homemade Tahini

Yields enough for 3 batches of hummus

1/2 c sesame seeds
1/4 c olive oil
pinch of kosher salt
a few drops of dark sesame oil

Tahini Ingredients

Preheat oven to 350ºF. For this small amount, I use a good toaster oven.

TIP: I like to put a piece of foil on the tray and when they are done, I slide the foil, with the seeds off the tray to help stop the cooking.

Toast seeds, stirring often for 5-10 minutes — DO NOT BROWN as they will become bitter.
Let cool completely (up to 20 minutes) then put with olive oil into a food processor and whirl away.

I store left over tahini in the fridge. I don’t know “how long” it lasts before going rancid,but I use mine up within a month.

Hummus Ingredients

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus with Garlic Naan

Yields about 1 3/4 cups

1 15 oz can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/4 cup of the liquid from the can of chickpeas
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons homemade tahini (see below) can use store bought but flavor will not nearly be as good.
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon hot chili powder (more if you use a more mild chili powder)
1/4 c roasted peppers, chopped
3 tablespoons pignoli nuts, lightly toasted
2 tablespoons olive oil

Lightly toast the pignoili nuts, about 3 minutes in a hot, dry pan.

Whipping up some Hummus

Put first eight ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and whirl away until blended.

Pour into a bowl, scraping down the sides. We don’t want to lose any now do we?

Make a well in the center of the hummus. Place the red peppers there. Add the pine nuts on top and pour the olive oil over.

Serve with a flat bread. We like to serve it with Garlic Naan around The MacKay Way, but pita works too.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus with Toasted Pignolis and Garlic Naan