Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Snacking is sometimes a guilty pleasure, but dips are a guilty pleasure even more frequently.  I like to try to find ways of making delicious things that don't make me feel like I'm eating a thousand calories in one sitting... not like I've done that before...

But hummus! You don't have to call yourself "Fatty McFatFat" after eating a whole cup of hummus! At the same time, it doesn't feel like a lame snack because it's so flavorful, filling, and smooth.  If you eat your hummus with vegetables, then you are even more of an awesome person. Steve and I usually buy these double-tall containers of red pepper hummus and eat them with some yummy 7 grain kashi pita crackers. NOM! Also, on spring break we went through a five pound bag of carrots by dipping them in hummus. No joke. I don't know if that's disgusting or awesome, but it was probably the most vegetable-filled spring break I've ever been on.

I used dried garbanzo beans (chickpeas) because I am a dummy.  Unless you are unemployed, it's not worth it to spend so much time tending a pot of beans. Fool. -_- But, because I did have dried chickpeas, I ended up with a ton.  5 cups to be exact. So I set out to make a large amount of hummus!

I roasted two red peppers because my favorite hummus always has roasted red peppers in it. Read about how to roast your peppers here.  You could also buy roasted red peppers, but it's kind of fun to play with fire! Be sure to use long tongs to turn them.  I'd also suggest cleaning off your stovetop beforehand since the peppers have a tendency to roll around, and you don't want them to roll into last night's/week's/month's food remnants.

roasting the red peppers!

I tried to find a great hummus recipe online, but they all looked so different. Plus, I didn't have tahini (toasted sesame).  Plus, I didn't know how much my red peppers weighed, and all the recipes were referring to red peppers by weights rather than volume. It was very confusing.  After reading five or six other recipes, I just decided to just make up my own recipe and taste it on the fly.

finished product with my favorite crackers :)

If you have a big food processor, use it.  It will make your hummus silky smooth.  Our food processor is teeny, probably for making baby food or something. Rather than make a little at a time in the food processor, I dumped all my ingredients into a pot and used my immersion blender.  Actually, I did this after trying to use our blender. It only blended the bottom half inch. LAME! That blender made me so mad that I wanted to dump it right into the garbage (after I emptied its contents into a pot).

Into your pot, throw 5 cups garbanzo beans, 2 roasted red peppers, 3/2 teaspoons cumin, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1/4 chopped onion, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 4 tablespoons lemon juice, some freshly cracked black pepper, and salt to taste.  Blend it all up so that it's nice and smooth. If you prefer a thicker texture, use less olive oil (or use more to make it thinner).  Because I used dehydrated beans rather than canned beans, I had to use a couple tablespoons of salt to make it flavorful.  If you are smart and used canned garbanzos, you will probably be able to get by with much less salt.

I'm hoping hummus freezes well, since I made enough for a family of ten or a big party.  I'm planning on freezing two cups of the hummus and seeing how it goes.  Other recipes said that the hummus will only keep in the refrigerator for two days, but I don't know how it could go bad so quickly.  If I don't post ever again, you can conclude that I was fatally wrong.