Yummy Homemade Hummus

Mmmm.. hummus. I love hummus. Especially Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. Back to that in a second, though.

My plan is to post 2-3x a week. Hopefully. I had originally planned to post this the other night and then SURPRISE, our AC drain was apparently full of years and years (and years) of gunk. As a result, it was clogged and overflowed. Luckily, my husband, Clint, found it when the laminate wood floors squished as he walked across them. Errr, not the sound you want to hear under your laminate, soak-up-all-the-water-and-swell, floors. So after a trip to Home Depot and my Mom coming to help out, we have new squeaky clean drain pipes and bubbled up laminate floors. Oh, the joys of homeownership.

Oh, I also plan to post my homebirth birth story soon. So keep your eye out for that!

Back to hummus land…

This stuff is so good, you should definitely make it. And yes, it does have peanut butter in it. I’ve heard Tahini is pretty expensive—and they didn’t have it at Walmart when I looked either. I promise you don’t taste the peanut butter, but it is needed. Here’s how I do it:

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

1 16 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

¼ jar roasted red peppers

1 tbsp peanut butter

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice from ½ a lemon

1/8 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp paprika

Dash cayenne pepper

Dash salt

Open and rinse the chickpeas in a colander. Then, you need to take the skin off of each chickpea. It’s really easy. You just squeeze it between your fingers, slightly, and it comes right off. The first time I made this I didn’t do it and my hummus was not the silky smooth hummus that I wanted. So, it’s worth it!

Next, add all of ingredients except the roasted red peppers and chickpeas to a food processor and puree for around 1 minute. Now you should add half of the chickpeas and run the food processor for about a minute, add the second half and run for another minute. You will probably need to stop the processor and scrape the sides a couple of times in there.

It will not be the consistency of hummus at this point and may still have some whole chickpeas. This is okay!

The last step is adding the roasted red peppers. Process this until it looks smooth and silky (about a minute or two).  If it is too dry for your liking, add a little olive oil – a little goes a long way here.

Lucas certainly approves of this recipe! I would say this is one of his absolute favorite foods.

I’ve also heard of another version where you would leave out the Roasted Red Peppers and add a ½ packet of dry Ranch seasoning. You would need to add some additional olive oil, which I would do at the end to get it to the consistency you want. I’m going to make it and serve with raw veggies at Lucas’ 1^st Birthday Party-which is only 15 days away!!

Do you like hummus? What do you like to dip in it? Ever made it yourself?