Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

This Roasted Red Pepper Hummus is a staple in our house. Roasted Red Peppers are a wonderful addition to so many great dishes and hummus is one of our favourites. If you can master a basic hummus recipe, what you can add to make it your own is only limited by your imagination.

We love hummus and usually have at least a couple of varieties in the fridge at any one time. It’s great, of course, with pita, crackers or fresh veg. But have you had it in roasted vegetable paninis or on sourdough toast with some fresh cucumber or tomato? We also love it as a topping on a Buddha Bowl or as the base of a sauce for pasta.

Roasting the Red Peppers

Roasting peppers is super easy under the broiler in an oven, or even a toaster oven. We like to roast them whole and simply turn them periodically to blacken the skin evenly on all sides and the top. Just toss them on a tray under the broiler and keep an eye on them, turning them a little as they blacken.

Once the peppers are evenly blackened all around and have collapsed, you can remove them from the oven and place them in a dish to cool sufficiently to handle. The key is to make sure that they are blackened all over and have collapsed. It’s so easy to slide the skin off this way, before opening them up to remove the seeds. If you follow this technique, we have never found it necessary to seal them in a container to sweat, before removing the skin. Now, on to the roasted red pepper hummus!

Preparing Your Chickpeas for Hummus

We often used canned chickpeas to save time. Just be sure to buy a brand whose cans are BPA free. Even though we do cook a lot of beans, everyone needs to save some time at one point or another, right? We do use dried beans for our hummus on occasion because beans that are less processed retain more of their nutrients. If you would like to try this out, we have a trick to share with you . . .

Soaking dried beans helps to eliminate phytic acid in beans. This acid can reduce our body’s absorption of iron and the digestibility of protein. Leaching of the acid during soaking and cooking, however, makes the water acidic. This slows down the rate at which the cooking beans soften and can even prevent them from softening at all! Therefore, there will be no “creamy” in your roasted red pepper hummus.

Baking soda added to the soaking water and later to the cooking water raises the pH of the water. This, in turn, neutralizes the acidic environment, and makes for softer beans. This works to soften canned beans more as well. When the canned chickpeas are cooked for a short amount of time with baking soda, you will achieve a creamier hummus.

Bringing you Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Together

For the creamiest hummus, process it in steps. Process the minced garlic and roasted red pepper with the lemon juice, spices and salt first. Then add the tahini and continue to process before finally adding the chickpeas. It is important to use a good quality, light coloured tahini. Some tahini made with darker sesame seeds can taste bitter. One brand that we like and can find locally at Organic Garage is the Kevala brand.

Spread some of this Roasted Red Pepper hummus on a pita loaded with roasted vegetables for added flavour and extra protein or as a dip with veggies of your choice. Try this Creamy Roasted Garlic Hummus and have two variations in the fridge together. If you’re looking for more dipping snacks, try our Vegan Cashew Queso Dip.

Please let us know if you make this creamy roasted red pepper hummus. We always like to see your feedback! Leave a comment and a rating and don’t forget to tag us @plantedandpicked on Instagram and hashtag it  #plantedandpicked. Eat with family and friends and practice gratitude!