Red Bell Pepper Hummus

I never liked Hummus. I first had Hummus at a co-op I decided to live in when I was in college. Every week, someone would sign up to make Hummus for the week. They made a huge batch of it, and all in all it was pretty bland and uninspiring.

I didn't really discover Hummus again until I moved to the Bay Area. I found a delicious Middle Eastern restaurant called Oasis Cafe on Telegraph. It is run by a very nice family and they make delicious food, including Hummus! Inspired by what I ate there, I made my own version.

I decided to boil the chick peas in tea, as opposed to straight water, as it lends a subtle flavor to the dish. I also roast different kinds of bell peppers (red, orange and yellow) to give it a little bit different flavor. As always, some good olive oil goes a long way!

Ingredients

15 oz channa dahl (garbanzo beans) (about 2 cups)
1 tea bag, or 1 teaspoon dark tea leaves in a tea ball or tea strainer
Red, orange and yellow bell pepper, sliced, seeds removed (1 each)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1.5 tablespoons tahini
1 garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon harissa
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Soak Channa dahl in water for 1 hour or so.

Heat oven till 350.

Boil a large pot of water. add the tea in a tea ball and reduce heat to low. Brew the tea for 15 minutes or so to extract the flavor.

Add channa dahl and cook channa until very soft (around 30-40 minutes).









In the meantime, roast the peppers for 30 minutes or until soft. After 30 minutes, turn on the broiler and broil for a few minutes, until outer skin in charred.

Remove from broiler and puree in blender. Remove from blender and set aside.







Slowly begin adding the cooked chickpeas, blending until finely chopped. Its best to do this in small batches, transferring the chopped/pureed chickpeas into a separate bowl. You don't want to overblend the mixture, otherwise you will have no texture in your hummus and end up more like chickpea soup.

Add the remaining ingredients to the blender and add to the separate bowl.

Once all of the ingredients have been blended and added to the seperate bowl, begin stirring them with a spatula to combine the flavors. Add a little bit of olive oil to help them mix properly.

This is excellent with vegetables or pita!

I often add additional olive oil and salt to an individual serving to adjust the flavor profile to what I need for the dish.

Add roasted peppers to blend and purree.

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