Today’s recipe is a twist on my lunch staple, the mighty hummus. The flavour was inspired by my neighbour, Suzie, whom I promised a big ass chocolate cake in return for feeding my cats while we were away in Athens a few weeks ago. I nearly got a heart attack when this pretty far gone chocoholic, who would normally devour half of my cake while standing in my doorway, refused my offer. She said she didn’t want cake. She wanted hummus instead. What the what??
She requested a red pepper hummus, which I jazzed up a bit with some smokey paprika and a pinch of chilli and the girl was in heaven. Apparently even her partner who despises hummus and thinks of it as this bland hippie food, was into it! Hell yeah! 😉 As I live in Greece where fire-roasted Romano peppers are a local staple, I went for the easy option and simply used a couple of those ready-roasted red beauties to give my hummus a blush of colour and a delicious red pepper taste, but if you aren’t as lucky and would rather make your own peppers, it is dead simple. I explain it in detail under this recipe for Muhammara and, while you’re there, do yourself a favour and make some extra peppers for this amazing Syrian walnut and red pepper dip. It’s delish!! For those of you who are watching your fat intake, I always make my hummus without any olive oil (here is a video showing you how to make it in a very average blender). I do, however, choose to top my hummus with a few teaspoons of chilli (or regular extra virgin olive oil) oil as it tastes good and looks good and part of my job is to make vegan food look delicious! If you are an oil-foe, skip the chilli oil topping. You can always use a tomato-based sauce instead, or cooked chickpeas, chilli flakes and herbs.
mild pul biber (Turkish red pepper flakes) sesame seeds fresh parsley or coriander, chopped drizzle of olive oil (optional)
