As you may be aware by now, I’m a big eater of hummus. I make a huge batch every week to sell but always keep extra for myself. Whenever my friends come to visit, I always have a bowl ready and waiting in the fridge to whip out for their eating pleasure. One of my favourite flavours of hummus is roasted red pepper, which is why it’s surprising that I have taken so long to share this recipe with you. I was eating it by the truckload earlier in the summer when red peppers were in season.

I first made the bagel chips one night when I knew the girls were coming over, we had no tortillas in the freezer for me to make into chips and I knew they would be expecting something a little bit more special than a bag of crisps from the shop. As I frantically looked through the cupboards I came across a bag of bagels which desperately needed to be used. I sliced them up and cooked them and they were absolutely delicious. The perfect accompaniment to the red pepper hummus.

Ingredients

Hummus

400g of Chickpeas (soaked weight)

A large bunch of cilantro

2-4 tablespoons of olive oil

1-2 tablespoons of cumin

1-2 lemons

1-2 tablespoons of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

3-4 red peppers (bell pepper)

Tahini

100ml of olive oil

3-5 cloves garlic

100g of sesame seeds

Bagel Chips

2 bagels

3 tabelspoons of olive oil

Salt

1 tablespoon of rosemary (or other mixed herbs)

Directions

The first thing you need to do is soak your chickpeas. This can take between 6 hours to overnight. The longer the better in my opinion. After they have been soaked, you need to cook them. This can take a while. I usually cook mine in the rice cooker because you don’t have to top up the water as often and they won’t burn. If not you can cook them in a pan of water, they will take between 2-3 hours. Or you can skip this step and buy a can. When your chick peas are done, drain them but make sure you keep hold of that water, you will need it for the hummus.

The next step is to blend the chickpeas, you may need to do this in a couple of batches depending on the size of your blender. If they are too hard to blend, use a little of the hummus water to get things going. Some like their hummus chunky and rugged others like it smooth and silky, so blend until you get the consistency you’re happy with. If you want want an ultra silky hummus then peel off all of the skins of the chick peas before blending. It’s a pain in the ass so I never do it. Also my hummus is generally made in industrial style batches so it would probably take me a month to do it, plus I’m very lazy.

You can buy tahini in the foreign food mart in Itaewon and on iHerb and various other stores. It’s also very easy to make. Just place the garlic, sesame seeds, and olive oil in a blender and blend for a few minutes until the seeds have been pulverized.

Once the chick peas are blended place in a large bowl and stir in the tahini and lemon juice. Then the salt, pepper and cumin. Hummus is a very personal food, so start by adding a little of each at a time until you get a taste you’re happy with. A lot of factors can affect the taste of hummus so you rarely use the exact same amount of each ingredient every time. I always get the best results when the chick peas are warm.

To make the hummus red pepper flavoured, drizzle the peppers with olive oil and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes until the edges are charred and the flesh is soft. Pop them in the blender with a little olive oil and blend until you have a paste, then stir it  into the hummus. Use as much or as little as you need.

To make the bagel chips, cut the bagels into 5mm slices then arrange on a baking tray. Drizzle the slices with olive oil then sprinkle on the salt and herbs. Cook in the oven for 5-10 minutes until they are brown on one side, then flip them over and cook for a few minutes of the other side. Serve with your favourite hummus and enjoy. Voilà red pepper hummus and bagel chips.