Sometimes there’s one bell pepper that just doesn’t get eaten in salads and just sorta gets forgotten, not intentionally but there it is still in the fridge.

 

 

That was the story of this pepper until I spotted the can of garbanzos in the cupboard. I’d been planning to make hummus at some point anyway and today was the day!

 

The instructions said to turn it using tongs -- not thongs.

Though Georgiana told me she actually  thought that they were called thongs for some time. She said people would have this funny look but nobody said anything!

Her husband thinks it’s hysterical and insists on continuing to call them thongs. I wasn’t aware of any of this when I came to dinner.  He said he’d get the thongs to serve the spaghetti.

  I may have forgotten a bit. I was busy looking at recipes wondering if I could make pita bread to go with the hummus. I did not actually make any pita bread but I did imagine myself making some. In the middle of such imagining I did remember to turn it a few times. Actually it was the wonderful slightly smoky red pepper aroma drifting through the house that reminded me I was roasting a pepper! I think I could roast red peppers just for air freshener, what a good smell.

When the pepper looks like it’s died an unnatural death I dropped in into a bowl and let it steam under a lid for a bit. That’s supposed to help the skin come off I guess.

 

And it certainly did.

The skin separated quite easily.

 

red pepper ready and waiting.

 

Next I went out to my backyard garbanzo tree and picked some garbanzos.

Aren’t they called chickpeas before they’re cooked?

While the garbanzos are draining I squeezed the juice of one lemon not two because I only had one lemon.

I also minced the garlic, I only used one clove, I was scared to put too much in.

 

Next I put everything in the blender, garbanzos, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and tahini

The blender was not at all thrilled about blending all of that! I had to keep pushing the stuff back onto the blades. I ended up using every bit of juice from the red pepper and persisting with the blender.

There it is just sitting there waiting to be eaten.

 

Roasted Red Pepper

Roast the pepper at 450 turning every 10 min or so. For 30 min.

Set in a bowl and cover to steam for 10 min. Then slip off skin.

 

The hummus

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
• 1/3 cup tahini
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 roasted red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil or fresh if you have it

Directions

1. In an electric food processor, combine garlic, garbanzo beans, tahini, and lemon juice. Process until the mixture is smooth. Add roasted peppers and basil; process until the peppers are finely chopped. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer hummus to small bowl, cover and chill until you are ready to serve.