Lentil & Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Imagine, if you will, that you are puttering around the house of a winter Sunday afternoon. And suddenly you realize that there are no snacks for cocktail hour. This is, I grant you, a survivable condition, and you are about to go on with your life until until an even more heart rending thought occurs to you – you have no blog post for the next day! Gasp! Faint!

Thus, was the following recipe born. And I consider myself lucky to have been a part of the whole thing. I am able to detach myself from the fact I made this hummus, and tell you, purely as an unbiased, bystanding eater, that it is fabulous.

You will need some roasted red pepper – you can go here, if you want to know how, or you can, of course, buy some in a jar.  And you need to cook some lentils – it took about 30 minutes for 1 cup of plain old grocery store lentils to cook in 2 &1/2 cups salted water.  Don’t drain unless there is a lot of extra liquid – even then, save the liquid, cause you might need it later.

I have shown you how I make hummus a couple times before – here and here, and this batch was made by the same method.

Into your food processor, add:
2 cups cooked and cooled lentils
1 large, peeled and coarsely chopped garlic clove [I ended up adding 2 more, so 3 total – vampires never ever come here]
2 tablespoons tahini paste
juice from 1 lemon
one medium roasted red pepper, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika
1-2 teaspoons Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce

Zap it all together until is pretty smooth and uniform. If it is too thick, add some of the reserved cooking liquid, or water. Taste and adjust seasonings – it took nicely to more garlic as I already mentioned and I added the second teaspoon of Sriracha. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes at room temperature to blend flavors. You can serve with the traditional pita bread, or whatever kind of crackers you like. I took some soft corn tortillas, cut them into wedges, drizzled them lightly with olive oil and baked them till crispy, salting them immediately upon removing from the oven.When Larry sat down with his beer, after a hard afternoon of fooling around in his shop [or, as I like to call it, his “fort”], I gave him a sample, and he said “Being your taste tester is the best job in the world”. I guess that means he liked it.

Have a great day, my friends!