Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

 Hummus is seriously something that I eat nearly every day.  I will make a large batch on the weekend and take it with lots of raw veggies to work for lunches throughout the week.  Given my busy and unpredictable schedule at work, I don't always have a 'lunch break', I have random times throughout the day where I can snack on something, which makes hummus perfect.  

Now that we have our own tahini and perfectly cooked chickpeas, and roasted red peppers, we have everything we need to make hummus truly from scratch!  

Olive oil, roasted red peppers, cooked chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, and salt.  

First, I mince the garlic. I used about three big cloves because I like hummus a little garlic-ier than not.  But whatever works for you.  Normally I'd do just mince it with a knife, but look at the cool new toy my mom sent us for Christmas!  It's a Garlic Twist which I never knew existed but now am so in love with!

You just peel the garlic, drop it in, close it up, and twist. 

And just like that, you have minced garlic.  So much better than a garlic press (another Christmas gift from my mom a few years ago, actually) and it saves your fingers from smelling like garlic for hours after.  

Now I never used to think that the order of ingredients ever really mattered.  But, after making hummus at least 100 times, I finally am acquiescing to the fact that is actually does matter.  Plus, Alton Brown said to do it so I'm doing it.  

First up are the chickpeas, minced garlic, and 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of kosher salt.  I also like a saltier hummus so I add closer to 2.  

Blend this all together, sans liquid, for about 20 - 30 seconds.  It'll make a thick mush like this.  

Then, get your lemon juice ready.  You'll need about 5 tablespoons which is approximately the juice of one large lemon. 

Scrape down the sides of the food processor and then add the lemon juice, 1/4 water, and the roasted red peppers.  

I should have taken a picture of this.  But I forgot.  Because taking so many pictures while cooking is actually kind of hard.  So take my word for it.  You'll want to really get those red peppers down towards the blade under the chickpea mush so that they break up.  You'll need the added moisture of the roasted red peppers. Blend for about 20 - 30 seconds.

Hey, remember that awesome tahini that was half the cost of the store bought stuff?  Now you can use a 1/3 of a cup of it for the hummus!

 Now you can add the tahini.  My tahini's darker than most store bought brands because of the unhulled sesame seeds (I also may have toasted a couple a little too long...), but it tastes just as good if not better.  

While you're blending in the tahini, now add the olive oil, 1/4 cup.  Be sure to get all of the oil in and not spill half of it onto the lid like I did.  Pouring and aiming and taking a picture simultaneously is harder than it looks. 

After it's all blended... Yum.  

Super creamy Roasted Red Pepper Hummus.  Garlicy, salty, and a touch of sweetness from the red peppers.  Packed full of protein, fiber, calcium, and good monounsaturated fat.  

 This was the pretty staged picture.  

But this is the real picture of how it goes in my fridge. Almost 4 cups of completely from scratch roasted red pepper hummus.  I don't know how much hummus costs in the store because I haven't bought it in years, but I'm sure it's way too much.  This will be lunches for me for a week, and make it to a couple of gatherings this weekend.  All for about $10-$12... those damn $6 red peppers.