Creamy, Dreamy, Roasted Red Pepper Hummus!

With Memorial Day Weekend upon us and with graduation parties and cookouts being planned I thought it might be nice to make some thing you could take to the party; homemade hummus. People will be delighted & impressed!

My son in law to be makes a delicious hummus. I'm anxious for him to try mine this weekend and let me know what he thinks.  Just because I'm soon to be his mother in law (June 23rd), shouldn't affect his opinion.  What do you think?
 My daughter said "Bring it on." They are such a cute couple!

The process is really very easy and you may already have all the ingredients on hand.  The trick is to get the hummus that nice, creamy consistency we all love.  I've read two things that home cooks have found to be the key to this:

1. Cold liquid mixed with the tahini before adding other ingredients
2. Taking the skins off the chick peas before blending them into the mixture.

I didn't do either and IMHO, mine came out just as creamy as store bought. I might try the above methods next time around just see if there is a difference.

I've only made basic hummus.  This time I thought I'd try Roasted Red Pepper Hummus.   In looking through my pantry and refrigerator, I had all the ingredients on hand, so why not give it a try?

I had a 2 lb.bag of fresh chick peas(I only used 1 lb.), but as you'll see in the second recipe, canned chick peas work just as well.

After doing a search for "roasted red pepper hummus" and "how to cook chick peas in a pressure cooker" and came up with two recipes from the Food Network site.

To cook my raw, fresh chick peas in my 6 quart Fagor pressure cooker, I used Alton Brown's method.

Ingredients

• 9 cups water
• 1 pound dried chickpeas, sorted and rinsed
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Special equipment: a 7-quart pressure cooker ( I used my 6 qt)

YIELD:    6 cups cooked chick peas.

Directions

Place the water, chickpeas, and salt in a 7-quart pressure cooker (the water should cover the chickpeas and come to the 1/3 full line). Cover and lock the lid. Bring to pressure over high heat, about 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, so that you barely hear hissing from the pot. Cook for 45 minutes. Release the pressure by running cold water over the lid for 5 minutes. Open carefully. Drain and serve

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pressure-cooker-chickpeas-recipe/index.html

To prepare my roasted red pepper hummus I DOUBLED the below recipe to accommodate the 6 cups of cooked chick peas made in the above recipe. Because it didn't come out as creamy as I wanted, I made a few adjustments (see Note).  These directions say to use a Vitamix.  I used my Cuisinart Food Processor, and chopped the garlic and roasted red pepper before adding them into the food processor.

Ingredients 

(Double these ingredients if you use the above 6 c. chick pea recipe)

• 3 cups (720 g) canned garbanzo beans, drained    (I used freshly cooked & drained from the pressure cooker)
• 6 ounces (170 g) roasted red peppers
• 1/2 cup (120 g) tahini paste
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
• 2 1/2 tablespoons (38 ml) lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

1. Place all ingredients into the Vitamix container in the order listed and secure lid.

2. Select Variable 1.

3. Turn machine on and quickly increase speed to Variable 10, then to High.

4. Blend for 30 seconds until smooth. Add water as needed to keep mixture flowing freely through blades.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/roasted-red-pepper-hummus-recipe/index.html

One pound (1/2 bag) Fresh chick peas in
Fagor Pressure Cooker with 9 cups of water.

Ingredients to make roasted red pepper hummus.
Except for the chick peas, which were cooking when I took this photo.

All the above ingredients blended in the Cuisinart,
before adding the cooked chick peas.

Cooked chick peas.

Drained chick peas.
While reading through hummus recipes, some suggest
removing the chick pea skins for a creamier hummus.
I did not remove the skins.

Adding the still hot chick peas to the red pepper,
tahini , spices puree.

Pureed chick peas & spices.

Good
Well blended, but thick. If you like thick, stop here.

Better
Final product from following the exact recipe.
Blended it a little more, but it was still  a little too thick for my liking.

Best
NOTE: Adjustment: I added 1/2 cup of the very cold liquid
that is in the jar of Roasted Red Peppers into the food processor
until it reached the creamy consistency that you see above.
You could also add very cold water.
Optional:  Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil
over the top of the hummus before serving.
It gives the hummus a little extra something!

This made approximately 6 cups of hummus.
I portioned it out into freezer containers to save for future use.
I kept the larger container of hummus to serve with
the Pretzel Crisps shown.  Wedges of fresh pita bread
makes for a great hummus dipper,
as well ads fresh vegetables.

Gadgets 

My sister in law recently bought the Fagor that is listed second. She loves it and finds more uses for it daily.
 I know this because she calls me with her exciting new pressure cooker recipes. 

I have a couple I'll post at a later date.

                  

(These Rubbermaid containers can also be found at Walmart for $10 less.)