Recipe: Red Pepper Hummus with Toasted Pita Triangles

After seeing dried garbanzo beans at the grocery store, and impulsively buying them, I had wanted to make hummus. See, here in Chile, it is quite rare to find hummus. You will not find it in the grocery store and I have only seen it in one vegetarian restaurant. I, of course, ordered it the last time I went to that restaurant, and was somewhat disappointed with the lack of flavor. It seems they only mashed up the garbanzo beans and forgot to put in any flavors. So when I was looking for recipes to try my hand at making hummus (for the first time), I knew I wanted one with lots and lots of flavor. I turned to my trusty friend, FoodNetwork, and found Red Pepper Hummus with Toasted Pita Triangles recipe. I had to add a bit to the recipe for the fact that you can’t buy canned chickpeas and I didn’t know where to get tahini, but other than that it was pretty easy to make this recipe in Chile!

Red Pepper Hummus with Toasted Pita Triangles (edited for life in Chile)

4 whole-wheat pita pockets, cut into triangles
Cooking spray
Garlic salt
1 cup dried chickpeas (ie. garbanzo beans)
1 cup sauteed red peppers
1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste, recipe included below)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 to 4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves (I personally didn’t use this.)

The day before you want to make the hummus, make sure to put 1 cup of dried chickpeas in LOTS of water to soak overnight. After around 8 hours of soaking, boil them until tender. The more tender they are, the easier it will be to blend them.

To make the tahini, you need 2 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds, 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil (I used olive oil), 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup tepid water. I would perhaps double or triple this recipe because it was hard to blend this all together in the 1-2-3 since it was a small amount. First, toast the sesame seeds until golden brown. Let cool off.

You need to put the sesame seeds in a blender or food processor and grind until smooth.

Then add the oil and salt. Process until combined. Add the water very slowly, with the motor running if possible, and blend until smooth. If you can’t add the water with the motor running, just add bits at a time and keep processing until smooth. Mine turned out a bit runny and not as much of a “paste”, but really, it is the flavor that is important here. One interesting thing that I learned about sesame seeds is that they turn rancid quickly so it is important to store them away from light & heat. According to one website that I found, putting your sesame seeds in the fridge will allow them to stay good for up to 3 months. Now that you have your tahini, here is the rest of the hummus recipe:

Cut up and sauté the red peppers in a pan. It is not necessary to put oil or spray or anything, just sauté them up for a bit. Rinse the chickpeas and mix with the red peppers, tahini, garlic, cumin, and lemon juice in a bowl. Place a portion of the mix in a 1-2-3 (the original recipe said blender, but the blenders in Chile are weak and don’t work that well—I found that although the 1-2-3 works much better even though you have to blend a little bit at a time). Blend until smooth, remove the mixture and put in a separate bowl. Continue with the mix until all has been processed. Mix the hummus together to make sure all the flavors and ingredients are distributed evenly. Season to taste with salt and black pepper and top with parsley, if using it. The hummus turns this beautiful, bright orange color thanks to the red peppers.

To make the pita triangles, preheat the oven or electric oven to 400 degrees F. Cut up the pita bread into triangles and place on the baking sheet that corresponds to your oven (I used our electric oven and it worked like a charm). Spray the surface of the triangles with cooking spray. Season the tops with garlic salt. Bake 6 to 8 minutes until golden brown and crisp.

Yay! Now you’re ready to eat your hummus and homemade pita chips!