Spiced Sweet Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

I’m kind of on a healthy-food kick. I was doing really well with the healthy eating for a while, dropped about 15 pounds and a pant size or two, but then I got married. Something about going to an all-inclusive resort had us stuffing our faces on our honeymoon. I’m not kidding. We went to a sushi restaurant, ate a normal amount of food, and then placed an order for another dinner, which we ate with relish (as in enjoyment, not the condiment). And when we got back home, diets were long-forgotten. Anyway, who wants to diet when you’ve just gotten married? We were on top of the world, both at our happiest and our skinniest, and felt we could eat anything we wanted.

Fast forward a few months… it’s time to get back on track. It’s not like we’re still eating double meals (honestly, that was just once!), but we had stopped packing up small portions of chicken breasts and lots of veggies for our lunches and pretty much gone back to eating the way we had before we lost the weight. I’d made half-hearted efforts here or there, but it didn’t really pay off the way I wanted to. Call it excuses, but I really, really, really chalk some a lot of it up to sitting at a desk all day doing mindless work that I hated. I was unmotivated, and I kid you not, if the thought “Hmm, it’s 11:00am and I haven’t felt hungry yet,” crossed my mind, I would inevitably start to feel hungry 10 minutes later. I knew it was psychological, but that didn’t help my tummy. Luckily I’ve quit that job and started another one that keeps me busy, both physically and mentally, so I don’t have time to sit at my desk ruminating on my empty tummy. And I’ve already lost a few pounds!

Anyway, my point is that I decided I was sick of it and ready to start being really good again. This recipe popped up somehow, and I needed to try it. Yes, needed.

It had this.

Don’t ask why I was so keen on incorporating red peppers, because I’m not really sure. It just sounded delicious.

This recipe also happened to be healthier than my favorite hummus recipe, having less tahini and not a drop of olive oil.

Basically, just drop some roasted red peppers (they come in a jar) in a food processor with garbanzo beans (aka chick peas), lemon juice, tahini (which is a pureed sesame seed paste that honestly has a taste and consistency similar to peanut butter, in my opinion), garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt.

I know from using other hummus recipes that it can get really dry, really fast. Rather than making up the liquid deficit with olive oil, I saved fluid from the jar of roasted red peppers and dropped it in there. If I hadn’t had that, I would have just used the fluid from the can of garbanzo beans.

Anyway, just turn on the food processor and let it do its thing.

Look what happens!

I’m going to be honest here. This was SO GOOD. If you like hummus, take this recipe from my Tastebook (or from the link above, I didn’t change anything) and use it. The lemon juice and cayenne pepper give it a bit of a bite, and the flavor of the red pepper and garlic is just amazing.

This is my new favorite hummus recipe. Honestly, the old one is history, this is the new winner.

Now I just have to learn how to roast my own red peppers, and I’ll be all set.

Recipe will be in my Tastebook soon.