I Shall Return... (with Red Pepper Hummus)

Alright - I apologize - the original idea of this blog was to make it through a season's worth of a CSA share from Potomac Vegetable Farms, detailing what was provided, and what I made out of it... Loosely. Mostly about food though. I made it through the most of the 2008 summer and fall share, but I tuckered out towards the end. With work taking up so much time, a lot of stuff seemed to get away from me.

Well, that was 2008. I have tried desperately to avoid any resolutions for 2009, but I'm going to go right ahead and promise more frequent posts for 2009 - I have once again subscribed for a summer mini-share from PVF, but I am going to try and post more often and step away from food-related posts exclusively...

Anyways, I wanted to start with a recipe that I finally think I nailed down - hummus, but a bit lighter (and presumably a bit healthier) than most recipes that lean hard on the tahini and olive oil. I've found that if you can add something that will blend/puree down (roasted peppers, garlic, or eggplant for example) with the garbonzos, you can cut back on a lot of the oil without suffering for flavor.

Red Pepper Hummus

2 15.5 oz. cans of garbonzo beans
2 roasted and peeled red peppers (pictured)
1 clove garlic
1/4 medium onion or 1/2 small onion
1/2 t. salt, pepper to taste
1T tahini
2T lemon juice (1-2 lemons depending on size)
1T olive oil

Basically, toss all of the above in a food processor and process until smooth. Can't get much easier. I'd just make sure to mince or grate (with a microplane) the garlic to avoid any rough patches of chunked garlic. You could use jarred red peppers, but make sure to rinse and drain/blot dry the peppers as much as possible - it's pretty easy to get too much liquid into the recipe, and then you're talking soup, not a puree. I like to roast the fresh peppers under a broiler and then dump them into a plastic-ware container for a while - the skin comes off pretty easy then... Just make sure to remove the seeds.

One thing I did notice, which surprised me - I had two cans of garbonzo beans - one from Trader Joe's and the other from Goya. The Trader Joe's brand was noticeably smaller, harder, and drier than the can of Goya-brand beans, which were larger and much more moist. I don't think the hummus suffered mixing them together, but I think I would have to keep an eye on the TJ brand beans - they might make a chalkier hummus...