Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Two things today: First, roasted red pepper hummus! And, two, an edge-of-your-seat post about peeling chickpeas. Yes, I peeled a can of chickpeas and timed myself. It’s what I do.

Hummus Goals

Up until earlier this week, peeling chickpeas ranked in the top ten on my list of “ain’t nobody got time for that”. I mean, seriously, does homemade hummus require the tedious step of popping each chickpea out of it’s somewhat waxy outer layer? What is achieved from all this nonsense?

It all started a few weeks ago after I discovered a hummus recipe over at Smitten Kitchen. Deb is described by some as a home-cooking goddess and I’ve been a fan of her blog for years. So, when she issued a call to action to peel your chickpeas I kept reading. According to her findings, the step produces an “ethereally” smooth hummus. She went as far to time herself, as well, to further bolster her argument that it’s not a back-breaking time-intensive activity and her chickpea peeling clocked in at just under 10 minutes. Good info to know, for sure, but I saw it as a challenge. Deb is a self-proclaimed slow-poke in the kitchen so, surely, I could not just match her efforts, but exceed them.

And because I know you are sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation of my results, I’ll cut to the chase: It took me 17 minutes to peel a can of chickpeas. 17 I-moved-like-molasses minutes! Oh, I was smug as I peeled my chickpeas. “I’m a classically trained piano player”, I thought to myself, “my fingers are so fast and nimble!” When I turned to look at the clock, confident I had not just beat the 10-minute record, but smashed it like a gold medal Olympian, my ego deflated like a soufflé.

But the disappointment was short-lived after I dipped into my roasted red pepper hummus. As promised, the texture was impossibly smooth. Drizzled with some olive oil and scooped up with warm pita I wanted to scrape the bowl clean, but stopped myself because I had a sneaky suspicion it would be even better if the flavors had time to marry in the fridge. So I covered it with cling wrap and finished it off the next day.

The moral of the story? Some things are worth the extra time (in my case, a mere seven minutes compared to Deb’s results) and not everything needs to be a competition. Trust me, anyone who makes this hummus will feel like a winner.

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