I pita the fool that doesn’t like hummus. Diana Sabater of Diana’s Spice Cantina brought some Moroccan heat to the COOK kitchen for Valentine’s Day. From mussels in a harissa tomato cream sauce to lamb kabobs with Yemeni green chili sauce, Diana made this Valentine’s Day extra spicy! While guests thoroughly enjoyed these dishes that left their taste buds tingling, Diana’s savory roasted red pepper hummus blew everyone away.  Chef Diana claimed that once you try homemade hummus you will never go back to eating the store bought variety. Lucky for you I was able to follow up with her after class to get her recipe. Read on for three-time Chopped champion Diana Sabater’s roasted red pepper hummus recipe and see why it left guests wanting more! 

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Recipe courtesy of Diana Sabater

Serves 2-3 people

Ingredients

• 1 can of chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
• 1 whole red pepper
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1 lemon
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• Pinch of cumin seeds
• Salt to taste
• Extra vigin olive oil

Directions

Take the chickpeas and place them in your food processor. If you want a smoother hummus Diana recommends peeling the chickpeas. Looking closely at chickpeas you will notice they have a little outer shell which causes hummus to be more coarse if not removed. It may be tedious to do for all the chickpeas, but it is worth it in the end! Be sure to save the canned liquid when draining the chickpeas; you can use it to thin out your hummus while also adding nutty flavor.

Next, roast the red pepper in your oven on a baking sheet at about 400-450 degrees or until the peppers are wrinkled and the skins start to develop a good char. Alternatively, you can char the pepper directly over the heat of your stovetop, rotating often with tongs. Let the charred pepper sit in a bowl covered with saran wrap until cool. At this point you can remove the charred skin from the red peppers if you desire, however Diana likes to leave them as they are for some smokey flavor. Add the roasted red pepper to the chickpeas in the food processor.

Now it’s time to add the tahini. Common to Middle Eastern cooking, tahini is simply a paste of ground sesame seeds. You can either buy tahini from your local grocer, or you can blend sesame seeds together to create your own homemade tahini. After adding the tahini to the food processor, squeeze the juice from one lemon into the mix. Follow that by tossing in the cloves of garlic, and the cumin seeds. Once again texture comes into play here with the cumin. By using cumin seeds your hummus will have a grainier texture. If you would like a smoother hummus, replace the cumin seeds with ground cumin.

You now have the base for the roasted red pepper hummus and can begin to pulse your food processor. While pulsing, drizzle in extra virgin olive oil in increments. Diana noted that adding more oil will result in a creamier hummus, so depending on how you like your hummus, add olive oil until your desired consistency is achieved. Watch the mixture in the food processor and look for a peanut butter like consistency. As you pulse add salt to taste. Remove the mixture from the food processor and enjoy with some pita slices or top with your favorite protein! Diana Sabater wowed COOK guests with seared scallops with dukkah (an Egyptian spice blend containing nuts) served atop her roasted red pepper hummus, garnished with pea shoots.

Be sure to check out Diana’s Spice Cantina and her blog Get The Scoop! for more information and to purchase the spice blends (dukkah, za’tar and harissa) which Diana debuted at COOK! So what are you waiting for? Spice up your life!

Speaking of…