Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

This is the easiest recipe you'll ever make. I'm including tips on how to roast your own red pepper, just in case you're curious and ever want to try it. You can use the jarred kind, too, just as easily. I use the real stuff for cost, but it's really not that much of a difference. lol I just like being difficult and doing everything the hard way, and in my experience the fresh roasted stuff just tastes better, since you can season it yourself.

Yum.

Ingredients
1 15 oz can of chick peas (garbanzo beans)
2 tblsp tahini (sesame paste. feel free to sub peanut butter, or cashew butter, or just don't bother. It helps but isn't 100% needed. A pinch of nutmeg can do the job, too.)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 cloves chopped garlic (to taste)
1 tsp olive oil (extra virgin would work)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 roasted red bell pepper (See below)


To roast the red pepper, set your oven on 450. You're gonna want to cut the top off of the pepper and pull out the heart and seeds, since they'll make it taste pretty funky if you roast it with them inside of it. Lop the seeds off of the top of the pepper, and use it as a nice little cap for when you're roasting. It'll keep all of the flavor in, until the pepper softens enough that the cap falls out, by which point the spices will be infused well enough that you don't need it anyway. For extra flavor, put about a half teaspoon of oil (I use olive, but you can use whatever you want, really. Note, however, that extra virgin olive oil kinda sucks for this purpose because of its incredibly low smoke point. It'll taste burnt, and not in the delicious way the rest of this does), and a pinch of cumin and cayenne pepper. Swirl it around to cover the inside of the pepper. Then, put the pepper on a baking tray (you might wanna use some foil under it, this gets messy) and bake it for about a half hour to 45 minutes, turning occasionally, until the skin is black and the meat of the pepper is nice and soft. It'll look burnt. That's intentional. To finish, simply split it, lay it flat, and peel the skin off. I keep some of these around in light oil, when possible. Cut em into strips and they're downright awesome on sandwiches, especially grilled ones.

To make the hummus? Mix it all in a cuisinart until perfectly smooth. The flavor's pretty awesome when it's freshly made, but it's even better if you let it hang out in the fridge overnight. A great garnish for this is some diced roasted red pepper (for texture, since it'll mix in as the dip is eaten) and some green onions. However, I like being an oddball with those. Instead of the typical rings people usually slice the green onions into, I like slicing them down into quarter inch julienne strips. It just looks nicer.