Description

Grill roasted red peppers pureed with chickpeas, garlic, lemon and olive oil - my go-to appetizer when I'm asked to bring something.

Ingredients

Scale

3 red peppers
2 cloves garlic
1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Salt to taste (depends on how salty the chickpeas are - I usually add 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt)

Instructions

Roast the peppers: Preheat your grill to medium, direct heat. Cook the peppers until blackened on all sides, usually about 5 minutes a side. You want them good and burned - it's OK! Let the peppers sit until cool enough to handle. Pull out the stem, core and seeds and discard. Peel off the blackened skin (I just use my fingers, and it's OK if you have a few blackened bits left).
Make the dip: Drop the garlic through the feed tube into a running food processor, and wait for it to be completely minced, about 10 seconds. Add the chickpeas, roasted red peppers, lemon juice and black pepper, and pulse a couple of times to mince. Turn on the processor and drizzle olive oil through the feed tube, adding just enough for the other ingredients to come together into a dip-like consistency. Taste for salt - add salt and pulse to combine.

Notes

Equipment: A grill and a food processor (I use my KitchenAid Food Processor).

I usually serve this with pita bread, cut into triangles, and vegetable crudites (baby carrots and celery go particularly well). It is also good with tortilla chips or crackers.

If you don't want to roast the peppers, you can substitute 16 ounces of canned or jarred roasted red peppers, drained. Roasting your own gives you a much better tasting dip, in my opinion.

This is also the recipe for hummus - just replace the red peppers with roughly 1/4 cup of tahini (sesame paste).

Roasting extra red peppers is a good idea - you can always find a use for them in a salad or a sandwich. When I'm preheating my gas grill for something else, I put the peppers on right after I light it and turn them every five minutes; they're black right when the grill is ready.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes