Roasted Wrinkly Pepper Hummus

Here’s what I ended up making with the roasted wrinkly peppers.

Roasted Wrinkly Pepper Hummus
Ingredients:

• ½ cup roasted red peppers (from about 4 peppers)
• 1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas) – rinsed and drained
• 1/2ish cup olive oil
• 1/4ish cup lemon juice
• 5 fresh basil leaves, torn
• 2 tbls almond butter
• 2 cloves roasted garlic
• ½ tsp onion powder
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Put everything – except salt and pepper) into a blender, food processor or magic bullet cup. Blend till hummus like – smooth, but not liquidy or chunky, somewhere in between. Add more liquid – olive oil and/or lemon juice - if needed to taste. Season with salt and pepper. This is not an exact science; add more or less of whatever you want to your liking.
2. Substitutions: if you don’t have red peppers, use roasted garlic or jalapenos or whatever else your favorite flavor is. Use grapeseed oil instead of olive oil. Use tahini (sesame paste) or cashew butter instead of almond butter. Use garlic powder or real onions.

It was really good with carrots and pretzel chips. This hummus had WAY more flavor than any store bought hummus I’ve ever used, and I attribute that to the wrinkly ripe peppers we used!

Roasted Wrinkly Peppers

I got my hands on some beautiful red peppers! The only small thing “wrong” with them, is that they were a little wrinkly. This has happened to me in the past though – I found some awesome peppers, bought to many of them to use quickly, open the fridge one day and poof… wrinkly peppers.

At this point they are a little soft and ugly for eating raw – it’s hard to dip them into hummus like this… however, they are perfect for roasting.

At the wrinkly stage of a red peppers life, we know the sugars in them have concentrated. This makes these peppers literally the best roasted peppers ever.

Here’s how I do it:

Roasted Wrinkly Peppers
Ingredients:

• 4 large, over ripe red peppers

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut the peppers into 3-4 large pieces each and discard the veins and seeds. Keeping the pieces large and flat. At this point, I also cut out any icky spots if they exist.  Foil line a pan and put a rack on it. Spray rack with non-stick spray and lay peppers on it, skin side up.
2. Cook for 20 minutes, rotate pan, cook for another 10. At this point they should have big huge black, burnt looking spots on their skin. If not, cook them until they do, then turn the heat off and let them sit in the warm oven for 10 minutes.
3. When the timer goes off, put the peppers into a plastic bag or bowl with a lid, and let them sit for 10-15 minutes in their own steam. This will loosen their skins, making them easy to peel off when their done steaming.
4. Put the peppers in a jar by themselves to use within the next couple days or cover them in olive oil to keep for around a week or two.
5. Substitutions: Use this recipe for all kinds of peppers – especially jalapenos and poblanos. My favorite!



The color the pepper skins should be when done in the oven.



The steaming process.


These peppers are great blended up in dips (which is full circle cause at first I couldn’t dip them in dip!), put on pizzas and sandwiches or cut up in pasta. Enjoy!



They are a bit hard to peel - but totally worth the effort!

One Squash – Many, Many Meals - Day 2

It’s two days after making those delicious ravioli – and I have a whole, half of roasted butternut squash in my fridge. Its time to use it!

Looking in the fridge – I still have some of that super thin, sweet Pacific Butternut Squash soup and a tub of white miso. I bought the miso to make my favorite soup – squash/coconut/leek/miso soup… but I never got any leeks. Hmmm…..

Happy middle ground – making a hybrid, better Pacific soup.

Hybrid Squash Soup 
Ingredients:

• 1/3 carton (or one can) pre-made squash soup 
• ½ roasted butternut squash, chopped into small pieces 
• ½ tsp onion powder 
• 1 tbls grated ginger 
• Salt and pepper, to taste 
• 2 tbls white miso 

Directions:

1. Put everything, but the miso, in a pot. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Take off heat, add miso. Using an immersion blender, blend to almost smooth. Garnish with green onions (which I didn’t have… but I think would round the soup out perfectly). 
2. Substitutions: if you don’t have the soup, use a can of coconut milk and a dash of cinnamon or another notoriously thin packaged squash soup. Use dried ginger, instead of fresh. The miso is what makes this soup awesome… but its totally still soup without it :) 

I like making things that I’ve had to eat for a few days taste just a little different. Makes me feel like I’m not eating leftovers… again!