Layered Hummus with Roasted Red Peppers and Feta Cheese

Homemade velvety hummus made with chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon and salt is layered with sliced Kalamata olives, diced cucumbers, roasted red peppers, feta cheese and pine nuts.  It’s a meal unto itself !

Have you ever made hummus before?  I have a few hummus recipes on this site and while I think they are WAY better than store bought, I still could never get it quite as smooth.

Don’t get me wrong, they are good, but not eye popping good.  And if I compared it to my local Mediterranean place then I failed miserably because theirs is as smooth as silk.

So I have been feverishly working at this.

While store bought hummus is convenient here’s a little fact you may not know.  Take a look at the back at the ingredients and take a look at the oil that is used.

Almost all store bought hummus recipes will use a cheaper oil.  Why?  Because it’s being made in mass quantities and good quality olive oil is expensive.   Most of the time they will use Soybean or Canola oils.

And to be honest many restaurants are using that as well.  So why not make your hummus at home and that way you can make it the way you want using the ingredients that you want.

Our Garlic Roasted Hummus recipe requires the peeling of the chickpeas which can be a little time consuming.  And while I do consider it vital to smooth hummus, I knew there had to be another way.

So for this recipe we decided to change things up by cooking the non peeled chickpeas in some water.  This will not only help soften them so the texture is spot on, but they begin to crack and split open peeling themselves.

HOW TO GET VELVETY SMOOTH HUMMUS

• COOK THE CHICKPEAS – Hummus should be velvety smooth and if I’m being honest here I’ve never really been able to achieve that restaurant quality hummus.  Theirs always seems to be less dense, less gritty and sooo much smoother.  I finally found out why there was such a difference.  It’s in the chickpeas.  Whether you use dried chickpeas or canned they need to be cooked.   And not just boiled in water, but water that has some baking soda in it.
• USE BAKING SODA – The baking soda helps the chickpeas break down and shed that outer layer, while cooking them makes them more tender and pop open.  Rinse them under cold water and remove any obvious skins and you will now get the smoothest hummus you’ve ever had.
• RESERVE SOME CHICKPEA LIQUID OR ICE WATER – Before draining the chickpeas reserve some of the liquid.  That liquid is packed with flavor.  Alternatively you can use ice water as that also has been found to give the hummus that light fluffy texture.

Now to really take your party up a notch, we’ve decided to incorporate more Middle Eastern flavors into our hummus by layering them on top.  It’s like a party in your mouth, friends!

We used some:

• diced up Kalamata olives,
• diced cucumbers,
• roasted red peppers.
• a little feta cheese and
• pine nuts.

If you really want to impress your friends serve this hummus alongside some Greek Inspired Chicken Kebobs.

My kids love dipping the chicken in the hummus or making their own Greek wrap with some torn off Naan bread and Tzatziki sauce.

A Greek Salad would complete this meal.   Another bonus is everything, but the chicken, can be made way ahead of time too!

Layered Hummus with Roasted Red Peppers and Feta Cheese

Homemade velvetty hummus made with chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon and salt is layered with sliced Kalamata olives, diced cucumbers, roasted red peppers, feta cheese and pine nuts. It’s a meal unto itself !

• Author: Debi

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

FOR THE HUMMUS:

• 2 Cans (15 oz) Chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 Cup Tahini
• ¼ – 1/2 Cup Organic Lemon Juice
• 2–3 Organic Garlic Cloves, roughly chopped
• ½– 1 teaspoon Fine Sea Salt, to taste
• 2 to 4 Tablespoons Reserved Liquid
• 1 teaspoon Cumin
• 2–3 Tablespoons Olive Oil (the quality of oil you use will stand out in this recipe)

LAYER WITH:

• 1/4 Cup English Cucumber, finely diced
• 1/4 Cup Roasted Red Peppers (jarred or home roasted)
• 1/4 Cup Kalamata Olives, pitted and finely diced
• 1–2 Ounces Feta Cheese
• 2 Tablespoons Pine Nuts
• 1–2 Tablespoons Olive oil for drizzling
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Parsley, chopped for garnish

Instructions

1. Place the chickpeas in a medium saucepan and sprinkle with the baking soda.
2. Cover the chickpeas by several inches of water, then bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Continue boiling, reducing heat if necessary to prevent overflow, for about 20 minutes, or until the chickpeas look bloated, their skins are falling off, and they’re quite soft.  Reserve 1/4 – 1/2 cup of the liquid.
3. In a fine-mesh strainer, drain the chickpeas and run cool water over them for about 30 seconds. Set aside.  The skins should have peeled off, pick them out if necessary.
4. Meanwhile, in a food processor or high-powered blender, combine the lemon juice, garlic and salt.
5. Pulse until the garlic is very finely chopped, then let the mixture rest so the garlic flavor can mellow, ideally 10 minutes or longer.
6. Add the tahini to the food processor and blend until the mixture is thick and creamy, stopping to scrape down any tahini stuck to the sides and bottom of the processor as necessary.
7. While running the food processor, drizzle in 2 tablespoons of the reserved liquid. Scrape down the food processor, and blend until the mixture is ultra smooth, pale and creamy.
8. Add the cumin and the drained, over-cooked chickpeas to the food processor. While blending, drizzle in the olive oil. Blend until the mixture is super smooth, scraping down the sides of the processor as necessary, about 2 minutes. Add more reserved liquid by the tablespoon if necessary to achieve a super creamy texture.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER:

1. Spread the hummus out on a rectangular platter and layer the cucumbers, peppers, olives, cheese and pine nuts on top.
2. Drizzle olive oil over and around the hummus.  Sprinkle paprika and fresh parsley on top.
3. Serve with fresh pita bread, chips or vegetables.