I have no excuse for how long it's been since I've posted a new recipe. I have no excuse for how long it's been since I've developed many new goodies. Okay, I have a little excuse and that's to do with a combination of the election and Christmas. As some of you know, despite living in the UK, I am an American ex-pat and the election is/was important to me on a number of levels. Primarily I wanted to see my guy win for all sorts of reasons, but I also deal with a lot of election-related merchandise and my energy just had to be focused on that all month. The story with Christmas is similar; as with anything in retail December is a very important month so I needed to be prepared. Unfortunately this site has been neglected as a result of those factors.
I can assure you I will have plenty of other excuses later on, like how miserable and depressing it is that the sun starts going down at 3:30pm and how terrible the light is for photography once the natural light has dipped away. And that I haven't seen a proper summer in Britain for nearly three years. On the plus side I am hoping to buy a better camera soon! The bottom line is I need some inspiration right now and good tools always help (and would have been handy shooting the roasted tomatoes - my current camera sucks fruitcake).
On to the hummus
Back to business, I have to say I have always claimed to hate tomatoes. This doesn't count for the cooked variety but rather for anything that's less than pulverised and heated beyond the consistency and flavour of the original raw thing. This is a viewpoint that changed marginally when I discovered roasted tomatoes, and I highly suggest to anyone who hates tomatoes to give this method a go because it will give you a whole new perspective (at least it did for me).
My local supermarket had about 76,152 kilos of tomatoes discounted one evening so I of course purchased them all. Part of them went into this recipe (because I also had 82,137 chickpeas). The rest just went straight into my belly.
The flavour, in my opinion, is best within just a few hours of preparation, but it will last for quite awhile in the fridge. It's awesome on sandwiches with a little basil added and of course makes a fabulous dip for pitta bread.
Balsamic Roasted Plum Tomato Hummus
- Directions/Method
- Prepare chickpeas as per package instructions. I always recommend dried chickpeas as they just plain taste better, but tinned are ok too.
- Mix the tomatoes thoroughly in an oven dish or roasting pan with one tablespoon of the olive oil (the rest will be added to the finished product) and the balsamic vinegar. Place in an oven heated to about 175 celcius for 60 minutes, or until skins are slightly crisp and browned.
- For best results use a blender to mix the tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and remaining two tablespoons of oil along with the oven roasted tomatoes and their juices. The quantities are only a suggestion as the fluid content of the tomatoes may vary depending on how well roasted they are and how juicy they were to begin with. Add additional water (or more olive oil as would be more traditional) to obtain your desired consistency.