Simple Spicy Hummus

This is a simple process, and the recipe will yield a little more chili oil than you need for the hummus. It should keep in the fridge for about a week, so hang onto it and use it in something like pasta sauce. You’ll thank me later.

Pour the olive oil into a small sauce pan and add the red pepper flakes. Over low heat, warm the oil to just shy of a simmer. Remove from the heat and forget about it for an hour or so.

Now lets get serious about the hummus!

This entire recipe is prepared in a food processor, which is nice because you don’t get a ton of dishes dirty and it comes together really quickly. If you’re like me and only have a mini-food processor, you’ll need to halve the recipe and make two batches and then combine them before serving.

First mince the 4 cloves of garlic. Add in the drained chick peas along with the tahini.

Once the chick pea, garlic tahini mixture is combined into a paste, add the juice of one lemon.

While the food processor is whirring, stream in the chili oil (red pepper flakes and all). At this point, add the salt to taste.

The consistency of the hummus may be a little thicker than you like, and you can stream in a little warm water or chicken stock to thin it out.

Just be careful not to add more than about a tablespoon of water or stock at a time… you can always add more, but once it’s in there you can’t get it out. No one likes runny hummus.

Transfer the hummus to a serving dish and drizzle with a little more chili oil and sprinkle with paprika. Serve with pita chips.

Ta Da!