Tag Archives: roasted pepper

Adelia’s Roasted Pepper Hummus

4 Jun

Adelia was one of our hostesses during our trip to Paraguay. She is the wife of Chingolo and they have been members of our Devanand Yoga group since they lived in NYC many years ago. They moved back to their beloved Coronel Oviedo where they have several businesses including the hotel where we stayed at and they help run the Devanand Yoga Center of Coronel Oviedo too.

Adelia is one of the most welcoming people I know. She was always fixing something up for us to eat. Her kitchen may not that large, but her heart and love for cooking is immense. And she loves sharing how easy her recipes are, so we spend the better part of the two weeks we were in Paraguay exchanging recipes, or better said, she sharing and me writing her recipes so we would be able to replicate here in Puerto Rico.

One of the little treats she had for us one day was this hummus recipe… I tasted something peculiar, something I had tasted before, but I just couldn’t place in a hummus recipe. What is it Adelia??? “Oh, I just like to add some olives to my hummus recipe.” I ate this hummus every day until we finished it. I even had it for breakfast once… it is that good.

ADELIA’S ROASTED PEPPER HUMMUS

2 cans organic chickpeas, drained and rinsed well with filtered water
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
The juice of 2 limes
1 large roasted red pepper, I use the jarred kind
5 green olives, pitted or with pimiento
About 1/2 cup of olive oil – enough to make the mixture as creamy as possible
2 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ cup of water, optional
1 tsp paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
  1. Place chickpeas, cheese, garlic, lime juice, roasted pepper, olives, salt, pepper, paprika and some of the olive oil in a food processor.
  2. Process until the mixture is creamy. If the mixture looks mealy and not creamy as it should be, add the water and a bit more olive oil in small increments until you reach the creamy texture you seek.

The roasted peppers add a nice sweetness and the olives add an extra layer of saltiness that gives this hummus a different character. Let me know what you think of it.

We had this with rice crackers for a gluten-free alternative to pita chips or bread.

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Mediterranean Eggplant Stacks

28 Apr

Has it ever happened to you…  that  when you wish on something hard enough, the answer to your request will come to you automatically.  I am a firm believer in that…

Well, the other day I was feeling so-so, because my fridge was full of little somethings.  To the OCD part of me, that just drives me crazy.  I like order in my universe and that includes a clean, organized fridge.  I had some hummus left, I had eggplants that would start to spoil soon, I had an opened jar of roasted peppers, among others…  so, I sat down to watch my afternoon fix of Food Network and here comes Rachael with this 30-minute recipe for Mediterranean Eggplant Steaks – a vegetarian recipe good enough for meat-eating company…  my kind of recipe!!!

I tried the recipe that same night I learned, in fact, that I missed the olives in the original recipe…  and it turned out great.  I shared it with my neighbors and they were impressed.  They asked me to make this at an upcoming neighborly get-together…  nice, huh?   And if the Israeli neighbor liked it… it must be good, if not authentic.

Try it tonight…

 

 

 

 

MEDITERRANEAN EGGPLANT STACKS

1 medium eggplant, cut into 4 steaks lengthwise, about 1-inch thick
1 (10-ounce) box frozen spinach, defrosted
1 roasted red pepper, chopped
1 or 2 cloves garlic, grated
1 cup of hummus, home-made or store-bought
1 cup whole-wheat or spelt bread crumbs
2 tbs fresh flat-leaf parsley
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

 

  1. Defrost spinach.    Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. Heat a non-stick skillet to medium-high with about 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive in it.  Add roasted peppers and garlic to skillet.
  3. Squeeze the spinach dry and separate as you add it to the skillet. Season the spinach with salt and pepper and heat through.   Set aside.
  4. Brush the eggplant steaks lightly with extra-virgin olive oil and season liberally on both sides with salt and pepper.  
  5. In the same skillet you made the spinach and peppers, pan roast the eggplants 3 to 4 minutes for small eggplant, turning occasionally, until the steaks begin to become tender but are not fully cooked.
  6. Place the eggplants on baking sheets. Top each steak with a few forkfuls of spinach mixture.
  8. Spread a few rounded spoonfuls of hummus evenly across the steaks on top of the spinach, covering it completely in a thin layer.
  9. Toss the bread crumbs with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and parsley. Divide the bread crumbs and scatter them over the steaks on top of the hummus.
  10. Bake for about 5 minutes or so,  to brown bread crumbs.

 

A note about eggplants:

I learned once from Martha Stewart and a guest on her show, Eleonora Scarpeta, that you should always buy the lightest eggplants you can find.  They should be light for their size – kind of like the opposite you would think, no?  The reason being that the lighter the eggplant, the less seeds it has and therefore the less bitterness it will have.  This fact is particularly important in this recipe where we cut the eggplants and cook it straight.   

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