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Spicy Red Pepper Hummus

January 14, 2006 By Susan Voisin 15 Comments
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This moderately spicy red pepper hummus makes a great party dish. I dress it up with a topping of roasted red peppers combined with pine nuts and seasonings and a drizzle of lemon juice.

Harissa adds heat to this red pepper hummus so that you can skip the tahini (and the fat) if you like. Dress it up with a topping of pine nuts and peppers.

Friday night is usually DVD night here, and we normally try to pick something that we can watch as a family. But since our 8-year-old daughter was having a sleep-over at the neighbors’, we were able to watch something a little more adult. We chose Hustle & Flow, which we really liked. Terrence Howard’s performance was excellent.

Since we were planning to eat in front of the TV, I chose something simple: Spicy Red Pepper Hummus stuffed in whole wheat pita bread with lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, and a few calamata olives.

Adding jarred roasted red peppers to hummus is a great way to bump up the flavor, allowing you to decrease the amount of tahini and fat while still having a rich-tasting hummus that appeals to all tastes. I love harrisa in this recipe, but if you don’t have any, try using any hot pepper paste or sauce.

Low-fat vegan hummus recipes

More Hummus Recipes

I love hummus so much that I make it a variety of ways—some of which technically aren’t hummus because they don’t use chickpeas. Here are some favorites:

  • Hummus in the Blender
  • Pimento Cheese-Style Hummus
  • Black-Eyed Pea Hummus
  • Walnut and Kidney Bean Spread (Lobio)
  • All 20 of my low-fat hummus recipes
Harissa adds heat to this red pepper hummus so that you can skip the tahini (and the fat) if you like. Dress it up with a topping of pine nuts and peppers.
5 from 5 votes
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Spicy Red Pepper Hummus

Gluten Free
Nut Free
Soy Free
Sugar Free
Roasted red pepper adds so much flavor that you won't need much (or any) tahini in this low-fat hummus.
Prep Time 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time 1 minute minute
Total Time 11 minutes minutes
Servings 6
Author Susan Voisin

Ingredients

  • 3-4 cloves garlic
  • 3 cups cooked chickpeas (2 15-ounce cans)
  • cooking liquid from the beans (or water)
  • juice of 1/2-1 lemon
  • 2 tablespoons tahini (omit if cutting fat)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • Harrisa or other hot pepper sauce, to taste*
  • chipotle chili powder (optional)
  • salt (to taste)
  • 10 ounces roasted red peppers

Optional Topping

  • toasted pinenuts
  • additional chopped roasted red peppers
  • lemon juice
  • 1-2 pinches powdered chipotle pepper
  • 1 sprinkle sumac
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Instructions

  • Throw the garlic into a running food processor (see Notes for blender option). Add the chickpeas and begin processing. Add the lemon juice and tahini. (I used half of a very large yet mild homegrown lemon. For regular lemons, I’d start with half, check the flavor, and add more if needed.) If needed, add 1/4 cup bean cooking liquid or water, just enough so that the chickpeas become a smooth paste. Add the cumin, the harrisa, chipotle powder, salt, and half of the roasted red peppers. Process until smooth. Taste for spiciness and add more harrisa as needed.
  • Add the remaining roasted red peppers and pulse to coarsely chop.
  • If you want, make a topping for the hummus by combining a tablespoon of toasted pine nuts with 2-3 tablespoons of chopped pepper. Add lemon juice and chipotle pepper to taste. Drizzle the top of the hummus with a little lemon juice (and if you really want spicy, add a little of the juice from a jar of pickled jalapeños.) Mound the topping in the center. Sprinkle with sumac.

Notes

Harrisa (also spelled harissa) is a Tunisian hot pepper sauce. I buy the Ziyad brand in a local Middle Eastern grocery store. If you can’t find harrisa, feel free to use any other spicy pepper sauce you have on hand. I started with a teaspoon of sauce and kept adding until it reached the spiciness we like, probably about 2 teaspoons. I also used about 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder just to increase the smoky flavor. Play with the seasonings and adjust them to your tastes.
For super-creamy hummus, use a Vitamix or other high powered blender. Start with about 1/2 cup of chickpea broth and add more if necessary.
One sixth of the recipe counts as 1 point on Weight Watchers Freestyle program. Adding optional ingredients may increase the points.
Nutritional Info below includes tahini but not optional toppings or salt. It also assumes the use of salted, canned chickpeas. If omitting tahini, each serving contains 116 calories and 2 grams fat.
Nutrition Facts
Spicy Red Pepper Hummus
Amount Per Serving (1 Serving)
Calories 144 Calories from Fat 36
% Daily Value*
Fat 4g6%
Saturated Fat 0.5g3%
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 1.5g
Sodium 343mg15%
Carbohydrates 20g7%
Fiber 7g29%
Sugar 1g1%
Protein 7g14%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutritional info is approximate.

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Spicy Red Pepper Hummus: Harissa adds heat to this red pepper hummus so that you can skip the tahini (and the fat) if you like. Dress it up with a topping of pine nuts and peppers. #vegan #wfpbno #wfpb

Original 2006 photo

Updated June 10, 2016 with a new photo and optional toppings.

Filed Under: Appetizers and Dips Tagged With: Chickpea Recipes, Eat-to-Live, Gluten-free, Higher-fat, Hummus Recipes, Soy-free, Weight Watchers Points

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kristen

    November 14, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    This was wonderful! Thank you!!

    Reply
  2. Fiona

    November 24, 2010 at 10:16 am

    This is officially my go-to recipe now for Red Pepper Hummus! I have tried several, but the flavors were never quite right. I absolutely love this one! Thank you for posting your delicious recipes! I might try adding a T of flax oil next time and see if that’s any good too.

    Reply
  3. Fiona

    November 24, 2010 at 7:19 pm

    Blech, I tried adding flax oil and it was not a good addition! The flavor of flax is too powerful and contrasts too much with the other flavors in the hummus. The recipe is lovely just as it is.

    Reply
  4. Wendy Alimo

    January 4, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    This is the BEST!!! Before I made this, I had only eaten the commercial type found in the stores. This is SO much better. Love the spice that the garlic gives to the dip–I love garlic!-and the little bits of red pepper add great appeal. Don’t hesitate to make this–if you like roasted red pepper hummus (and garlic!) you will absolutely love this!

    Reply
  5. Adeline

    February 10, 2012 at 6:34 pm

    I never made hummus before, and always wanted to try but there was always that commercial red pepper hummus so easy to buy, and so I never did make my own. I finished a 28 day juice fast yesterday and started Dr. Fuhrman’s 6 week plan today, so I needed something lower in fat, that brand has 6 g fat in 2 Tbs. I figure this recipe made about 5 cups, and we each ate more like 1/2 cup, so the tahini put into the recipe had 17 g fat in 2Tbs, that means it was only 1.7 g fat in a half cup serving? WAAAAY less than the Sa*** brand. And it tasted as good but maybe fresher, and this recipe was easy and turned out EXCELLENTLY!!! My kids (3.8 yr old twins) dug right in and when they ran out of pita chips, they asked me for some of my veggies ( radishes and carrots) to dip into the hummus and finish off what was in their little dishes. And then, they LICKED their fingers and then their little dishes clean. I did put one fresh little hot red pepper in there instead of sauce though, red hot is high in sodium, and the garbanzos I used had pretty high sodium already. And I cut back on the chipotle so there wasn’t too much heat for the rest of the family. But you sure know your stuff. This was fabulous! Thank you so much for this blog, it’s really encouraging me about eating again after the fast. I was pretty anxious about salad dressings but I am going to try some suggestions about ingredients for seasonings and thickening and emulsifying dressings without oils.

    Reply
  6. Christina

    March 24, 2012 at 6:51 pm

    This hummus has become a staple in the house…..delicious!

    Reply
  7. Annie

    June 13, 2012 at 8:09 am

    This is by far my favorite hummus recipe!! I omit the tahini b/c of all the fat, and it still tastes delicious. I also use 1 tsp of the chipotle chili powder, which gives it a nice kick.

    Reply
  8. Ken

    May 31, 2015 at 7:43 pm

    Can this recipe be done in a Vitamix blender? If so, is there anything I should be concerned with before attempting? Although I am a grown adult, I am really new to cooking.

    Reply
    • Susan Voisin

      May 31, 2015 at 9:50 pm

      Yes you can! You might need to add some extra liquid so that it’s not too thick.

      Reply
  9. Sheila

    April 6, 2019 at 3:21 pm

    Susan, when you say roasted red pepper in your recipes, do you mean a jar of them or roasting our own red pepper? Love your recipes and going through now all the recipes you have given us the Weight Watcher’s points! WW should hire you as a consultant to make us vegans happier!!

    Reply
    • Susan Voisin

      April 6, 2019 at 10:57 pm

      I use the jarred roasted peppers in something like this, but you can always roast them yourself. I’m so glad you find the WW points helpful! It would certainly be nice if WW would pay me. 😉

      Reply
  10. Jackie

    July 5, 2019 at 5:31 pm

    I love this recipe! I read another post you did about eating salads when you don’t want to. I liked your advice about putting a pile of hummus on top of your salad–that sounded like an excellent idea! I only lacked hummus! And so I made this recipe. I wasn’t sure where to begin with the hot spices, so I added harissa paste and chipotle in half-teaspoonsful until it tasted right to me. I think I used maybe 1.5 teaspoons of each. I tossed in the roasted red pepper I had on hand, which worked, but I’ll try for more accurate quantities next time. This was awesome on my salad in place of my usual half cup of chickpeas (with some raw “ranch” vegan dressing underneath). I’m trying to follow “eat to live,” and there’s a lot of salad and a lot of beans, but minimal oil and salt. Your recipes are helping me quite a bit!

    Reply

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Susan VoisinI'm Susan Voisin, and I love creating delicious whole foods plant-based dishes with no added oil. Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram.
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