Smoked pepper hummus with potato flatbreads

I want to write about a nice snack today that I thoroughly enjoy. It can be offered at parties or just enjoyed at home on dark autumn evenings.

I have already published my basic chickpea hummus recipe, but today's recipe is a different hummus with a lovely spicy and smoky flavour. The hummus is similar chickpea based hummus but with added char-grilled sweet red peppers. They add a great flavour and nice colour to this dip.

Today I combined the hummus with Finnish style potato flatbreads. Also about these I have already published an article. They are very easy but tasty breads and even a great way to use your left-over potato mash. There's not much kneading needed and the dough is easy to shape. This time I actually managed to get barley and granary flour, so getting closer to the authentic Finnish ones.

The hummus

150g sweet baby red peppers

Vegetable oil for char-grilling the peppers

150g dried chickpeas

2 garlic cloves

1 lemon's juice

1tsp cumin powder

4tbsp water

5tbsp olive oil

1tsp paprika

1tsp salt

The only downside of this is that if you use dried chickpeas, you'll have to remember to put them to soak on the previous evening or early in the morning if you make this in the evening. I like working with the dried ones and I also have truck loads of them, so it's good to make a lot of hummus.

So, soak the dried chickpeas first and then cook them. First heavily boil them for a couple of minutes and then let them boil slower for about one hour until they are soft. Stir occasionally.

In the meanwhile char-grill the peppers in a grill pan. I used small baby peppers, so they could just be cut in half before the grilling. If you use larger ones you can chop them a little bit smaller. First heat some vegetable oil and then grill and turn the peppers until they have black charring marks and are cooked softly.

After the chickpeas are cooked soft let them cool. Chop the garlic and squeeze the lemon juice into a bowl with the garlic and peppers. Add the chickpeas and season with paprika, cumin and salt. Add the olive oil and water and puree into an even paste. Taste again and add more seasoning or more fluid if needed.

The potato flatbreads

You can make these breads while the chickpeas are boiling. Then they should both be nice and fresh to be enjoyed together.

500g potatoes or potato mash

3dl barley flour

1 egg

1tsp salt

Peel the potatoes and boil them until soft. Then chase them through a potato ricer or just mash them as usual. You can of course skip these steps if you are using a left-over potato mash. Add the egg to the potatoes and stir. Then add the flour and salt and knead for a while until the dough is even.

Roll the dough out thinly and use a cookie cutter to cut out small flatbreads. Place them on a greased baking tray or baking paper. If you so will you can also make a larger bread. Typically this is a very easy dough to shape as the potatoes are good binding agents. Obviously it pays off using tasty waxy potatoes.

Bake the breads at 180-200C for about 20 minutes until they have received some brown spots.

And there you have today's snack dish. Enjoy!

Your VegHog