Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise....yes an e-mail with a snazzy contribution from my 10 year old niece Little Miss T (as named by my husband Jawahar) or then Star Light (literal translation of her name) officially known as Tara Noor Joshi.


Its so delightful to see my dear sister's daughter with a little bit of herself (she's so proper), a little bit of her mother Sarita (warm with empathy), a little bit of her Nani i.e.grandmother viz: Ratna Khemani (sense of colour and design) and a little bit of me (very "Mum helpful" plus her "scrubbing the corners tendency":))


Jawahar and me love her as does everyone in the family for her giggles and hugs, storytelling and dress sense.


What's also lovely to recognize in Tara is her already evident love for creative cooking...and that we think is possibly a gene from the Khemani side of the family:)


Tara attended this "From Farm to Table" Little Chef course last summer at Cincinnati where she resides and had so much to share with the family when we caught up over her "munj" (thread ceremony) trip last July to India.


I was as excited as her to hear the works, especially since Green Dots (the "go green", "science with fun" outfit I've started nearly 2 years ago) runs a Little Lavoisier programme.


This incidentally is a hands-on workshop comprising 8 sessions that deals with health and nutrition through the medium of cooking with food science experiments thrown in so that every participant can recognize they have a laboratory right at home in their kitchen! I'm always on the lookout for internationally appealing vegetarian recipes that map to the food pyramid so that subsequent runs retain the essence of the workshop format...yet need not have the same recipes!


Here's Tara's first contribution (from the food camp "From Farm to Table") for Food Crossings which I think should map well to the "Protein" session of Little Lavoisier.


Thank you Miss T and keep them coming!

Ingredients
1. 1 small lemon, juiced
2. 2 cups of garbonzo beans, drained (also known as chickpeas or then "chole" in hindi...the ones without skins)
3. 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, drained and chopped (that's red capsicum or bell peppers)
4. 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
5. 2 tbsp of tahini (that's a sesame paste, also easy to put together at home)
6. 1-1/2 tablespoons water
7. 1 tbsp olive oil
8. 1 tbsp cumin (jeera)
9. 1/2 tsp salt
10. 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

Method
Combine all the ingredients in the food processor untill smooth

Serve with fresh vegetables and/or pita chips. Yum!

Her masi (that's aunt in hindi and your's truly) is planning to make this hummus very soon...jar it under a layer of olive oil and use it as a bread spread (while reducing her intake of butter & peanut butter!)


Also discovered a nice variant of this recipe with vinegars (that might improve its shelf life) and some tomato paste (wonder if one will be able to taste it's presence)


See http://middleeasterncuisine.suite101.com/article.cfm/mouth-watering-roasted-red-pepper-hummus