Life Changing Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Hummus & Ceara’s Kitchen 1 Year Anniversary

This week I celebrate the one year anniversary of Ceara’s Kitchen!

And can we just take a moment to celebrate with this Life Changing Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Hummus? I know it’s not seasonal guys, but I’m seriously ahhh-dicccted and I’ve been eating this hummus straight from the fridge with a spoon (#sorrynotsorry).

This Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Hummus is a seriouuus life changer. Life changing, perhaps. Because after one taste I was hooked. Seriously hooked. And for that reason I thought it was okay to celebrate with some Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Hummus over cake or cookies. Plus, I wanted to share something savory after two weeks of devilishly sweet, healthy eats.  Please forgive me 😉

Who knew the combination of roasted sweet red peppers, roasted roma tomatoes, chickpeas, garlic, tahini and a splash of hot sauce could taste sooo damn good. And I love that this recipe makes 5+ heaping cups of Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Hummus. It may or may not have been gone in under a week. 

I discovered two “secrets” to getting super creamy homemade hummus with some trial and error. First, peel the chick peas. I know it takes 10 minutes and nobody ‘likes’ kitchen prep but it makes aalll the difference. If you are really pressed for time, the second step will probably be sufficient. Second, make sure to process the tahini, fresh lemon juice and dash of olive oil for a couple of minutes in the food processor until the tahini turns super creamy and a slightly lighter color. If you do this before adding the other ingredients, your hummus will turn out better, creamier and smoother than the store bought variety. Yum.

And today, there will definitively be some cake and maybe some cookies along with this Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Hummus to celebrate. [Feel free to fast forward to the end of the post for the recipe!].

A year (and one day) ago today I started Ceara’s Kitchen while sitting on the couch in my living room [–> first post ever]. I had just moved to Belgium a couple months before, did not know many people, and was getting settled into a new way of life here in Europe. Before my Master’s took off, I spent the first couple weeks getting to know the city, running, doing yoga, and cooking. I felt as if I finally had the time to test and try out new recipes in the kitchen and recreate many of my old favourites. I felt at peace in the kitchen, recreating comforting dishes, scribbling down the recipe somewhere (sometimes) and often losing the recipe until I recreated something new the next day.  

As much as that was a great way of doing things (not). I wanted to be able to share some of what I was creating in the kitchen with others and also keep a record of my favourites for later. I started Ceara’s Kitchen with the simple idea of sharing some of the healthy recipes I was baking and cooking up in the kitchen. I also sought to share my growing passion for living a healthy lifestyle filled with an abundance of beautiful fruit and veggies with some chocolate in between. After struggling with my weight and health almost my entire life, Ceara’s Kitchen quickly became a motivating and inspiring source in my life. I started becoming excited to sign up for races and share my experiences with my friends back home. Because if I could do it, I truly believe anybody could do it.

My first recipes consisted of me taking a couple pictures of my dinner and dessert straight from the table (I had no idea and am still learning about all the ins and outs of food photography) and posting the unedited, raw photos online. I know, right. Since then, I’ve learned so much by experimenting with different cooking styles (though there has been a lot of unshared #recipefails along the way). I’ve cooked with ingredients I didn’t even know existed (nutritional yeast, anyone), ate more fruits, veggies and chocolate imaginable, and ran and did yoga more times than I can count.

Ceara’s Kitchen has truly become a wonderful outlet for me, especially before I met many people here in my new home in Europe, and I am so happy to have met so many amazing, supportive, and amaaazinngg people from around the world. I have never felt so inspired by such a wonderful diverse community that shares a passion for delicious food, life and everything else in between! <3 I am so grateful to have met all of you and look forward to all the mouthwatering recipes every week! Looking forward to many more years of tasty recipes, laughter, inspiration and, of course, chocolate.

Love,

Ceara XOXO

If you do try this Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Hummus or any other recipes of mine, I love hearing about it! Insta or Tweet it to me (@cearaskitchen with hashtag #cearaskitchen) or Facebook it to me via the Ceara’s Kitchen Facebook Page!