Kid-Friendly Red Bell Pepper Recipe (Muhammara) – Easy, Healthy Dip
Description
This one is for the red pepper lovers–the kids who insist they taste different than other bell peppers; who refuse to eat yellow and orange ones because they.are.just.not.the.same. Inspired by what is commonly known as muhammara, a red pepper and walnut spread common in the cuisine of Eastern Mediterranean countries (i.e, Syria, Turkey), we took what’s great about this mezze platter staple–savory, snacky, spreadable–and simplified it, replacing some of the ingredients you are not likely to have in your pantry (you know, pomegranate molasses or pepper paste), getting rid of the spicy elements that may appeal less to a small child, and finding that exact perfect balance between what appeals to your kiddo and exactly what you want to eat while they do. Think of what’s ahead on this page as the essence of a red pepper, in dip form: slightly sweet, a bit nutty–somehow full of the not-exactly-a-vegetable but bigger than it. So far as you’ve got a couple of minutes and a few extra peppers to spare, it’s yours in no time and little effort.
Ingredients
Instructions
Prep, Cook, and Assemble
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Cut off the tops and bottoms of the bell peppers, then cut them down the middle both horizontally and vertically to create four roughly equal pieces per pepper; remove seeds, ribs, and any other not-red material inside. Press down on pepper pieces to flatten. Coat peppers in a bit of oil.
- Roast pepper pieces skin side up until soft and just a bit toasted, roughly 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven, then place peppers in a bowl or container and cover–plastic wrap is fine, too–until room temperature.
- While peppers cool, blitz the breadcrumbs and nuts in your blender until ground down. Remove breadcrumb-nut mixture from your blender and set aside.
- Remove skin from peppers. Place peppers and a spoonful of minced garlic into the blender and blend until a chunky puree. Add the breadcrumbs and nut mixture, maple syrup, tomato sauce, cumin, paprika, and a big pinch of salt; blend until smooth. Finally, add the tahini and olive oil and blend again until smooth.
- Taste, taste, taste: if too thick, add another glug of oil or water; if too sweet, add a big squeeze (or two) of lemon. If too ‘meh,’ add another big pinch of salt and a bit more paprika and cumin to see what happens.
Serve
The obvious move is to spread some of this love on a cracker or pita and serve with a meal or snack, but thin it out with a bit more olive oil and you’ve also got a delightful dipping sauce for chicken and pork; it adds a punch to meatballs, too.
Adapt
You could easily add more vegetables here by mixing the ‘meat’ of a cooked eggplant–as they do in Baltic states–in the blender with the other ingredients; you can also go a more Spanish route by eliminating the tahini and adding in more olive oil–say, ¼ cup total–for something silkier and fruitier.
