When I was a kid I was taught to “never waste a hot oven”. Roasting a chicken? Throw some potatoes in there too. Baking bread? Better add a tray of cookies. That lesson stuck, and whenever I am turning the oven on I find myself looking around for other things I can tuck into the corners.

That rule led to this recipe. I wanted to make roasted red peppers, but also had some garlic, and one thing led to another.

I suggest serving this with pita bread, carrots, and even more red peppers. Any leftovers can be mixed with feta cheese and served on pasta (for real, it sounds a bit wild but is amazing).

Makes: About 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 2 red peppers, seeded and cut in half
• 1 head garlic
• 1 tablespoon plus 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
• 2 19 oz cans no salt added chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup tahini
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees f
2. Cut the top off the head of garlic, so that you have just cut through the tops of each of the cloves
3. Drizzle the garlic head with part of the 1 tbsp olive oil and wrap tightly with aluminum foil
4. Rub the red pepper halves with the rest of the 1 tbsp olive oil and arrange them cut side down on a cookie sheet
5. Bake the garlic and red peppers until the skin of the red peppers begins to blister and blacken, about 20-30 minutes
6. While they are still hot, place the red peppers in a tightly covered bowl and let them cool – the steam will help the skins slip right off
7. Once the red peppers are cool, slip the skins off
8. In a food processor, combine olive oil (1/4 cup), chickpeas (2 cans), tahini (1/4 cup), lemon juice, cooled and peeled roasted red peppers and 3-4 cloves roasted garlic
9. Puree until smooth, if the mixture is too dry you can add more lemon juice but you probably won’t need it
10. Add salt to taste, I started with 3/4 tsp