Have you ever had muhammara?  It’s a dip like hummus, also from the middle east, but instead of chickpeas and tahini, it’s traditionally a blend of roasted red peppers, walnuts, and pomegranate molasses.  YUM.

I was at Whole Foods the other day and saw that they were selling the renowned New Mexican Hatch chiles with the famously short growing season for CHEAP, so I had to buy them, not really knowing what I would do with them.  Upon doing some web research, I quickly learned that they are for roasting.  Apparently, in New Mexico, people buy them by the cases’ load, have them roasted, and do all sorts of cooking, storing, and freezing, so they have them through the winter.

I’d already had it in my mind that I wanted to make muhammara, which, as I said calls for roasted red peppers and a source of heat, normally crushed red peppers, so instead, I roasted the Hatch chiles and made the following VERY HOT and delicious recipe.

New Mexican Hatch Muhammara

• 12 or so Hatch chiles
• 3/4 cup dried whole wheat bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
• 4 garlic cloves
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 cup walnut oil

Preheat your broiler.  Cover a cookie sheet with a double layer of aluminum foil.  Wash the chiles and place them on the cookie sheet.  Place the chiles on your highest oven rack, as close as possible to the heat source, and roast for about 20 minutes, checking and turning the chiles about every 5 minutes until pretty well blackened.  Remove them from the oven, wrap them in the aluminum foil, and let steam for about 15 minutes.  When cool enough to handle, peel the skins from the chiles and remove the seeds.

Place roasted, peeled chiles in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients except for the walnut oil, and start the food processor.  Stream in the oil until you reach the desired consistency.  I like mine fairly creamy, like hummus.

We will be enjoying this dip with toasted whole wheat sourdough.