Smoky Nora Pepper Houmous Recipe
by Nicola Lando
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Easy
Smoky and creamy, this Nora pepper houmous is an easy homemade dip that deserves a place in your weekly repertoire. Made with Spanish ñora peppers, chickpeas, tahini and lemon, it has a deep, rich flavour, with gentle sweetness and a subtle smoky finish.
Ñora peppers are a staple ingredient in Spanish cooking, particularly along the Mediterranean coast, where they're prized for their fruity, almost sun-dried tomato flavour. Unlike hotter chillies, they're mild and aromatic, adding colour, depth and complexity without overwhelming heat.
They're the secret ingredient in dishes like romesco sauce, but they work just as beautifully blended into houmous, where their natural sweetness balances the nutty tahini and bright lemon juice.
Ingredients for Nora Pepper Houmous
- 8-10 whole nora peppers (around 35g)
- 2 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained
- 2 heaped tablespoons tahini (70g)
- Juice of 1 1/2 to 2 lemons (70g)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp fine sea salt (2tsp kosher salt)
- 60g cold water
How to make Nora Pepper Houmous
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Deseed and gently toast the whole nora peppers in a hot pan, for 30-60 seconds or until you can smell the rich smokiness of the peppers. Remove and place in a bowl. Pour over boiling water, weight down and leave to soak for 20 minutes. Drain, and squeeze them to remove as much excess water as possible.
- Blend everything - the chickpeas, tahini, Nora peppers, most of the lemon juice, and the salt in a blender until smooth. Add the water a spoonful at a time until the houmous is pale, creamy and spoonable. Taste and add more salt and lemon juice until it’s seasoned to your taste.
- Enjoy simply as a dip for excellent crisps. Or serve as a base for roasted cauliflower with toasted hazelnuts and pink pickled onion.
About the author
Nicola is co-founder and CEO at Sous Chef. She has worked in food for over ten years.
Nicola first explored cooking as a career when training at Leiths, before spending the next decade in Finance. However... after a stage as a chef at a London Michelin-starred restaurant, Nicola saw the incredible ingredients available only to chefs. And wanted access to them herself. So Sous Chef was born.
Today, Nicola is ingredients buyer and a recipe writer at Sous Chef. She frequently travels internationally to food fairs, and to meet producers. Her cookbook library is vast, and her knowledge of the storecupboard is unrivalled. She tastes thousands of ingredients every year, to select only the best to stock at Sous Chef.
Nicola shares her knowledge of ingredients and writes recipes to showcase those products. Learning from Sous Chef's suppliers and her travels, Nicola writes many of the recipes on the Sous Chef website. Nicola's recipes are big on flavour, where the ingredients truly shine (although that's from someone who cooks for hours each day - so they're rarely tray-bakes!).
