Roasted Beet & Garlic Hummus

This hummus is for my bridesmaids.

Photo by Leydon Photography

Ashley, (on the far left), is my current Hummus Month partner-in-crime, and I know she’d love this hummus.  And I am standing by the belief that all of my other lovely ladies (left to right: Pem, Francesca, Heather, and Louise) would really like this one too.  Besides which, it’s fuchsia hummus.  And we have all spend the last year pointing out EVERYTHING fuchsia to each other in preparation for the wedding: fuchsia dresses, fuchsia fascinators, fuchsia nail polish, fuchsia flowers… it’s been the year of fuchsia.  (And I think it took us all a year to learn how to spell fuchsia!)

This hummus is fuchsia because of the addition of roasted beets — roasting everything makes them sweeter, and here I’ve roasted both the beets and garlic, so there’s lots of sweetness behind the earthy flavours.

I’ve included the instructions for How to Roast Beets below, and you can roast the garlic at the same time, just check on it after about 30 minutes.

Today, I roasted golden beets and regular beets at the same time.  The regular beets are the one that will make this hummus go fuchsia — I saved the golden beets (and the rest of the regular beets) for a salad for later this week.

I usually roast my beets in a foil package, but we ran out of foil this afternoon. So I used my casserole dish that has a lid, and it worked perfectly. It also made beautiful beet art:

You can top the hummus with either lemon zest or sliced, roasted beets. I like to top it with the beets so people know what’s inside!

As much as I think my bridesmaids will like this hummus, I think people who don’t like beets may even be converted by this recipe. The sweetness of the roasted beets is just perfect when paired with the roasted garlic and the sweet paprika.

How to Roast Beets

Preheat oven to 425F.

Scrub beets vigorously.  Place in a lidded casserole dish, or a packet made out of aluminum foil.  Roast at 425F for 45 minutes, or until they are completely tender when pierced by a sharp knife.

Remove from oven and let cool slightly.  When cool enough to touch, remove the skins by rubbing them with your fingers (you’ll get a bit pink, but it washes off easily, and is so easy to do!).  You can take off any stubborn bits of skin with a paring knife.

Roasted Beet & Garlic Hummus

• 1 can (300g/10 oz) chickpeas, drained (or 300g cooked chickpeas)
• 1 roasted beet (approx 172g/6 oz, see roasting instructions above)
• 2 Tbsp. tahini
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 cloves roasted garlic
• the juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until smooth (you may need to pause and scrape down the sides).

Eat with joy!