Recipe Test: Roasted Beet Hummous

One of the first things I’ve decided I must research for the Xmas Open House is some new takes on dips, mostly because dips and spreads that are not mayonnaise-based do tend to hold well on the table of an open house and lend themselves to being served on an assortment of vessels. Given the variety of dietary issues I have to consider among my guests, I will have to give some thought to said vessels, but chances are the selection will include items such as traditional crackers, gluten-free crackers, cucumber slices and maybe some kind of baked vegetable chip? Suggstions? Also, you can generally make them about a week ahead and store well sealed in your fridge until a few hours before party time.

So as a starting point for the recipe test, I have decided to do a trio of hummous. There is just something I like about saying a “trio” of this or a “trio” of that. Sounds chic before I even lift a finger, LOL. Given that we are in the midst of the holiday season, and it IS a holiday party, I decided to see if I could stretch my culinary concept of hummous a bit and come up something in seasonal colours (white, red and green) to keep things festive.

I have also enlisted some help in my test kitchen. He is an up and coming chef with the most serious knife skills any soon to be 10 year old could possess. He has a palate that I find quite intriguing and discerning for someone so young...his favourite things to eat include unagi, roasted beets, salmon and apparently my ribs. Sadly he hasn`t completely given McDonalds the heave-ho but I have faith. And he certainly has embraced the one food rule I have in my house - try it before you say you don`t like it. 

Tonight, the first recipe to be tested will be the “red” in the traditional Christmas trinity - represented by a beet hummous. When I went to get beets this weekend, the red ones looked old, so I opted for some beautiful golden ones just for practice. I`ll find some nice red ones for the holidays.

One of my favourite tricks for hummous and bean spreads if I am using canned beans is to reserve the canning liquid, and use it as a substitute for oil in the recipe. It can basically eliminate the need to add oil and unnecessary fat in an otherwise healthy dip. Generally, once I’ve drained the canned beans I do rinse them, as I often find that adding back in some of the canning liquid can completely eliminate the need for further salting.

The below recipe started with the inspiration from this season`s BH&G Appetizers Magazine. It called for cannellini beans and a can of cooked beets. Talk about blech and boring. I made a modification to the recipe to use lentils, and I roasted 3 very large yellow beets in the oven yesterday to make the most of their natural sugars. Otherwise, the recipe is very good and the outcome was earthy but the taste of the beets shone through. T-Rex was quite surprised to learn he ate `horseradish` but was relieved to hear that no actual horses were hurt in the making of the radish.... :-)

Roasted Beet Hummous:

1 can green lentils, drained and liquid reserved
1 bunch beets, peeled and quartered, then roasted and cooled

1/4 cup tahini
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup reserved lentil canning liquid
2 tbsp parsley, chopped (optional)

In a food processor, combine lentils, beets, tahini, lemon juice, horseradish, garlic and puree until smooth. Add in reserved lentil canning liquid to aid in processing until hummous reaches the smoothness and thickness you like. I used the whole 1/4 cup. Scraping down sides of the processor bowl, add in parsley if desired and process to combine. Recipe will keep for about a week at this point, or maybe longer.

I`ll take this into work tomorrow for my second group of food tasters to comment on (Compliance Officers are really well behaved and very nice, especially when you feed them).

The second colour to be tested will be “white” (porobably tomorrow) so I have decided to use white kidney beans as my base. I know that rosemary, sage, thyme and basil work well with white beans, but in an effort to avoid duplication of flavours with my Butternut Squash Crostini, I am going to focus on just rosemary, mostly because I love the smell but also because it looks a bit like pine branches, and will hopefully liven up the otherwise dull white beans.