Golden Beet Hummous

This recipe is a total riff on the Roasted Beet Hummous I made for my Xmas party back in December.  The difference here is that instead of using red beets for the red Xmas colour, I used golden beets I got at the Farmer's Market and some wild arugula instead of parsley.  The earthiness of the lentils, horseradish and beets worked incredibly well with the pepper and spice of the arugula.

Arugula is probably my favourite salad green.  I find things like romaine, iceberg and even leaf lettuce kind of boring, and I do tend to favour things like mâche (also called Lamb Lettuce, which I discovered in Paris years ago) and arugula.

I found the wild arugula to be much more intense than the regular cultivated variety.  More pepper, more spice and just an overall explosion of flavour - no wonder the Europeans call it "rocket".  Incidentally, food sociologists believe that the word "arugula" is an Americanization of the term "rucula", which is what the green was called by Italian immigrants who came to the U.S.   And funnily enough the word "arugula" spell checks as "jugular" and "angular". I always find that kind of thing funny.

So for this recipe, I was in a bit of a rush so I did substitute a can of lentils and no one died. Thankfully! With a bit more time, I'd definitely cook the lentils from dried but in a pinch canned ones are ok. I guess.

The arugula worked so well that I think this version is actually even better than the first.

Golden Beet Hummous

1 can green lentils, drained and liquid reserved
3 golden beets, peeled and quartered, then roasted and cooled
1/4 cup tahini
juice of half a lemon
1-2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1/4 cup reserved lentil canning liquid
1/2 cup wild arugula

In a food processor, combine lentils, beets, tahini, lemon juice, and horseradish 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 wild arugula and process to combine.  Recipe will keep for about a week at this point, or maybe longer.