Herby Beetroot Humous

Serves 8

Talk about eating a rainbow! This is an easy and great way of adding in more veggies to your diet — simply by swapping traditional shop bought humous for this super fast homemade one, that also happens to provide a nice dose of plant-based protein from the chickpeas and butter beans too. I don’t know about you, but beetroot us not up there on my list of favourite vegetables, and certainly doesn’t appeal to my kids in the slightest. But something about the beautiful vibrant deep pink colour of this dip enticed them enough to actually try it (albeit a microscopic speck!), and then even they had to admit (begrudgingly) that they liked it too, which was no mean feat! And if you use a pre-cooked beetroot from a packet, then this recipe is as quick and easy as chucking everything into the blender and whizzing it up.

Beetroot is in season in the UK between July - October I like to make a few batches of this at one time to store in my freezer to use throughout the year when it is no longer in season. So it’s nice to be able to reach into the freezer and have a healthy snack on hand to use throughout the week on crackers, as a dip for crudite or in a buddah bowl.

Beetroot itself is packed full of vitamins, minerals and powerful antioxidants. It is an excellent source of folic acid and a very good source of fibre, manganese and potassium. The plant pigment that gives beetroot its rich, purple-crimson colour is called betacyanin; which some studies have shown to potentially suppress the development of some types of cancer. And to top it off, this snack provides 63% of my recommended daily Vitamin A intake.

INGREDIENTS

For the dip

· 1 Cooked Beetroot
· 100 g (drained) Chickpeas
· 100g (drained) Butter beans
· 2 tbsp good quality Oil of your choice - I use either Toasted Pumpkin Seed Oil or Smoked Rapeseed Oil
· Juice and zest of 1 Lemon
· 1 tbsp Light Tahini
· 5 sprigs Fresh Dill
· Handful of Fresh Chives
· Pinch Himalayan Salt
· Black Pepper to Taste

To serve

· Crudite Vegetables of your choice
· Rye Crackers

METHOD

To cook the beetroot

· Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
· Cut the greens off the beetroot bulb and loosely wrap it in foil (keep the greens to eat later though as they are super nutritious and delicious).
· Put in the oven for 30 mins or until tender.
· Open up the foil and allow to cool.
· Once cooled, it is much easier to remove the skin.
· Quick Cheats Note! Pre-cooked beetroot can be bought in the shops, but make sure it’s the plain one and not pickled in vinegar.
· Put all of the dip ingredients in a high speed blender and blitz.
· Peel and chop the crudite vegetables in batons.
· Serve with the rye crackers.