Roasted Beet Hummus - Pretty In Pink

This hummus has got a lot going for it from its pretty color to the way the lemon and garlic provide a perfect foil for the sweet, earthy flavor of the roasted beets and the nuttiness of the chickpeas to the added folate, vitamin C, fiber, manganese and potassium the beets add to the protein-packed hummus.

Add some cut up veggies and a pita and you have a hearty, filling, super healthy meal. Or make this hummus as part of a mezze-style spread and invite friends over for dinner.

I got the idea from some store-bought roasted beet hummus that I tried at a friend's house. I had to be practically pulled away from the hors d'oeuvres table, cracker still in hand, happily spoiling the lovely meal she had prepared for us.

It's easy to make, too, especially if you happen to have a roasted beet lying around. Sadly, I did not have any roasted beets in the fridge so I went out and bought some since the ones in our garden are not ready to harvest just yet. Then I roasted 'em but good, slipped the skins off, cut them up and tossed them into the Cuisinart with a bunch of garlic.

I've also become a bit of a chickpea snob so I soaked a couple cups of dried garbanzos over night (so I would have enough leftover beans to freeze - makes it so easy later on) and made the hummus after cooking the beans the next day. But there is NO SHAME IN USING A CAN OF CHICKPEAS. Just make sure to get the kind in the BPA-free cans if you go that route.

The cooked chickpeas joined the beets and garlic in the Cuisinart along with some tahini paste, salt and lemon juice. A little blitzing and this lovely, smooth, salmon-colored hummus was ready to eat.

The recipe below is flexible so you should feel free to adapt it to your liking - if you love garlic, add more. If you like the beet flavor, add more. If tahini is your thing, go crazy. It's just hummus, we're not baking anything.

-- print recipe --
Roasted Beet Hummus
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

* 1 large or 2 small beets, scrubbed with greens and tops removed
* 1 3/4 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 15 oz can, mostly drained
* Juice of 1 large lemon
* 2 large cloves garlic, pressed
* 2-3 Tbsps tahini paste
* 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
* Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Begin by roasting the beets. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place the scrubbed, trimmed beets in a generous pouch of tinfoil, drizzle them with olive oil and fold the foil over them to form a neat, enclosed little package. Place the package on a baking sheet (preferably one you do not care overmuch about as it may end up getting some charred beet juice baked on to it), place it on the rack and bake for roughly 60 minutes, until the beets are tender when poked with a fork. When they're done, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool, then slip the skins off with your fingers or a knife and slice them into quarters.

2. Place the beets in the bowl of the food processor and add all the remaining ingredients except the olive oil. Blend until smooth, drizzling the olive oil in as you go.

3. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed adding more lemon juice, salt, tahini or garlic according to your likes. If it feels too thick, add a bit more oil and a little water and blend until fully combined. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

You might also like:

Cumin-Scented Quinoa with Grated Beets & Curried Chickpeas

Spicy Sweet Moroccan-Inspired Chickpea Spread with Blood Orange & Chipotles

Hummus with Caramelized Onions & Garlic Topped With Beets, Pine Nuts & Greek Yogurt

Chocolate Orange Beetroot Cake

We grew beets for the first time this year. I started them from seed back in the cold, dark days of early April and watched with amazement as the tiny little sprouts transformed into mighty plants with enormous roots that poked up out of the dirt in the garden. They matured quickly and we've been harvesting them for the last week or two. I think I may end up planting another batch of them so we can have fresh beets in the fall, too.

After a slow start (read: I hated them for the first 30+ years of my life), I am now beets' biggest fan. I like to eat them roasted, braised, raw and more. But I had never tried baking a cake with them until our friend, Lana (the one who turned me on to these amazing cookies) mentioned this cake to me last week.

It sounded good so I googled "chocolate beet cake" and found a recipe. Then I made it and I can tell you that it is truly divine. The almond meal gives it a fantastic crumb - the word "toothsome" comes to mind.. The beets make it rich and moist, the orange provides the perfect sweet tartness and the chocolate does what chocolate always does - makes everything richly delicious. Between the dark chocolate, the orange and the almonds, the flavor profile is rather sophisticated. My two kids hated it! :( But the adults disagreed with them.

It's fairly simple to make. You cook the beet until it's quite soft (this can take a while...) then blitz it in the food processor into a puree.

Add the juice and zest of an orange. Such beautiful colors!

Stir in the almond meal, sugar, egg yolks and a few other bits and bobs. Beat the egg whites and fold them into the chocolate, then fold the chocolate and egg white mixture into the rest of it to complete your batter. Pour into a well-greased springform pan and bake.

Serve with fresh whipped cream, ice cream, chocolate sauce or all of the above, though whipped cream is my favorite. It needs that counterpoint of rather bland but wonderfully creamy richness.

The recipe is adapted from Sarah Raven's book, Fresh from the Garden. Although she has it listed in the summer section, given how well beets store and that winter is the season of citrus, this would be a perfect winter cake, too. I'll have to dust it off come February, methinks.

-- print recipe --Chocolate Orange Beet Cake
Adapted from Sarah Raven's Fresh from the Garden

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

* 1 medium beet (about 1/2 lb)
* 7 oz dark chocolate (at least 70% cacao)
* Juice and zest from 1 organic orange
* 1 cup almond meal
* 3 eggs, separated
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1tsp fine sea salt

Directions

1. Place the beet in a small pot of boiling water, making sure it is submerged and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, until soft. Peel and chop coarsely.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil an 8" spring form cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

3. Melt the chocolate in a double broiler.

4. Put the cooked beet in the food processor and puree briefly, leaving some texture. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the orange juice and zest. Add the almonds, egg yolks, sugar, baking powder and melted chocolate. Mix thoroughly.

5. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until firm but not dry, and fold them into the chocolate mixture.

6. Spoon the batter into the lined pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, then allow to cool in the pan. Unmold it and slice. Serve with fresh whipped cream, good vanilla ice cream and/or chocolate sauce.

You might also like:

• Chocolate Raspberry Tart
• Maida Heatter's Chocolate Sour Cream Layer Cake
• Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (a.k.a. Nutella)

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Nutty Forbidden Rice, Roasted Beet & Kale Salad

This is a gem of a salad. I have to thank my friend Margaret Mary for bringing it to a Superbowl Party last month. Although it did not necessarily fit into the theme of deep fried appetizers, it blew me away with its wonderful flavors, nutty heartiness and beautiful colors. I quizzed her about the ingredients and then recreated it at home a few days later with great results.

It features "Forbidden Rice" a kind of Chinese black rice that is so nutritious it is rumoured to have been reserved for royalty only. Whether that's true or just a clever marketing gimmick, it's clear that this is a tasty rice packed with antioxidants known as anthocyanins - the same kind found in blueberries and acai and that sort of uber healthy thing.

More importantly (to me, at least), it has a lovely, nutty flavor and a toothsome, slightly chewy texture. Plus there's the color. In dried form, it looks almost black. When you cook it, it turns a pretty purple-red color.

Kale brings its hearty, slightly sweet, vaguely mineraly flavor and provides a rich green base for this colorful salad. If you're interested in the health benefits, kale is truly a superpower, offering protein, fiber, Vitamins K, C and A, folate and lots of other goodies.

Roasting the beets brings out their natural sweetness and makes them mellow and just the right amount of soft.

The dressing is simple and good - garlic, apple cider vinegar, olive oil and whole grain mustard.

Toasted pecans amp up the nutty, slightly sweet profiles and add some crunch.

Toss it all together, then drench it in the dressing and let it sit for a while in the fridge to soften the kale and let the flavors meld.

It's so hearty that it keeps well for several days in the fridge. Happy Meatless Monday to you!

-- print recipe --Forbidden Rice, Roasted Beet & Kale Salad
Adapted slightly from Allison Day's lovely recipe in the New York Times
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

For the salad

* 1 lb beets (you can use any color you like though there is something nice about the deep color of red beets)
* ⅔ cup uncooked black rice (I used Lotus Foods' Forbidden rice but you could use Lundberg Farms Black Japonica or any black or purple rice
* 1 ⅓ cup water
* ½ cup pecans, roughly chopped
* 1 bunch organic kale, washed and dried, ribs removed, chopped or shredded

For the dressing

* 2 Tbsps apple cider vinegar
* 2 Tbsps olive oil (you could also use walnut oil if you're into nuttiness)
* 1 Tbsp whole grain mustard
* 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
* 1 tsp dried thyme, lightly crumbled with your fingers
* 2 tsps sea salt
* Several grinds of black pepper and more to taste

Directions

1. Start by roasting the beets - if you can, do this step a day or more ahead to save yourself some time. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse the beets (no need to peel them) and position them on a sheet or two of tinfoil (you want a tight package so they end up kind of steaming in there), drizzle with olive oil and wrap them up well. Roast them for at least an hour and 15 minutes - depending on how large they are, it may take closer to two hours for them to cook all the way through - you can test by removing them and poking with a fork - they're done when the fork sinks easily all the way into the middle of the largest beet. Remove and let cool until you can handle them without burning yourself. Remove the skins - they should slip off with ease and cut off the top and tail. Cut them into bite-sized chunks and set aside.

2. Make the rice - add the rice and water to a medium-sized pot with a tight-fitting lid, bring to a boil then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 40 or so minutes. Fluff the rice.

3. While the rice is cooking, make the dressing, mixing all the ingredients together well with a fork or a whisk. If you have a jar with a tight-fitting lid, you can also just cover it and shake well.

4. Place the chopped kale, diced beets and rice in a pretty bowl that's large enough to mix them all together in comfortably, drizzle the dressing over all and stir well to coat everything. Cover and put in the fridge to "stew" for a while - at least an hour and more is better.

5. Toast the pecans for a few minutes until they're nicely browned and crunchy. I toast mine on a sheet of recycled tinfoil in the toaster oven at 300 for about 5-6 minutes, shaking once to toast them evenly.

6. When you're ready to serve, top the salad with the pecans and toss well. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed, and serve.

You might also like:

• Citrus-Massaged Kale Salad with Toasted Almonds, Parmesan & Dried Cherries
• Favorite Brussels Sprouts & Kale Salad with Toasted Nuts & Parmesan Cheese
• A Spring Feast - Asparagus, Roasted Beets, Oven Fries & with Lemon Aioli

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.