I shall now amuse myself by mixing American and British English words/spellings in the same headline. ANYWAY. After some thought, I decided to ease back into things by focusing on salads for the rest of September. Here’s one I’ve been working on over the last week or two.
As I mentioned last week, I’ve become really engrossed with the Waitrose magazine and it’s teaching me the ways of ‘cooking with what’s in season’. And it turns out that late summer is a really great time for beets (or beetroot, if you prefer). I’m quite certain that I never even tried a beet before one turned up in my lunch the other day, because I was instantly addicted. They’re perfectly sweet and have a lovely soft texture when cooked that goes great in things like couscous, wraps and salads. It’s also really common to have them shredded and pickled, but I highly recommend you make use of them in their natural [cooked] form.
[Prep: 20 min*]
*add boiling time if using fresh beets
Hummus
– 1 medium beetroot (cooked)
– 1 400g/14oz. can chickpeas
– 1 clove of garlic
– 2 Tbsp olive oil
– 4 Tbsp lemon juice
– a couple sprigs of mint
Salad
– mixed greens
– sliced red onion
– shredded carrots
– cubed avocado
– chopped pecans
– crumbled goat cheese
– balsamic vinaigrette
– salt & pepper
- Chop the beetroot, garlic & mint and drain the chickpeas.
- Blend all hummus ingredients together in a blender or food processor until it just can’t take it anymore. Add water by the tablespoon as desired to help thin & smoothen the mixture.
- Put all the salad ingredients in a large, sealable bowl. Top with desired amount of the hummus mixture, drizzle with balsamic and sprinkle with a dash of salt & pepper.
- Seal the lid of the bowl and shake to coat the greens with ‘dressing’.
- Ready to eat!
Hummus recipe adapted from Beetroot Houmous, Waitrose Kitchen July 2012
Notes- If you can’t find beets pre-cooked, they’re very easy to prepare raw. Just rinse & lightly scrub the root, chop off all but about an inch of the stalks and boil for about 45min or until soft. The skin will easily peel away once boiled.
- This recipe is more about the hummus dressing than the salad ingredients, so take mine as a serving suggestion.
- This recipe creates quite a bit of hummus. Use as much or as little as you like in the salad. You can jar the rest for later/other uses.
- That being said, this recipe came about because I did not find the beetroot hummus very good on it’s own. Usually hummus has tahini in it, so definitely add tahini or blend the beetroot directly into a pre-made plain hummus if you would like to eat it as a spread.