Beetroot and Tahini Dip
London, United Kingdom · View all recipes
Overview
Beetroot cooked until tender and blended smooth with tahini, lemon, garlic and ice cubes. It is served with Egyptian flatbread or pita, and no single country is claimed. **It is garnished with pine nuts, which the title gives no indication of.** The title needs correcting. The source calls it beet hummus and describes it as containing chickpeas and aquafaba, its ingredient list contains neither. What it actually is, is a beetroot and tahini dip, and calling it hummus is misleading in a way that matters, since hummus means chickpeas. The title has been changed; the URL is unchanged. The ice cubes are the technique worth knowing. Blending tahini with ice-cold water is a standard Levantine trick: the cold and the shear force together emulsify the sesame paste into something noticeably lighter and paler than tahini blended with room-temperature liquid. It is the same principle used in good restaurant hummus. The source also describes the dip as oil-free while its own ingredient list includes olive oil for garnish. Minor, but part of a pattern. Beetroot is not traditional to North African or Levantine mezze in the way tahini is, which makes this a modern composition rather than an inherited one. Its claims about blood pressure and athletic performance have not been carried across.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Bring a medium pot of water to the boil. Put in the beetroot and cook until very tender, about an hour.
- 2
Drain and peel the beetroot, discarding the cooking liquid. The skins slip off easily once cooked.
- 3
Transfer the beetroot to a blender with the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and ice cubes.
- 4
Season with salt and pepper and purée until very smooth. The ice is not decorative, blending tahini with something ice-cold emulsifies it into a lighter, paler paste than room-temperature liquid produces.
- 5
Spoon into a shallow serving bowl.
- 6
Drizzle with olive oil, scatter with toasted pine nuts and serve with flatbread or pita for scooping.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Nympha Nzeribe- This is garnished with pine nuts. The title says nothing about it, so mention it when serving.
- Do not skip the ice cubes. Cold liquid whipped into tahini emulsifies it and lightens both the colour and the texture.
- Cook the beetroot until genuinely tender. Undercooked beetroot blends grainy and stays earthy.
- Peel after cooking, not before. The skins slip off easily and you lose far less flesh.
- Wear gloves or work quickly, beetroot stains hands and boards.
- Toast the pine nuts. Untoasted they add nothing but softness against an already soft dip.
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