Our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Highland Kitchen, has one of the best appetizers around: the Mediterranean hummus plate. It’s three different hummus offerings served with cucumber and grilled pita bread. We went recently and they had changed the dish to include a beet hummus. I was in love. I knew I had to make this at home immediately. Trouble is, I don’t like tahini. So this recipe is for the tahini-shy and includes only three ingredients! It also involves a very special trick for getting the smoothest homemade hummus. Read on!
Domestocrat’s Beet Hummus
3 large beets, roasted
3 15-oz. cans of chick peas, shelled
3 tbsp. EVOO
Salt and pepper to taste
Aren’t beets beautiful? Not only do they taste and smell great, but I could totally look at their vibrant purple-pink color all day long.
Give the beets a real good scrub (no need to peel, the skins will come right off after roasting), a rub down with some olive oil, and roast in the oven for 1 hour (and hour and a half for really tender beets).
Because I’m a good student, I do what I’m told. Smitten Kitchen told me to individually peel my chick peas to get the smoothest hummus possible, so I did. Time consuming? Yes. A little crazy? Yes. Unnecessary? No. Worth it? COMPLETELY.
Drain the canned chick peas and then give them a good rinse in a colander. You’ll see the skins start to fall off while rinsing. Roll each bean between your thumb and forefinger and the skin will come right off.
This is my pile of bean skins after just one can of chick peas. Can you imagine how this gunks up perfectly good hummus? It’s so gritty and gummy – trust me, you do not want this in your hummus. Remove the skins, at least this one time – and then you can be the judge.
Place the roasted, cooled, and peeled beets along with the peeled chick peas and EVOO in a food processor and let it rip until the hummus is smooth and amazing. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper as you go.
This hummus is earthy, sweet, creamy, and rich. All that without the bitterness of tahini (totally optional here!). I highly recommend whipping up some homemade pita bread and serving it alongside this lovely hummus.
Domestocrat 
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