What’s cooking today: Roasted carrot & roasted beetroot hummus

First make tahini, then use that to make two variations of hummus.

This recipe accompanies this column.

Tahini

100g white sesame seeds

Olive oil as needed, most likely 4 Tbsp/ 60 ml

1 tsp sesame oil, or a little less, but not more

Toast the sesame seeds in a frying pan on a low heat, shaking the pan frequently and tossing to turn the seeds, until the seeds turn a pale golden. Don’t let the pan smoke as it would spoil the seeds, turning them acrid.

Grind the seeds, then add 1 Tbsp olive oil while blending, adding more olive oil until you have a nice creamy consistency. Salt very lightly if you like.

Roasted Carrot Hummus

Ingredients

1 x 400 g chickpeas, drained and rinsed

450 g carrots

4 large garlic cloves, chopped finely or minced

1 tsp cumin seeds

60 ml/ 4 Tbsp olive oil

60 ml/ 4 Tbsp lemon juice

½ cup/ 120 g tahini

1 or 2 additional Tbsps olive oil for dressing

Parsley, or ground cumin, or paprika, for dressing

(Or use toasted sesame seeds and/ or toasted pine nuts)

Water as required

Method

Note that canned chickpeas are already cooked so you do not need to boil them first. 

Peel the carrots and roast in a 220℃ oven for 30 minutes with toasted cumin seeds scattered on them. Cool. Blitz them in a food processor until smooth.

Whizz the chickpeas with 60 ml olive oil, then stir into the puréed carrots. Add 2 Tbsp water, the lemon juice, the garlic and tahini and continue to blend until completely smooth. If it’s too thick for your liking, add a little more water and blend a bit more.

Spoon the carrot hummus onto a presentation plate and draw the round side of a dessert spoon around it three or four times to create a classic swirl. Drizzle a little more olive oil over it so that it collects in the troughs created by your swirling expertise.

Garnish it with chopped parsley or a few shakes of paprika or ground cumin, or a combination of any of those. Or toast some pine nuts and scatter them over.

Roasted Beetroot hummus

The same ingredients as for roasted carrot hummus, but with 450 g roasted beetroot instead of the carrots, roasted in the same way. Other than that, follow the recipe as for carrot hummus. DM/TGIFood

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Champion of the Year 2021. His book, foodSTUFF, is now available in the DM Shop. Buy it here.

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