Thursday, February 28, 2008

Beetroot Princess's Delicious Beetroot Houmus



In early January I got an e-mail from one of the editors of Oma Maitse, the biggest-selling Estonian food magazine, asking me if they could visit me and write an article for their February issue about my food-centred life they've been following through my blog and Estonian-language site. I spoke with K, and considering that we were just about to re-launch the Estonian site, we thought a little extra publicity cannot be bad, so one Thursday afternoon the journalist Katrin Kurss and the photographer Ülle Viska popped by for a few hours chatting, eating and photoshooting with me and K. We served them a range of our favourite light dishes - eight in total - that were all pictured in the February issue, though they only had space for five of the recipes. The resulting article was called "Peediprintsessi moodsad palad" or "Beetroot Princess's Modern Bites" and the five-page spread was accompanied by a full-page photo of moi :)

The menu was following:
Molly's bouchons au thon (adapted over the last year, when I've made them on a monthly basis; recipe provided)
My small beetroot & blue cheese tartlets (recipe provided)
Beetroot houmus (recipe provided)
My kama and mascarpone 'truffles' (recipe provided)
K's beautiful cannéles (recipe provided)
My simple matcha tea loaf (served with K's mum's cloudberry compote - seen on the photo above)
My sea-buckthorn sorbet, using berries from my grandmother's garden
Piña Colada Espuma, just for that little bit of fun

Here's a recipe for the beetroot houmus. If you love beets, you'll adore this. If you like chickpeas and houmus, you'll love this. And if you fancy both, you'll be in seventh heaven. Excellent as a dip with vegetable sticks, or as a spread on some lightly toasted dark rye bread. And just look at that amazing colour!!

Beetroot Houmus
(Peedi-kikerhernehummus)
Serves 6-8 as a dip



2 to medium sized beets, cooked or roasted
a 400 g can of cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
about 2 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
0.5 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

Toast the cumin seeds on a dry pan for a few moments to release the aromas, then crush in a pestle and mortar.
Peel the beetroot and cut into smaller chunks.
Rinse and drain the chickpeas.
Puree the beets and chickpeas in a food processor (I used the grinder attachment of my KitchenAid Mixer).
Add minced garlic, cumin seeds, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. If the mixture is too thick, then add some boiled water to lighten it. Taste for seasoning again and serve.

PS! The garlic flavour intensifies a lot when the houmus is allowed to stand for a while, so we wouldn't recommend more than these 1-2 cloves.

19 comments:

lobstersquad said...

thanks, Your Highness! I´d been very intrigued by the picture in the magazine, but now I know what it is, I´ll be dazzling my friends with this. I might become the Beetroot Duchess at the very least.

Anonymous said...

This is a warning ;)
I got a bunch of beetroots in my fridge....I am cooking this tonight...kids, don't try this at home!
You have been warned.
Thanks for the lovely pics and recipe.

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Congratulations on your celebrity status -- please leave us a link to the article when it is published.

Alanna Kellogg said...

A crown of cloudberries and cornflowers, now 'that' is befitting a true beet princess. :-)

K and S said...

that is wonderful, Pille! Congratulations :)

La Tartine Gourmande said...

Yeah, super! Many congratulations Pille! I wish I could see the article.

Kalyn Denny said...

How cool, and I agree it would be so fun to see the article. Way to go!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Yes, you are getting the idea, we'd all like to see the article and picture!
I love this beetroot houmus and MUST try it soon. Um, I might have to try it with a little bread!

Kristopher said...

I was thinking how Oma Maitse should actually just hire you. as columnist or even editor....for their own good.

We have every issue.rks.. It's a nice quality mag and much of it is fun to read, but the errors get exasperating -- just this issue it was suggested that couscous was a vitamin-rich whole grain and claimed that a marble cake is the same thing as a brownie.

And the cover celebrities have been overwhelmingly men...

Anonymous said...

Pilleke, tol päeval kui OM tuli, siis üritasin Sind telefonitsi tabada, aga kuna oli kinni, siis pärast ununes ära. Tore artikkel muidu.

Sabra said...

Oh my goodness you are so, so lucky! What a great opportunity! What is the photo at the top - I looked and looked and thought "garbanzo beans, no, beets, no" . . .

Anonymous said...

oh wow... I'd never been here before, but the beetroot hummus caught my eye...

... and now I've spent two hours browsing your archives... to the utter and complete detriment of my research... but, oh well... it isn't Monday yet...

Cheers!

Kevin Kossowan said...

How cool!!! Good for you!!

David T. Macknet said...

Beetroot Princess, huh? Good for you! The recipe sounds wonderful!

Katie Zeller said...

How wonderful and what a fantastic opportunity! Hope I am at least able to look at the pictures.
I finally got some beetroot in my fridge! Time to play with red.

Anonymous said...

I found a copy of Oma Maitse today!!

Anonymous said...

Selle retsepti äraproovimise peale mina olengi seitsmendas taevas, ma TEAN. Aitäh!!
Kohe, kui ma taas kodus süüa saan tegema hakata...
Pelle-printsess

Jeanne said...

Oooh, so I've met Estonian royalty ;-) Kudos to you on such a great magazine spread and an honorary title. And even for a non-beetroot-lover, the colour of that houmus is almost enough to convert me - thanks!

ptasia said...

I've tried it: hmmm, not exactly my cup of tea (guess I prefer the traditional stuff in this case :), but maybe you'd like to know I've posted a pic and link to your blog on a Polish message board:
http://tinyurl.com/2rvcep