Pink Hummus

This is just about the girliest hummus you could ever make.. The beautiful pink colour that the beetroot gives it can range from a deep grown up burgundy to Telly Tubby pink, but regardless of colour, the taste off of this has been a firm favourite in our house. It comes out for every family dinner, from paella to baked cod and it seems to go with everything! However, a personal favourite to do with this is a big plate of chopped veg and a bag of Lidl's Roasted Vegetable crisps and curling up watching a DVD. Definitely a healthy option for Monday night nibbles!  (Plus it takes only minutes to make!)

Ingredients

• 4 beetroots, vacuum packed are perfect, but because of the availability of the fresh ones from Irish Mammy's garden, I went the long route!
• 1 tin of chickpeas
• 1 lemon
• Olive oil
• Garlic, I tend to use 3 cloves, but this is truely a personal option, add more or less as wanted!
• Tahini paste (100% optional, I only found this recently and while it does add a nice extra flavour, it is definitely not an essential for this)

So with this there are a few optional steps, namely getting the fresh beets ready for hummus-ing! So I'll go through these first and then get on with the rest of it! 

1. First step is finding those lovely fresh beetroots in the midst of all the flowers in the garden.. (Yes, you guessed it, this is just a step to post this picture.. )
   
2. Next wash off all the dirt and make sure they are really clean!
3. Get rid of all that extra stuff, roots and leaves namely, til you are left with some lovely beety balls! (yummy, now that's a description you won't find in Delia Smith!)
4. Preheat the oven to about 200 degrees and wrap up your beets in some tin foil. I found that if I twisted the top, not too tightly, that it was a really handy way of taking them out of the oven to check on them without burning my hands! 
5. Then into the oven with them for about an hour or so, but check after about 40 minutes. You know they are ready when a knife can cut through them really easily! This is also one of the ONLY times you'll want your food to look like shrunken heads. They seriously aren't pretty, but oh so tasty! 
6. Leave them to cool down and then its time to peel! I found that the skin peeled off quite easily, but if in trouble, a veg peeler can some in very handy! (Prepare yourself for some very serial killer looking hands!) 

And that's the prep of the beetroots done! Next onto the easy part, the hummus!

1. This is pretty much one step. Two steps if you wanna get crazy! So firstly, chop up the beetroot, and pop it into a bowl, grate some garlic (personally, I go for four cloves) into the bowl as well. Drain the chickpeas and pop those in too. Then cut your lemon in half and squeeze half in, keeping the other half for later. I put a half of a soup spoon of tahini into this, but that is always optional, and then three tablespoons of olive oil. DONE! 
2. All you do now is get your blender and wizz it all up to your desired consistency and there you have it, that is literally it! 

 Super easy to make, super delicious, and super healthy too! We tend to make this with big dinners and salad, but the best way to eat this is with a few beers, some crisps and good friends! (Side note, this was eaten while carving pumpkins, something none of us had done in years! Look at how cute they are!)