If you get my weekly newsletter you’ve heard me mention a restaurant I recently tried called Almayass in The Flatiron district. Very cool Lebanese/Armenian place. I was there for a business networking lunch with 2 dozen women.
The decorations were really interesting, the staff was super friendly and the food had tons of flavor! They were serving the food family style – kept bringing out dish after dish. At one point they brought out this bright fuschia colored spread. The color was definitely a standout and I figured it must be something with beets. I normally DO NOT eat beets! To me they taste like the dirt they’re grown in – way too earthy for me.
But, I was intrigued. The color kept drawing me in. I decided to give it a try.
Whoa!! I l-l-l-l-loved it!!! I couldn’t get enough of it and kept thinking about it even days later.
Each year at Thanksgiving I try to make at least one new thing, so this was going to be it. I didn’t have a recipe but instead just had to try and recreate it from my memory of how it tasted. This is what I came up with…
Mine came out looking more like the color of raspberry sorbet and not the bright fuschia color of the original but it still tasted really good. Very close to the original from the restaurant.
I started off with 3 beets. Cut the stems off and peeled the skins off.
Then I cut them into chunks and decided to boil it. I cooked them until they were soft enough for a knife to easily go through it.
I drained them and put them in a food processor with 1 large garlic clove, 1 third of a can of chick peas, fresh lemon juice squeezed from 1/2 a lemon, and a sprinkling of kosher salt. As it was whizzing up, I slowly drizzled in extra virgin olive oil until it became the consistency I was looking for. Pretty smooth – not chunky.
I refrigerated it until it was cool and then served it with Stacy’s Simply Naked Pita Chips (a staple in my heme) and some celery stalks (the inner light green ones)
Everyone that tasted it really liked it. My Israeli bro-in law would argue that ti isn’t technically a hummus, but too bad. That’s what I’m calling it!
The kids didn’t try it so I can’t tell you if it’s kid friendly. When I make it again I would add a bit of a spicy element to it – maybe crushed red pepper flakes and maybe also try roasting the beets for a more intense flavor.
Do you like beets? Is this something you would try?
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