Beetroot fennel and walnut dip
There’s nothing quite like beetroot in our opinion – it’s a brilliantly versatile vegetable. It plays its part is our salad counter through most of the late summer and into the winter months and we also make a velvety beetroot and dill soup that is great hot or cold. We love beetroot so much that we decided to squeeze another recipe through our kitchen and make a dip. This is perfect with hot toast and crumbled blue cheese or as an accompaniment to a smoked mackerel salad.
75g walnut halves
1 tsp fennel seeds
25g bread crumbs
200g beetroot
20g tahini
2 garlic cloves
50ml lemon juice
75ml virgin olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
Bread knife
Scrubbing brush
Lemon squeezer
Roasting tray
Pestle and mortar
Medium saucepan
Vegetable knife
Food processor
Method:
Set the oven to 160°C
Cut the crust off a slice of good quality bread and dice into cubes.
Scrub your beetroot clean and remove the leaves, if you are lucky enough to find them with them still on (you can blanch and use them in a salad or a stir fry).
Peel the garlic.
Juice 1 lemon this should yield 50ml if its a good juicy one.
Scale the rest of your ingredients.
Place your beetroots in some heavily salted water and cook until soft. Depending on size this can take anything from 30mins to 2 hours.
Once cooked remove from stove and peel whilst still warm – making this job relatively easy and quite enjoyable if a bit messy. Chop and cool.
Toast the walnut halves for 10 minutes on a baking tray to remove any dampness. Remove from the oven and cool. Do the same with the fennel seeds and then crush them in the pestle and mortar whilst still warm.
Blitz all the dry ingredients to a fine crumb. Add the cooked and chopped beetroots, olive oil, garlic cloves, tahini, lemon juice, salt and pepper and blitz until smooth.
Check the seasoning and adjust accordingly.
This is perfect with hot toast and crumbled blue cheese or as an accompaniment to a smoked mackerel salad.
This dip will keep in the fridge for three days if its potted into a clean bowl and cover tightly.