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David and Stephen’s Trio of Hummus

David & Stephen Flynn

Effort:
Complexity:
Cost:
In season now

Serves: Makes about 1 kg

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Basic hummus:

5 cloves of garlic (approx. 20g)

3 x 400g tins of chickpeas

150ml lemon juice (juice of 3 lemons)

6 tablespoons light tahini

2 1⁄2 teaspoons sea salt

a pinch of freshly ground black pepper

1⁄2 teaspoon of ground cumin

9 tablespoons water

To transform your hummus:

3 medium carrots (250g)

6 tablespoons olive oil



1 medium raw beetroot (175g)

Veg Portions / Serving: 1

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Recipe donated to Veg Power from The Happy Pear. Photography by © Sean Cahill | seancahill.org. Recipe by © David and Stephen Flynn.

This is a really cool thing to do with hummus – make a basic hummus and then vary it! You have one third basic hummus, turn a third of it into a roasted carrot hummus, and another third into a pink sweet beetroot and olive oil hummus. Dave’s youngest daughter, Izzy, is a serious fan of hummus – she calls it ‘butter’! Her favourite is beetroot hummus. If you make these, let us know your favourite on twitter.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Cut your carrots into bite-size pieces and put them at one end of a baking tray. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with a little of the oil.

Remove the dirt from the beetroot, top and tail, then scrub the skin, but don’t peel. Roughly chop your beetroot into bite-size pieces, then put them at the other end of the same baking tray and similarly sprinkle with salt and drizzle with a little oil. Keep the beetroot and carrot separate, though – you don’t want the colours to merge. Put the baking tray into the preheated oven for 20–30 minutes, or until the veg are well roasted and slightly charred around the edges.

Peel the garlic, drain and rinse the chickpeas, then put into a food processor together with the rest of the basic hummus ingredients. Blend for about 3 minutes, until pretty smooth. This is your main batch of really tasty standard-issue hummus. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if you think it needs it. Divide into 3 equal batches and leave one of the batches aside – this will be your basic hummus.

Once the carrots and beetroot are roasted, take them out of the oven. Put the second batch of hummus into the food processor with the roasted carrots and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and blend until smooth. Remove and clean out the food processor.

Finally, put the third batch of hummus into the food processor together with the roasted beetroot and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and blend until smooth.

Engaging Kids

Engaging Kids

Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.

Kids in the kitchen

Kids in the kitchen

There are lots of opportunities for kids to be in charge of turning on the blender and deciding when the mixture is ready with this one. They can also peel the garlic, grind the pepper and salt, juice the lemons and measure out the water and tahini. Children love seeing the three different colours of hummus emerging at the end.

Activities

Activities

While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.

Sensory

Sensory

Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.

Serving

Serving

The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.

David & Stephen Flynn

David & Stephen Flynn started The Happy Pear in Ireland in 2004 to make healthy food and living accessible to everybody. Their latest cookbook, Recipes for Happiness, is currently a No.1 bestseller.

thehappypear.ie/

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