These two delicious middle eastern sides combine to make a matrimonial celebration…in your mouth! A bright purple hummus dusted with a warm, earthy spice and great crunch.

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This recipe is a middle eastern match made in Maine…strange I know, but true. Alex took me out to a restaurant for date night, a rare occurrence as we normally cook but; we were staying in a house and feeling all ‘normal’ and decided to push the boat out for a change.

We went to a little eatery in Rockland and ordered an eclectic selection (try saying that 10 times really fast) of starters and a bottle of reasonably priced but great South African Chenin Blanc and settled in for the night.

Anyway, enough about our date night, the point was that we ordered beet hummus and dukkah as two separate dishes but these two particular dishes just so happened be better together than peas and carrots.

The clean fresh flavour of the mildly spiced roasted beets and chickpeas and the earthy warmth of the dukkah all mashed into a piece of great hot ciabatta was truly delicious.

So good that the very next morning I tried to recreate it. And, happily found that it is SO easy.

I didn’t have fresh beets and even if I had, I doubt I could have been arsed to wait 2 hours for them to roast, I wanted it in my mouth right now. I used a can of baby beetroot, a can of chickpeas and had all of the nuts and spices I needed in my super stocked campervan pantry.

I didn’t have any awesome bread but forced Alex into making his famously easy pittas (recipe to come) and within 20 minutes we had ourselves a truly middle eastern medley.

This is an ideal recipe to make before you hit the road if you aren’t taking along a blender, or super easy to make on the move if you pack gadgets.

The Dukkah will last in an airtight container for, well, I don’t know because it never lasts more than one sitting, but I reckon weeks unless the air can get to it. In which case it will loose its oomph in a day or two.

The beautiful purple hummus will last for 5 days happily in an airtight container in the fridge with a little olive oil on top to stop it drying out.

However, you are likely to scoff the lot as roadtrip snacks. Dip bread in hummus, then olive oil if its handy and then into the dukkah for that spicy warming hit.

Dukkah Recipe

2/3 cup of crushed pistachios

½ cup Sesame seeds

2 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp flaked sea salt

Directions

1. In a dry frying pan over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds until light golden brown. Pour the fragrant bronzed seeds into a bowl as soon as they are done so they will not continue to cook. 

2. In the same pan, toast the coriander and cumin seeds while shaking the pan or stirring occasionally until they begin to pop.  I have been known to use ready ground spices here but the crunch is nice from the seeds that escape the blade or pummeling. Also the ground can make it a little powdery.

3. Transfer to a food processor or pestle and mortar. Process or bash the living daylights out of it until finely ground, then pour into the bowl with the sesame seeds.

4. Stir crushed pistachios into the bowl with the spices, I like to put some into the blender (or bash some) and leave some quite chunky.

5. Season with good salt and pepper, and mix well.

You can make the dukkah on its own and eat it with great bread and olive oil like a sherbet dib-dab, but I can’t bring myself to have it without the beetroot hummus, the flavours go together SO well it is insane!

Beetroot hummus recipe

1 can of beets drained, liquid reserved in case – The vacuum packed beets are good too or you can use 2 medium sized roasted fresh beets. As long as your beets are NOT pickled! That would make this the worst dish EVER!

|To roast beets at home in an oven, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with s&P, wrap tightly in foil and roast at 400F / 230C for 35 minutes to 1 hour depending on size. A skewer should slide in once cooked.|

1 can chick peas, drained liquid discarded

1 Lemon’s worth of juice and rind

1 tbsp Tahini – I actually replaced this with peanut butter as no call for tahini in a campervan and it tasted fine.

1 Tbsp Cumin seeds or 1 tsp powder

Salt to taste

Directions

I have found that the secret to this is just to add a bit at a time until I get it how I like it.

1. Toast the cumin seeds (if not using ready ground) then whizz with the beets and add chickpeas a handful at a time until I get the texture I want, colour is important to me too, I want it bright shiny purple not pink, hence keeping the juice if you have it, just in case. Obviously you can use fresh beets if you can be arsed, roasted and peeled, they give a better colour.

2. Sprinkle with grated lemon rind, add a squeeze of lemon here and there until you get it right, tahini is optional really just gives another dimension.

I generally don’t add much salt to the recipe but like to serve drizzled with olive oil and lightly sprinkled with flaked sea salt. A spoon full of yoghurt loosely stirred through as you serve it looks GREAT.

Serve with whatever you like, but you MUST try with the Dukkah.  Dip bread in beet hummus, then olive oil and then dunk in dukkah for the perfect flavour combination!

We drank Chenin Blanc with this but it wasn’t amazing, I would have to recommend a nice light beer with this, a lager preferably or a zingy apply cider.

This recipe has been taste tested by friends in England and in the USA and my ‘shark attack themed party’ version even featured on Offbeat Home…it is THAT good!

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Tell me how you coped in your tiny campervan kitchen? What went right? what went wrong? Share the good, the bad and the ugly and help me improve the recipes, improve the step by step directions and bulk up the hints and tips for great cooking in a campervan.

I would love this to become a community, us camping foodies need to work together to displace the myth that a campervan kitchen can’t produce great food!

So, get cooking! Xx