Two Way Basil and Beet Hummus Toast

Going middle eastern with the breakfast scenes today.   

This two way basil and beet hummus toasts topped with black olives had me working my brains (an my taste buds) early in the morning over solving the dilemma of deciding which tasted better. The beet toast was surprisingly sweet and the basil one earthen and salty.  

The base for this dish is the basic hummus which can be made a day in advance. In the morning, it can then be used to make these two spreads which hardly takes about 5 minutes of prep. With all that extra time in the morning to catch the newspaper headlines, this was one memorable and mood uplifting weekday breakfast. Office hours watch out! Here I come!  

Ingredients   

1 cup chickpeas soaked overnight  

½ cup white sesame seeds  

 1 lemon  

2 table spoons olive oil  

4-5 pods of garlic  

Salt and pepper to taste  

A handful of basil leaves  

1 medium sized beet peeled and boiled   

Cook the soaked chickpeas along with water in a pressure cooker with 1 teaspoon salt. After they cool, retain some of the water in another cup and drain the rest. De-hull the skin of the chickpeas – this is optional but gives a smoother texture to the hummus.   

In a pan, toast the sesame seeds till they start to turn brown. Keep aside to cool. In a mixer, blitz the sesame seeds with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Blitz till the mixture should turn into a thick paste. Transfer the contents into a bowl.  That’s home made tahini ready to be used. You can use this a salad dressing by adding a little lemon juice, salt and pepper.  

Now, in the same mixer, add the cooked chickpeas, tahini, juice of the lemon, chopped garlic, salt and pepper and olive oil. Also add a bit of the water from the cooked chickpeas. Now blitz all of them into a smooth paste. Adjust the consistency of the hummus as per your need. I kept it thick as I wanted to store it for a few days to be used in different ways.  

For the basil and beet hummus, the next day morning, I once again blitzed 2 tablespoon of the hummus with a handful of basil leaves (adjust salt and pepper) and a little olive oil. Repeat the process with hummus and cooked beets. Spread over toasted bread, drizzle some olive oil, top it off with black olives and serve!