Snake Beans; Raw Beetroot and Chocolate Pudding; Beetroot Hummus

You know, I’ve been growing beans for the past few years and while I’ve heard of snake beans, I had never seen a photo of them. So when they appeared in my Food Connect box this week I was completely bamboozled. These things looked like beans but were unlike any beans I’d ever grown or seen. So I rang Food Connect and they quickly filled me in. Now that I know what I’m working with, some sliced snake beans have contributed very nicely to my lunch-time salads.

Another item in my box this week has been a beetroot. Considering my interest in becoming more raw, I just couldn’t see my way clear to cook it. So I googled beetroot and found a recipe for raw beetroot dip that looked really nice but had a long list of ingredients. Perhaps there really is something to the popularity of the “4 Ingredients” books.

Then I remembered that I had soaked some chick peas overnight with the thought of enjoying them on my salads. Perhaps a beetroot hummus would work. I knew I had already made a raw hummus some time back and figured that it would be easy to add some beetroot to it.

But dessert was tugging at my brain cells and I kept thinking of the beetroot and chocolate puddings that I had made. So I decided to experiment but not with all of the beetroot so I sliced off a small section of the beetroot for later inclusion in the hummus. It probably goes without saying that a little bit of beetroot goes a long way.

It had been a while since I had bought chocolate, but I just happened to this morning. Even better it was Rawganic chocolate so my experiment would be completely raw.

I also knew that I needed some sort of binding agent as the beetroot and chocolate on their own would probably be too crumbly. Banana or avocado seemed like possibilities and I decided to go with banana. 

Raw Beetroot and Chocolate Pudding Recipe Ingredients:
100g peeled beetroot
30g raw chocolate
Half a banana

Instructions:
Grate beetroot in the Thermomix on speed 8 for 5 seconds, scrape down the sides and then repeat the step. 

Add raw chocolate and grate the mix on speed 8 for about 10 seconds.

Add the banana and blend it on speed 7 for 20 seconds. 
Use the remaining banana to decorate the dish.

I really enjoyed this. The texture of the beetroot and chocolate mix wasn’t smooth but quickly melted in the mouth. This will be a quick way to satisfy dessert cravings in the future and certainly goes into my list of how I can use beetroot when I receive it in the box.

So I still had the small piece of beetroot to use up in the hummus.

Beetroot Hummus Recipe Ingredients:
65g chick peas sprouted for 1 day
35g peeled beetroot
75g tomato
1 lemon juice ice cube 

Instructions:


Place the chick peas, beetroot, tomato and lemon juice ice cube into the Thermomix bowl and process on speed 4 for 5 to 10 seconds.

This all went down very well. Well, to be really honest, it wasn’t as good as the beetroot and chocolate dessert from earlier in the day but for a dinner option it certainly presented well. I tossed up adding some basil but thought that the beetroot would overshadow anything I tried to add so stayed with these basic ingredients.

I sampled the beetroot hummus on bread and with zucchini sticks, and then finished it off with some tinned fish and avocado from the fridge, enjoying it right up to the last bite.