A Recipe for Beetroot Dip/Mutabbal Shamandar
Serves 6
1 pound 5 ounces/600 g beetroots
1/3 cup tahini
1-2 garlic clove, crushed into a paste
juice of 1 1/2 lemons, or to taste
sea salt
for garnish
extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Preheat the oven to 450º F/220º C.
Gently wash the beetroots and cut the excess stalks but without cutting into the beetroot. You do not want it to bleed during baking. Wrap each beetroot with aluminium foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake the beetroot for 1 1/2 hours, or until completely tender.
Remove the beetroot from the oven onto a large chopping board. Unwrap them one by one, trimming and peeling them as you go along. Place in the bowl of a food processor. Add the tahini, garlic clove/s and lemon juice and process until you have a smooth puree. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add salt to taste and more lemon juice or tahini if you feel the dip needs it.
Spread on a serving platter, making grooves here and there. Drizzle a little olive oil in the grooves and sprinkle with the chopped parsley. Serve with good bread.
© Anissa Helou
Anissa Helou
Anissa Helou is a writer, journalist, and broadcaster, born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanese Cuisine, her first book, was nominated for the prestigious Andre Simon Award and was named one of the best cookbooks of 1998 by the Los Angeles Times. Mediterranean Street Food was described by the New York Times as "a marvelous book." It won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award 2002 as the best Mediterranean cuisine book in English. Helou lives in London, where she has her own cooking school, Anissa's School. An accomplished photographer and intrepid traveler, Helou is fluent in French and Arabic as well as English.
