The Best Beet Hummus recipe for a healthy heart

In honor of heart health month, we’re making a dip with the best veggie for your heartbeet! (I had to…#noregrets #dadjokesforlife!!! )

All you need to know

• Hot Pink
• Good for bodybuilders, good for you- Great nitrite content opens up the veins and adds more oxygen to the blood. Same principle with Viagra
• Tastes like a zesty, lemony, million bucks
• Will reduce blood pressure, bloating, starvation, and high mortgage rates*

Healthy tastes good! I’ve had several clients who have reached out to help them meal plan for heart health diets, when Cholesterol and a sedentary lifestyle has got the better of them for a few years and they are now taking positive steps to take care of their hearts for their health, and for their families.

One of my favorite ways to introduce more vegetables into their diets is through beets. Now, lots of people shun beets because of the flavor, it tastes earthy! But with the right pairing of ingredients, that earthy flavor opens the door to a nutty, sweet, succulent world of flavors that the beet houses.

Beet overview

Beets are root vegetables with red, yellow, or white bulbs. They have lots of natural sugars but are super low in calories. When growing them, they take between 50 and 70 days to mature which is fast in the agricultural world!

In my research I came across a farmer discussing beet production and storage.

beets […] can store for a few weeks in the cooler, making them sellable for a longer window of time.

Jesse Frost- Hobby Farms

There are 4 main types of beets, they all have similar nutritional properties, and you can make the hummus out of each of them for different color effects.

• Golden Beets: Sweeter and do not have the earthiness of the traditional red beet.
• Red Beets: the most common and traditional beet, very earthy and highest in antioxidants.
• White Beets: These are often confused with turnips, they’re the least sweet of the bunch.
• Chioggia Beets: these are the sweetest beets of the bunch. Known for their red and white stripes, they’re called candy cane beets.

What makes hummus good for you?

The biggest issues affecting heart health are Cholesterol and High Blood pressure. Cholesterol happens when there is an accumulation of fat in the bloodstream, causing less blood to flow to needed areas. Likewise high blood pressure prevents blood flow to the heart and brain to happen naturally, causing the arteries to harden and can lead to heart failure.

Beet Hummus can help with high blood pressure because they are naturally high in nitrate. And if you dont already include beets in your regular diet, this hummus is a fantastic way to start reaping the health benefits.

Researchers believe it’s beets’ high nitrate content that produces these heart-healthy effects. The body converts nitrates from sources like beets into nitric oxide in the body. The nitric oxide then relaxes blood vessels and increases oxygen and blood flow, therefore, lowering blood pressure.

Lizette Borreli – Medical Daily

Similarly, bodybuilders use supplements high in nitric oxide to work out and achieve a pump: where lots of oxygen rich blood gets pushed deep into the muscles because the arteries expanded.

Beets can also help fight cholesterol through compounds called flavonoids, which have been linked to lower cholesterol.

They also contain potassium, which is necessary for building muscle and regulating the heart’s electrical activity, and manganese, which helps maintain muscle and nerve function, build bone strength, regulate blood sugar levels, and promote a healthy immune system.

Dr. Joseph Mercola- Food Facts

How to make homemade beet hummus

The short & Sweet

• Boil beets until fork tender. Peel and chop
• Puree in a food processor with olive oil, garlic, tahini, and lemon juice
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Eat. You earned it

The more fleshed out answer

Add a little salt to the water before boiling the beets, it will help them keep their color and enhance the flavor. After they are fork tender and cool, peel them by wrapping a paper towel around them and rubbing.

It makes cleaning a lot easier and there is less mess everywhere, beets have been known to stain countertops so the best place to clean them is in the sink.

Chop them into manageable pieces, about 1/2 inch thick before adding them to the food processor, that way it will blend smoothly. Blend with Tahini , garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice.

Do I need to add chickpeas to make it a hummus?

You can, but not needed. The whole idea behind this dish is replacing the chickpeas, and with it the bean dip, but keeping all other ingredients intact.

Purists may argue that hummus is only done with chickpeas since the word in Arabic means “chickpeas”. However, they would also argue against adding beets to the traditional dish. As chefs, we borrow from all cultures and it’s our job to innovate dishes that take food forward.

If you do add chickpeas, it will brighten up the color and make it creamier. Totally doable and up to you!

How long does homemade Hummus Last?

A week at most. After that the freshness and flavor start to go away.

It’s also not freezer friendly. Once you freeze it, everything starts to separate, solids from oils etc. Even more so, at the molecular level, freezing expands the water in the cells, rupturing them and turning this gorgeous puree into mush.

Beyond the dipping Sauce

You can eat this hummus with veggies, pita, or chips. But it’s so much more versatile than that! You can use it as a puree with an entree, or as a binder for vegan meatballs, or as a starting point for this amazing Beetroot and Orange Summer Soup!

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*results not guaranteed on the mortgage rates