I had a bunch of beets hanging around and I wanted to do something different so I made them into a delicious Tunisian Inspired Treat!!!!! A traditional Harissa is made from roasted bell peppers, garlic, a hot pepper and spices. Harissa taste great embellished with pistachios, creamy not too tangy not too salty feta cheese (high quality feta or substitute goat cheese), cilantro, scallions and mint. I thought mini peppers would be a good and healthy way to scoop up the Beet Harissa along with the embellishments. Trust me on this one……even if you don’t love beets you are going to LOVE this dish. My husband had no idea what this was but said it was delicious and he isn’t the biggest fan of beets either. Packaged harissa of any kind doesn’t compare at all to this harissa or my recipe for traditional harissa. This is something really special that most people will find FORKING DELICIOUS!

Ingredients for around 8 servings

1 lb beets

1 teaspoon cumin

2 teaspoons caraway seeds

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

6 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane

1 red hot pepper or to taste (I used one unusually HOT Fresno that was roasted (maybe it was mismarked?..I think it was too FORKING HOT to be a Fresno) – fine chopped

1 blood orange (just the fresh squeezed juice)

4 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

small amount of salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

Wash the beet roots very well, While wet wrap each one of them up in aluminum foil and place each one in a baking pan. (Beets will leak slightly while cooking)

The beets need to cook until fork tender. Depending on the size of your beets this might take between 60-90 minutes for average size beets.

When the beets are cool enough to handle you either slip the skins off or peel them off with a peeler. Then chop them up and put them in your blender or in what you use for your stick blender. All cumin, caraway, oil, garlic, hot pepper, juice and vinegar and blend till smooth.

Pretty much prefect now. A very small amount of salt and pepper to taste if desired.

Suggested embellishments are creamy not too tangy or too salty feta cheese (or goat cheese), fresh cilantro, thinly sliced scallions, mint, sumac and pistachios.

This really is FORKING DELICIOUS! I don’t know how to make it look as good as it taste. The Harissa that comes in a tube or jar doesn’t even come close….Maybe you don’t know that you would really enjoy Harissa…Traditional or this unusual Beet Variation.

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