Vegan Balsamic Beet Spread from The Colorful Kitchen cookbook.
The Colorful Kitchen by Ilene Godofsky Moreno is a wonderful vegan cookbook that focuses on easy-to-follow and quick recipes, that also happen to be super flavorful. Smoothies, salads, soups, burgers, comfort foods…there’s something for everyone here. Today I will share a delicious Balsamic Beet Dip recipe from the book, and one of you can also win a copy of the book.
I think I’m not the only one, who feels like a lots of vegan cookbooks are kinda disappointing. The food looks always incredible, but the recipes often call for ingredients, we don’t have in our pantry, and are hard to find and to pronounce. Often it also takes ages, and 73472 different dishes to prepare a single meal, which is – let’s be honest – not very practical for every day cooking. I’m all for making complicated food on special occasions, but most days I just want quick and simple food.
That’s exactly why I love Ilene’s cookbook. Mainly simple stuff – just a handful of inexpensive and practical ingredients, easy to understand instructions, and short active cooking times. You’ll find all kind of delicious and healthy recipes in this book, from classics like Alfredo Sauce, Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Caesar Salad, Miso Noodle Soup, or Cheesy Bacon Stuffed Potatoes, to some exciting and unusual recipes, such as Maple-Mustard Squash Grilled Cheese, No-Bake Strawberry Macaroons or Spicy Peanut and Kimchi Stew. They all sound amazing, don’t they?
The recipes are totally customizable, so you can allow your inner vegan chef to experiment a bit. The book also includes a chapter on kitchen staples and sauces, which is a helpful guide for newbies to get more comfortable cooking vegan goodness.
Overall, this cookbook is a lovely way to add some color into your kitchen. I’m pretty sure, that both vegans and non-vegans will enjoy Ilene’s recipes!
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Balsamic Beet Spread
The recipe I’m sharing with you today is the perfect example of these simple, yet super flavorsome recipes. You’ll only need a handful of ingredients, plus 10 minutes of work, and you get this beautiful, vibrant dip, that’s superb with veggies, crackers, or as a sandwich spread. It’s a fun and cute alternative to hummus, so I hope you’ll try it!
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Balsamic Beet Spread
- Total Time: 50 mins
- Yield: 8-10 1x
Ingredients
- 3 medium beets, peeled and cut into 2cm/1 inch pieces (about 2 cups)
- 2 tbsp olive oil (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 1/2 orange, juice
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 clove garlic
- Salt, pepper
Toppings
- 2 tbsp chopped green onions
- 1/2 cup cashews, preferably soaked
- 1/2 lemon, juice
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp nondairy milk
- salt, pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. In a medium bowl, toss beets with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, then spread them out on a baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes, until tender when poked with a fork.
- When beets are cool enough to handle, transfer them to a blender and add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, chickpeas, orange juice, tahini, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, garlic, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth.
- For the cashew sour cream add cashews to a blender with lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, salt and pepper, and blend until smooth. Add a few tablespoons of water/plant milk to adjust consistency.
- Transfer beet mixture to a serving dish. Top with the cashew sour cream and green onions. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Category: Dip
- Cuisine: Vegan
Orange and yellow are my favorite colors to eat!
Nice!
My favorite foods are green!
I love all foods PURPLE and GREEN!
Greens are so good! 🙂
I like to use white balsamic in dips too. Your beet spread looks great, Evi.
Thanks, Angie!
Red is my favorite color to eat! Can’t wait to try this beet spread recipe!
Thank you for sharing these wonderful treats with us.
Reds are beautiful 🙂
There are too many choices! I think I love to eat all the colors!
Hahaha, I feel the same way 😉
Side note: I already sunscribe and like and follow everything all your stuff!
I love all the colors, colors add to the flavor because they taste good to my eyes! Cant wait totry the beet spread! It looks scrumptious!
Totally agree with you! The more color the better!
I’m a huge fan of beetroots (particularly roasted), and I can literally eat only beetroots with some yogurt for a few days in a row. Combined with chickpeas, tahini, and maple (interesting touch!), this makes a delicious dip. Very nice!
Yes, beets are seriously amazing!
I love eating greens – leafy greens, green grapes, brussel sprouts, broccoli – yum!!
Love those all too 🙂
I just really love to eat the rainbow, so it’s hard to choose, but I’ll go with red. 🙂
Rainbow is the best 😛
So hard to pick ONE color; but I think my favorite is red. Hard to resist strawberries, raspberries, red bell peppers, and I love the color contrast with all of those wonderful green veges.
Now you say I’m craving berries 😛
Beet spread has the most amazing colour! I made a beet hummus a couple weeks ago and I love serving it just because it’s so beautiful!
Hehehe, same with me! It’s simply so pretty, you have to love it 🙂
I like to eat as many colors in one meal as possible, but I guess my favorite to eat is green. So many different options!
Totally agree with you 🙂
I like purple, probably because of the novelty of it: aside from cabbage and blackberries, how many fresh ingredients do you normally see that come in purple? When I get a chance to buy purple carrots, purple potatoes, or purple sweet potatoes, I generally do.
Hahaha, same with me! Purple foods are so rare, they look always so special 🙂
I love purple foods, e.g., purple cabbage, purple potatoes, blackberries, eggplants.
So pretty!
what ever the color of the fresh fruit in season is my favorite. Right now it is red because strawberries and rhubarb are just beginning to show up at the market.
Yummy!
Red, Purple, and Pink are my favorites!
Such pretty colors 😉
I love eating orange foods (yams, carrots, and oranges).
Yep, those are all amazing foods 🙂
I love to make dishes with rainbow colors for my little granddaughters to enjoy, vegan of course!
🙂
I never really thought about it — but I guess I like green and yellow veggies and pink desserts but not so much the trendy black foods! Also followed you everywhere; I already am a newsletter subscriber.
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Thank you so much 🙂
i love eating bright green colors!
Green is beautiful!
It’s hard to choose a favorite color. I find that my color loves change with the seasons. Winter, it’s deep reds and oranges, spring, soft greens, pinks, and whites. In the summer I head towards strong vivid colors, bright reds, yellows, and greens. I tend to like the colors of veggies or the colors of fruits. I have a really bad sweet tooth but veggies make me so much happier then fruits and berries.
It’s also always changing with me 😉
It is hard to choose, but green is so great So many different shades of green, so many options…yep, green’s my fav!
Yes, greens are really stunning 🙂
If I had to choose one it would be green for avocados, cucumbers, peas, all the leafy greens and more!
Love greens too 🙂
Well pink is my favorite color and as a kid I loved strawberry shakes! So I’ll choose pink and red. =)