I love this hummus so much that I never want to eat regular hummus again. The beet makes the flavor of this hummus slightly earthy and slightly sweet, and the magenta color is the prettiest food I have ever seen. To roast the beet, I scrub it and cut off the stem, then wrap it in foil and bake at 375 for 1 hour. Once the beet has cooled I use a paper towel to remove the skin.

The key to assembling an elegant crudites platter is to choose one or two dips (hummus, ranch, green goddess, guacamole…) and place them in bowls on opposite sides of the platter (or board). Then fill in the platter with vegetables around the dips, trying to avoid putting two green vegetables, or two red vegetables next to each other. To make your platter extra fancy and pleasing to the eye, try to find unique vegetables at a store like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. I love things that are a little unexpected like purple cauliflower, endive, radicchio, purple carrots, a variety of colored tomatoes or baby zucchini. The vegetables will also be more visually appealing if you leave them closest to their original form. Leaving carrots whole, or leaves still on, adds a lot of interest to the plate. I personally don’t like to put anything on the platter that isn’t meant to be eaten, so I trim the ends, but try to serve things like carrots and cucumbers in long thin slices, so they look as close to their initial form as possible.

-1 roasted beet
-1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained
-juice of 1/2 lemon
-1 clove garlic
-2 Tbsp tahini
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 c olive oil

Combine all ingredients except oil in a food processor, blend for 1 minute. Then slowly stream in oil while the food processor is running. Continue to process until no chunks remain and the hummus is smooth (3-5 minutes). Serve immediately with your favorite vegetables and/ or crackers, or refrigerate until serving.