This delicious roasted beet and eggplant dip is a cinch to make and is a great way to increase the diversity of vegetables in your diet! Gluten free, dairy free and vegan friendly.
I’ll be honest with you guys, when it comes to dips in our house, hummus is the clear favourite. It’s our default. It gets smeared on everything. But then I remember that there’s actually SO many other dip options out there! And as much as I do LOVE hummus, I need a break.
A good beetroot dip is also very much a favourite of mine, they’re always so vibrant and the perfect balance of salty-sweetness. This roasted beet and eggplant dip is actually a recipe that I first made many years ago, and I’ve decided it needs a comeback while I take a little holiday from hummus.
As much as I do love a good beet dip I’ve gotta say that many of the supermarket options don’t really cut it. They often have cheap yoghurt or vegetable oils added to them and the flavour and texture isn’t up to standard. Luckily, it’s really easy to make a great beetroot dip at home – and not as messy as you think.
To make this dip, you roast whole beetroot in the oven, wrapped neatly in foil, then you just rub the skin off and chuck it into a blender/food processor with the other ingredients. Super easy and low risk of beetroot stains, I promise. You hardly have to chop the beetroot at all, and it’s much easier to get the skin off the beetroot once it’s cooked too.
Alongside the beetroot you also roast a whole eggplant for this recipe. Again, it’s a super simple process – cut in half, roast, scoop out the flesh and throw it into the blender/food processor. Boom.
The combination of the beets and eggplant is so yum! Possibly not the first two veggies you think to grab when making a dip but they work so well. To bring it all together there’s also a very generous amount of creamy tahini in here, plus some extra virgin olive oil and spices to round things out.
From a nutrition perspective I also love to make this beet dip because it’s an easy and delicious way to increase the amount of type of veggies that you eat. Eating a wide range of different plant foods is great for our gut health! So, even if you don’t often go for beetroot or eggplant when you’re at the shops, pop them in your shopping basket and give this dip a try.
And p.s. while you’re at it, make my super popular Easy Crunchy Flaxseed Crackers to go along with it!
If you make the dip, let me know! Leave a comment below or take a snap and tag me on Instagram, you can find me at @moniquecormacknutrition 🙂
Roasted Beet and Eggplant Dip
Ingredients
- 300 grams beetroot – this is around 1 large or 2-3 small beetroot
- 300 grams eggplant – this is around 1 medium-large sized eggplant
- 4 tbsp hulled tahini
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil plus a little extra for roasting
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- salt and pepper to season
- additional olive oil for roasting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Trim leaves and roots off the beetroot and wash thoroughly. Wrap the beetroot in foil and place on a baking tray. Cut the stalk off the eggplant and cut it in half length ways down the middle. Rub the cut sides with a little olive oil and place the eggplant cut side down on a small sheet of baking paper, and add this to the same baking tray.
- Bake the beetroot and eggplant until soft. The eggplant will take around 35-40 minutes, when it's done take it out and set it somewhere to cool, leaving it on the baking paper. The beetroot will take around an hour or a little longer depending on size.
- Once the beetroot has finished cooking let it cool a little before unwrapping. Use your fingers or a knife to remove most of the skin from the beetroot, it tends to rub off (it's okay if a little bit stays on!). Peel the skin off the eggplant as well.
- Place the beetroot, eggplant, tahini, olive oil and spices in a food processor. Process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Pop the dip into the fridge for a few hours to chill before serving.
Nutrition
I just made this today and YUM! I spread it all over a leftover piece of garlic texas toast. More garlic…..YES!
Can this be frozen ?
Hi Amber-lea, I haven’t tried to freeze this. I assume it probably can be, but it may lose some of its thick texture when defrosted and be a bit more runny.
Wow! I made this tonight and it was super easy and so delicious. Can’t wait to try some more of your recipes.