Contact Us
About Forkful
We are friends who love making simple food look beautiful. We hope our recipes will inspire you to get into the kitchen this season. Aoife McElwain works in front of the camera writing the recipes and styling the food, while Mark Duggan works behind the camera to make sure it all looks as delicious as possible. We work with editors such as Killian Broderick and music supervisors like Nialler9 to make sure that our finished videos look and sound as smart as possible. We work with brands like Glenisk and Folláin to help them create delicious video content for their online platforms. When we're not making videos, we write a weekly column called Speedy Suppers on Thursdays in The Irish Independent. Aoife writes the recipes and styles the food while Mark takes the photographs.  

beetroot hummus

Remember when beetroots used to mean those sad, salty slices brined in a jar? We love to see this sweet, earthy root getting the credit and treatment in the kitchen it deserves. Our beetroot hummus has been rather ubiquitous this last year and we have played around with the recipe, adding this and that to give it a new depth each time. Our favourite way to serve this is with dollops of whipped goat cheese and slices of smoked salmon alongside slices of bread so that our friends can mix and match their toppings. Either way, the colours will be vibrant and the taste will be delicious.

What you need for a forkful of beetroot hummus

4 fresh beets*

1 lemon

2 cloves of garlic

1 x tin of chickpeas

1 teaspoon of ground coriander or cumin (grind them fresh from seeds if you have them)

Salt and Pepper

4 tablespoons of olive oil

Chopped walnuts (optional – but they taste great)

Heat your oven to 200c/180c fan/Gas Mark 6.

Wrap your beets in tin foil and roast in a baking dish for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a knife can easily slice the beets.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool before unwrapping the beets and peeling them. Prepare for your hands to get beety red.

Roughly chop them before transferring to your food processor. Squeeze in the juice of half the lemon. Grate in the garlic cloves, add the drained chickpeas, the ground spice and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the olive oil and blitz. Add a drop of water until you get a consistency you like. We left ours chunky but smooth is good too.

Give it a taste and add the juice of the other half of the lemon if you think it needs it.

Serve with, as above, warm slices of bread, creamy whipped goat cheese and slices of smoked salmon. It will keep for a couple of days in the fridge in a sealed container so don’t be afraid to make a big batch.

*We have also totally cheated and used the vacuum packed beets to not at all bad results so don’t be shy about cutting corners with this recipe. But if you have the time go with the fresh beets all the way.

Thank you to the brilliant Tierranniesaur for the use of their track Maro Rides The Wave and also thanks to Fallon & Byrne who let us shoot in their shop early one Sunday morning.

6 Comments
  • Pageturners
    Posted at 09:31h, 20 June Reply

    Mmmm!

  • Pageturners
    Posted at 09:37h, 20 June Reply

    Incidentally, walnuts are (estimated value) a million times nicer in anything if you toast them lightly before chopping them.

  • forkful
    Posted at 22:38h, 22 June Reply

    Great tip, definitely roasting the walnuts first next time!

  • peggy
    Posted at 14:30h, 23 June Reply

    love this! Especially the guest appearence from Daffoldi!

    • forkful
      Posted at 20:16h, 23 June Reply

      Thanks Peggy! So glad you like it.

  • Winter Beets - I Can Has Cook? - Irish Food Blogger
    Posted at 11:23h, 07 January Reply

    […] the year, often paired with smoked salmon but sometimes just enjoyed solo on toast. We even made a forkful out of it. One of my most memorable dishes of 2013 was Katie Sanderson’s Beet Bourguignon at the winter […]

Leave a Reply