Alina's Colorful Beet Hummus "Pizza"

I'm not a huge fan of beets, but I'm a sucker for color. When I saw this beet hummus recipe, I couldn't resist whipping some up because it looked so pretty! I wanted it to be substantial enough for a meal, so I concocted a "pizza" of sorts.
As it turns out, the hummus flavor mellows out the beet flavor for a delicious and satisfying way to ingest such a super healthy (and beautiful) vegetable.

The beet hummus recipe comes from Simply Recipes and the inspiration for the hummus pizza comes from the Sabra website.

Total time: 30 minutes (plus veggie prep time). Makes 4 servings.
Ingredients:

• 4 medium sized beets, scrubbed clean, cooked, peeled, and cubed (I simmered them for about 45 minutes until they were easily poked with a fork)
• 3 Tbsp tahini sesame seed paste
• 5 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 small clove garlic, chopped
• 1 Tbsp ground cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp EVOO
• Several summer squash (about 3 medium sized) yellow and/or green, sliced
• 2 vine ripe tomatoes
• 1/2 a small red onion
• 4 (6”) round pitas

Start by chopping up your cooked beets. Look at that color!

Place the beets, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper in a food processor.

Pulse until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings and ingredients as desired.

The consistency should look something like this:

On the stove top, heat a tablespoon of EVOO and add the squash to it in a thin layer. You want to let it sit until it starts to get well done, and then flip it. Let it sit until that side gets well done too. Don't move them around too much. The point is to let them really sit there. I used a grill pan to give mine that stripey fresh-off-the-grill look.

Chop up your tomato and onion. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and saute the remaining veggies and garlic. These will cook fast, so don't leave them on for too long. Mine were done in about 3-4 minutes.

I wanted to lightly toast my pita, so I threw it on the hot stove top for about 15 seconds. I flipped it and did the other side for another 15 seconds. Instantly more gourmet!

Now start assembling your hummus "pizza!"

(I have to put pizza in quotes because Adam is super adamant about what a pizza is and is not... and if it doesn't have pepperoni it's apparently not a real "pizza." In this case, it's a little less of a pizza, so I agree that the word pizza belongs in quotes.)

First slather your pita round with hummus:

Next, pile it high with the squash:

Finally, top it off with your tomato/onion/garlic mixture:

Doesn't that look pretty?

I have a little secret... It's as yummy as it is gorgeous!

Adam's taste rating: 3 ladles

Alina's taste rating: 4 ladles

Healthy rating: 5 ladles

Ease of prep rating: 4 ladles

Overall average: 4 ladles