More beetroot...this time a salad

An easy weeknight dinner this one, which I knocked up using some of the same dressing from the pink fritters that I made the other night. It's substantial and comforting - sweet and a little spicy.

To serve three or four, peel and chop up some beetroot into half moons, and peel some baby shallots (or use onions but cut smaller). Toss with cumin seeds, olive oil, salt and pepper and roast until done in a fairly hot oven - about 25-30 mins.

While that's going on, making the dressing. See the pink fritters recipe for how. Open a couple of cans of chickpeas, drain and tip into a bowl with a handful of sultanas, a handful of toasted pumpkin seeds, some chopped parsley and the dressing.

Plate up with some nice salad leaves, adding the onions and beetroot. Top with some natural yogurt that's been slighty salted and had some more chopped parsley stirred through.

Jerusalem artichoke and roasted garlic houmous

I love houmous. There's something so comforting and wholesome about it. But I hardly ever make it myself. Tonight I was thinking about what I could do with the rest of the jerusalem artichokes - I'd read that they're great pureed, so I thought - why not in houmous? The result was a very wintery, garlicky, nutty houmous. I'm going to have it for my lunch tomorrow with some left over roasted veggies and bread.

If you're not too sure about the flavour of the artichokes and would prefer a more subtle flavour, I'd recommend using one or two. It's really nice though - just experiment with the proportions of garlic, oil and lemon juice until you find the combination you like.

1 400g tin of chickpeas
between 1 and 4 jerusalem artichokes
between 1 and 3 cloves of garlic, skins left on
juice of about half a lemon
olive oil
salt and pepper

Peel and roast the artichokes and garlic cloves in a bit of olive oil. I prefer to do them slowly at about 150-160 degrees for about 40-50 mins to really let the flavour develop. You might want to take the garlic cloves out before this time though, as you don't want them to be too brown; just nicely soft.

Once they've cooled you just need to pop them in a food processor and blitz - add the drained chickpeas and garlic (according to taste) and keep blending. Add a bit of oil (I don't like to use too much because I think it can overpower the flavour, but again it's all down to taste), the lemon juice and maybe a bit of water to ensure the consistency isn't too dry. Season and taste - add a bit more of whatever you need and blitz again until it's the consistency you like. Very easy!