Author Notes: There is this great cafe, Sofra, owned by the famous Ana Sortun, near my house, and it has a wonderful mezze bar. I often stop by on my way home to get a “pre-dinner snack” from the bar’s many selections, like hummus, muhummara, or skordalia which they’ll put on a platter for you to eat with crackers or pita. One of those mezze dips that particularly love and always get is their beet tzatziki. It is not only delicious but a beautiful color. The only downside to this dip — it is quite expensive to buy. So I decided to make up a recipe for my own, and, if I do say so myself, it worked out even better than I expected.Thanks for the inspiration Sofra! —The Honest Chef
Makes: about 2 cups of dip
Ingredients
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2-3
large red beets (other colors will work but won’t make the prettiest final product)
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3/4
cup plain greek yogurt
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1 1/2
tablespoons chopped fresh dill
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salt and pepper to taste
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A drizzle of olive oil
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 425.
- Wash and dry the beets, and lay them close together in the center of a piece of tin foil that is large enough to wrap them up in.
- Drizzle the beets with olive oil, and sprinkle them with a bit of salt and pepper.
- Wrap the tinfoil to cover the beets, and seal it (keep the seam side up), place on a cookie sheet and pop into the oven.
- Cook beets for 45 minutes to an hour. You should be able to easily push a knife right through the entire beet. Remove from the oven, and let cool.
- Once the beets have cooled enough for you to handle them, peel them. You can use a peeler, but the skins should come off quite easily. This will be messy so do this over a cutting board you can toss in the dishwasher. (Sorry about your pink hands, but they’ll be back to normal by tomorrow morning).
- Cut the beets into large chunks, and put them in the food processor. Process until the beets are very small, but are still individual pieces (not turned into a pulp; this way the dip has texture).
- Move the beets to a separate bowl, add the yogurt and dill and stir. Add salt and pepper to your taste and serve with pita chips, carrots, or whatever else you like!