Preheat your oven to 200°C degrees. Place the kumaras on a baking tray, lined with baking paper and drizzle over with olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Bake for 30 minutes or until kumaras are tender. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to your blender.
Combine kumaras and remaining ingredients to your blender and blend until smooth. You may have to scrape down the sides of your blender a few times. Set aside until you’re ready to serve.
Any remaining hummus is best stored in an airtight container in the fridge. It will keep for up to 5 days.
This turmeric kumara hummus is a variant of our favourite dip, enhanced by kumara and selected spices for rich, generous flavours. Kumara is the traditional New Zealanders natives, Māori staple food; referred to as sweet potatoes, overseas. In this delicious hummus, the roasted kumaras bring a subtle dash of sweetness, a layer of warmness to a traditional hummus base. We love this turmeric hummus generously spread over toasted sourdough slices, accompanied with fresh, crispy flavoured food such as cucumbers, pickles or some home-made sauerkraut—a quick, easy and deeply satisfying meal, with very few ingredients.
We are now into Autumn here, moving into colder months, so we aim to nourish our body with food that strengthens the immune system. Here this hummus is packed with kumaras, root vegetables loaded with beta carotene, a potent antioxidant and a rich source of vitamin A. Caraway seeds and chilli flakes are known for their antioxidant properties and aid digestion. Turmeric is an anti-inflammatory ingredient. Tracey mentioned in our turmeric split pea hummus that turmeric also treats a broad range of diseases, from dermatologic illness to infection, anxiety or depression. We cannot go wrong with this hummus.
On a side note, we used organic canned chickpeas for this hummus recipe; simply because at the moment of shooting, we were amid the COVID-19 lockdown in New Zealand. We couldn't get our hands on dried chickpeas at our local bulk store. And this turmeric kumara hummus was fantastic, creamy. Still, a soaked-and-cooked dried chickpeas version would make this recipe even better. Also, this hummus will keep up for a couple of days in the fridge. We store ours either in glass jars with tight-fitting lids or mould jars with lids.
Since I met Tracey, I have heard of Vitamix qualities. Based on her feedback, Benoit and I purchased the Vitamix S30 Space Saving Blender. However, since we moved into the same house, I had the opportunity to handle her blender, the Vitamix Professional Series 750 Blender, which we used to prepare this turmeric kumara hummus recipe.
I associate Vitamix with durability. Construction quality backed by a seven-year warranty set the standard for this professional blender. You know it won't break easily. This blender is also a powerful machine with solid stainless steel hammermill blades and a 2.2 horsepower motor. While I am not that interested in numbers, I can tell you this Vitamix blends, sometimes pulverises, anything from frozen bananas to uncooked veggies, ice cubes, almonds or peanuts. And basically, any very thick mixture, soups or perhaps this turmeric kumara hummus. Despite its powerful capabilities, I always found this Vitamix blender reasonably compact; it doesn't take that much space on the bench. The Vitamix Professional Series 750 Blender comes with a handy low profile tamper, life-saving tool. We use it regularly, making smoothies to push down said frozen bananas, to assist the blades when the mixture is dryer than usual, or fasten the process. This thick plastic stick has to be introduced through the cap so it won't touch the blades. I learned the hard way.
I have a funny story involving that tamper, the blender's cap and the jug; a story that needs to be shared so nobody will repeat my mistake. Get ready for a good laugh, maybe. Last Christmas, preparing our hemp seeds hummus recipe, I didn't have enough volume to blend appropriately, so I had to stop the blender every minute to push the mixture down. In the absence of common sense, that sometimes happens in life, I decided to remove the blender cap, grab the tamper to push the mixture down while turning the machine on. I felt so confident at the time! Big mistake, the tamper was taken by the blades and smashed against the jug, creating a break on the handle side of the jug. The pitcher was compromised, and the tamper slashed. Not a lot though, this tamper is quite robust. Yet nothing happened to the motor. Perfect timing at Christmas, while most of the suppliers are closing down, we had to wait a little while before receiving new parts. So Tracey returned to using her food processor in the interlude. Conclusion? Follow Vitamix recommendations, they are wise, and always use the tamper through the cap. Rest assured, we confirm that Vitamix can replace any parts.
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