Cooking with Barry – Beetroot hummus, crispy egg and pan-fried asparagus

This month, our chef Barry Bryson of Cater Edinburgh explains how to make something very colourful for your lockdown lunch. He makes Beetroot hummus, crispy egg, and pan-fried asparagus.

Serves 4

400g tin Chickpeas, drained and rinsed

4-5 cloves of crushed very fresh garlic

Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon cumin

200g peeled cooked beetroots

150ml olive oil

Salt and pepper

5 free-range eggs 

75g plain flour 

75g panko or light coloured breadcrumbs

300ml vegetable oil

2 packets of fresh British asparagus 

Olive oil and Maldon salt 

To make the hummus:

Add the chickpeas, lemon, garlic, cumin and salt and pepper to a food processor and pulse to combine.

Slowly start adding the olive oil until it’s all combined (add more if you like it runny and dip-like). Remove from processor and put into a bowl.

Add the beets now to the processor with a couple of tablespoons of cold water.

Blitz this until smooth (for extra smooth pass through a sieve) Now combine the beets with the puréed chickpea mix thoroughly. Cover and leave for a few hours or overnight for the flavour to develop.

Half an hour ahead of eating take the hummus out of the fridge and you can prepare the rest of the dish like this:

Firstly bring a pan of water to a gentle simmer and place four of the eggs (at room temperature) into the water and simmering for 4 and a half minutes. Turn off the heat and let them sit in the water for another 30 seconds. Then drain and run them under cold water for a few minutes.

Once they are cooled, carefully shell them and place them into a fridge to “firm” for a few minutes whilst you make the crumb.

You make the crumb by placing the flour, final beaten egg and the crumbs into 3 separate bowls. Pass the soft boiled egg through them in that order, and you will now have 4 nicely coated eggs.

Begin to heat the vegetable oil until it’s hot (use new oil) and then sprinkle a few crumbs into the oil. If they sizzle it’s ready to go!

Prepare the asparagus by snapping the fibrous part off the bottom and give them a quick wash.

Add some olive oil to a non-stick pan and heat gently.

Go back now to the eggs – add one egg at a time into the hot vegetable oil and baste until golden (it will take under 20 secs). Then lift out carefully with a slotted spoon. Add the asparagus to the non-stick pan and sauté for a couple of minutes and season. You can now ‘plate up’.

Put the hummus on the plate first then add the crispy runny-middle egg and hot asparagus, and enjoy.

PS You can embellish this dish even more by adding sprinkling dried chillies and finely chopped white anchovy over the top.

And if all this cooking is too much for you then Barry will deliver his ready meals to your door. Read more about that here.