Spiced Beef-Topped Hummus

A Californio Twist on a Middle Eastern Classic

It’s very strange to be writing a food-focused newsletter today—I woke up to two incongruous events: a post-wedding brunch in the French countryside, where we’re celebrating my cousin’s marriage, and the news of, well, everything else going on in the world *waves hands in air*.

But I guess that in all this insanity, we still have to eat (some needs never stop, no matter the news), so I thought I’d share a dish that has become one of my go-to easy comfort foods over the past couple of years. This recipe is a twist on “Jerusalem” hummus of the style popularized by Ottolenghi, which has a topping of cooked beef. To make a more California-centric version of this dish, I add flavors that you often find in the foods made by the Californios, the Spanish who lived in here in the 17th-19th centuries. Their recipes pulled techniques and ingredients from local cooking traditions but also usually included some combination of ingredients used in Spain, such as olives, raisins, pine nuts (or other nuts, like almonds), and cinnamon or other spices.

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I’ve included all of these ingredients—raisins, black olives, pine nuts, cinnamon, and paprika—in this recipe, using them to flavor the big scoop of beef that goes on top of the hummus. The result is fragrant, flavorful, and comforting. To eat it, I scoop up big bites of the hummus and the topping together using toasted pita and sliced cucumber. I first shared this recipe on The California Table newsletter a couple years ago, and I thought I’d share it here again as a quick but filling option for anyone who needs a good snacking dinner to keep everything going this week.

I prefer to make my own hummus for this, when possible, as it’s much fluffier and creamier (I have a great recipe for my favorite fresh, creamy hummus in my cookbook), but you can also make it with store-bought, preferably from a good Middle Eastern shop. If your hummus is a bit on the old side, you can whip it up a bit with a fork and a tiny bit of water and maybe adjust the tahini, salt, and lemon juice to taste.

Spiced Beef-Topped Hummus

Serves 4

3 tablespoons raisins
Sherry vinegar
3 tablespoons raw pine nuts
Vegetable oil
½ yellow onion, finely diced
½ pound ground beef (ideally grass-fed)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons sliced black olives
Sweet smoked paprika
Ground cinnamon
2 cups hummus (homemade or high-quality store bought)
Pita and sliced cucumber, for serving

1. Put the raisins in a small bowl and add equal parts sherry vinegar and water to submerge them. Set the raisins aside to plump.

2. In a small pan, gently toast the pine nuts, stirring constantly, until they are fragrant and starting to brown nicely.

3. Heat a thin slick of vegetable oil in a cast-iron skillet, then add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until the pieces are very soft and are beginning to turn golden in some spots. Add the beef, season it generously with salt and pepper, and cook it, letting it sit against the pan so that parts of the meat brown and caramelize a bit, until it is fully cooked and some areas have developed a slight crust.

4. Drain the raisins and add them to the pan along with the garlic, ½ of the pine nuts, and the sliced olives. Mix everything well, and cook until the garlic no longer smells sharp, about 30 seconds. Season the mixture with a good shake of the paprika and a big pinch of cinnamon and cook, stirring, until the spices are toasted, about 1 minute. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning as desired before removing it from the heat.

5. Spoon the hummus into a low, wide bowl, smoothing it with the back of a spoon so that the edges of the mixture are a little higher than the middle.

6. Scoop the beef mixture onto the hummus, then sprinkle on the remaining toasted pine nuts and a bit more paprika.

7. Serve the mixture with freshly toasted pita and the sliced cucumber for scooping everything up.

Photo: Georgia Freedman