Tag: dip

Guacamole

~ Sophie ~ 3 Comments

I keep my guacamole very simple, just 4 ingredients. By all means make additions – many recipes include onion, coriander, tomatoes, chilli or sour cream – but I like to be able to taste the avocados. Give it a try! Dunk tortilla chips in it, plop some on top of a bowl of chilli or eat it on toast like a hipster. Makes enough for 4.

  • 2 avocados, roughly mashed
  • Juice of ½ lime
  • 1 tsp garlic oil
  • Large pinch salt
  1. Skin the avocados, remove the stones and mash roughly with a fork. You want to keep some texture
  2. Mix in all the other ingredients, check the seasoning and eat straight away

Muhammara

~ Sophie ~ 2 Comments

A little bit sweet, savoury, a bit sour, nutty and happily russet red. Such a delicious taste and texture combination. Dip all the pittas in it!

  • 3 red peppers
  • 50g fresh breadcrumbs
  • ½ tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • ½ tsp chilli flakes
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 50g walnuts, lightly toasted and finely chopped
  • 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt

You can use a food processor or pestle and mortar to make this dip, but I quite love the chunkier texture if you chop it by hand.

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C fan (200C)
  2. Put the peppers on a tray and roast for 30-35 mins, turning occasionally, until they are cooked and the skin is blackened
  3. Put the quite-floppy peppers in a bowl, cover with a plate and leave for 15 mins
  4. Once they’re cool enough to handle, peel and discard the skin and seeds
  5. Chop very finely and scrape into a bowl
  6. Add the rest of the ingredients and a large pinch of salt and stir well
  7. Check the seasoning and serve at room temperature, sprinkled with some chopped chives for a beautiful green contrast to the rusty red

Szechuan chilli oil

~ Sophie ~ 7 Comments

Spicy, flavourful oil. Drizzle it over stir fry, dip wontons in it, drip a little pool into the bottom of a ramen bowl before you add the noodles and stock. It’s so good!

  • 3 tbsp chilli flakes
  • 2 tsp ground Szechuan pepper
  • 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 3 slices of fresh ginger
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 red bird eye chillis, pricked with a fork but left whole
  • 250ml veg oil
  1. In a small bowl, mix together the chilli flakes, Sichuan pepper, five spice and sesame seeds
  2. Put the bay, cumin, ginger, chillis and star anise in a small pan on the stove
  3. Pour over the oil and heat over the lowest flame until hot and bubbly but before the cumin burns
  4. Strain the hot oil directly onto the spice powder mixture, discarding the ginger, star anise, bay leaves and cumin seeds
  5. Leave the oil in the bowl to cool, then stir up and pour into a jar to store in the fridge. Ideally make this the day before you want to use it so the flavours have time to develop

Coriander chutney

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Intensely fiery, spiky and fresh green. You will want to scoop this up with popadums, samosas or just with your fingers.

  • 100g fresh coriander
  • 20g fresh mint
  • 50g peanuts
  • 2 green birdseye chillis (de-seed them if you want it less hot)
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • Large pinch salt
  • 2 tsp sugar
  1. Put everything into the bowl of a mini food processor and whizz to a pesto-like consistency, adding a little water if needed. By all means use a pestle and mortar if you’d rather. It’ll just take longer and your arm might ache a bit afterwards.

Pesto

~ Sophie ~ 2 Comments

Like hummous, this pesto is immensely straightforward to make from scratch and 1000% more delicious than buying it from a shop. Eat it on pasta, spread on toast, stuff chicken breasts with it, add to a roast tomato quiche, dollop onto a jacket potato, or make it part of a flipping amazing roast veggie sandwich. I promise you, if you make this once, you’ll definitely make it again.

I recommend a mini blender for this, it makes it a 2 min job. Otherwise, you can use a pestle and mortar.

  • 50g (a large handful) fresh basil – I don’t bother removing the stems, it’s all getting ground up anyway
  • 40g pine nuts, toasted
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped (or 1 tbsp garlic oil)
  • Large pinch salt
  • Extra virgin olive oil – more than you think, probably 100ml
  • 40g parmesan cheese, finely grated
  1. Put the basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic and salt into the mini blender and whizz up so everything is combined
  2. Add half the olive oil and whizz again. It should start to form a course paste now
  3. Loosen the mixture with more oil and continue to whizz up until it’s a nice spoonable consistency
  4. Tip into a bowl, add the parmesan and stir together thoroughly. Check the seasoning and then you’re good to go
  5. Eat immediately or keep in the fridge under a thin layer of oil

Tzatziki/raita

~ Sophie ~ 4 Comments

There are over 3000 miles between Greece and India, but it seems the combination of yoghurt, cucumber and herbs either evolved independently in both places because it’s amazing, or travelled between them. Who knows? What I do know is that it’s delicious enough that you might be tempted to eat it all on its own.

  • Half a cucumber
  • 300g Greek-style plain yoghurt
  • 1 small clove garlic, minced
  • Pinch of salt
  • Chopped mint (or dill for tzatziki/coriander for raita)
  • Squeeze of lemon
  1. Slice the cucumber lengthways and remove the seedy core. Eat it because it’s nice!
  2. Grate the cucumber and squeeze out as much liquid as possible
  3. Mix the well-squeezed cucumber with the yoghurt, garlic, salt, lemon and herbs

If you fancy a different raita, I highly recommend the incredible smashed pineapple and turmeric raita from Meera Sodha’s Fresh India.

Hummous

~ Sophie ~ 4 Comments

A scoopy classic. So much more delicious than buying it, and much cheaper too!

  • 1 tin of chickpeas
  • 3 tbsp tahini
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 small clove garlic, finely minced/grated

I always use a stick blender for this. You can use that, a food processor or an old-fashioned fork (if you don’t mind it chunky).

  1. Drain the chickpeas, retaining around 60ml (¼ cup) of the liquid from the tin
  2. Tip the chickpeas into a bowl, add all the other ingredients plus the chickpea liquid that you kept
  3. Whizz/mash/puree the mixture until it’s the consistency you like. Taste, adjust the seasoning

All you need then is a stack of toasted pitta strips or carrot sticks and some time to yourself.

Or you can put it in a nice bowl, drizzle with decent olive oil and sprinkle with paprika. And then go to town on it.

For flavoured hummous, just whizz in some roasted peppers, or roasted carrots, coriander and parsley, or Moroccan spices.