Wednesday 20 November 2013

Vegan Lunch Recipe: Trio Of Dips


As a vegan, my idea of a naughty dinner isn't fast food. That's my idea of being really grossed out. My idea of a naughty dinner is carb loading on home-made turkish bread smothered in delicious dips. Also, if you can bear to share, these also are really easy to whip up when people are coming over, and can be made extra healthy by serving with chopped veggies and crackers.

HUMMUS:
It's an almondy twist on an old classic.

Ingredients:

Two tins of chickpeas, drained but with some of the liquid reserved
The juice of a big lemon
Two cloves of garlic, peeled
A tablespoon of almond butter (this is the secret ingredient. The addition of it deepens the flavour like you wouldn't believe)
Two generous tablespoons of tahini
Three tablespoons of olive oil
A pinch of salt (to taste)
A teaspoon of cumin

Instructions:

Pop the chickpeas in a food processor with the lemon juice and some of the reserved liquid. Process until smooth, adding more liquid if required. It shouldn't be sloppy, but it should be moist.

Add the garlic, almond butter, tahini, olive oil, and cumin. Process really well to combine. Taste, add salt (I went about half a teaspoon), and adjust the flavours if required.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

SUNDRIED TOMATO AND CAPER DIP:


This recipe is a beauty. It has a perfectly balanced, Mediterranean flavour - although I am biased because I love capers. The secret is in the sundried tomatoes. I buy mine from an Italian grocer, and these are proper Italian, saturated in oil and marinated with capers. If you can't find something like this, normal sundrieds will do, but make sure they're in oil, because you're using the oil.

Ingredients:

A tin of white beans/cannelini beans drained, with some liquid reserved
Three cloves of garlic, peeled
Five or six big sundried tomatoes
Three tablespoons of the oil the sundrieds were soaked in
Extra olive oil, just in case
A tablespoon of capers in brine
A handful of chopped chives
An handful of chopped basil

Instructions:

Pop the beans in the food processor with some of the liquid and blend until no whole beans remain.

Add the sundrieds, oil, and garlic. Blend until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, and a touch more olive oil.

Add the capers. Blend.

Put in a serving dish, add the chives and basil and stir. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

BEETROOT DIP


It's as easy as opening a can.

Ingredients:

One 425g tin of beetroot, drained
The juice of half a lemon
A tablespoon of olive oil
Two garlic cloves, peeled
A teaspoon of ground cumin
A teaspoon of ground corriander
A quarter teaspoon of cinnamon
A handful of parsley, chopped.

Put the beetroot, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin, corriander and cinnamon in the food processor.

Process well, until smooth. You may need to scrape the sides with a spatular.

Add the chopped parsley and stir in. Refrigerate prior to serving.

1 comment:

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