Summer is the season for picnics and BBQ’s, dropping around at friend’s houses and having guests at your own. The weather is beautiful, the days are longer, and when the sun does go down its still gorgeous sitting outside with a glass of wine and enjoying the mild evening.
With all of this relaxing my thoughts inevitably turn to food. There is nothing quite like packing a hamper and escaping for the day, or throwing some gourmet tidbits in a basket and watching the sun go down with a bottle of champagne.
With this in mind I am going to create a simple “mini menu” every week to try and tempt everyone into loading up the picnic basket, and taking advantage of those extra hours of light at the end of each day.
For the first week of “Alfresco” the dish I wanted to start with was hummus or hommus depending or your preference. Now I know its not the most awe inspiring dip, but a homemade hummus is delicious and so much nicer than the commercial product. It is also an item which gets included in my picnic basket very regularly.
I make my hummus in either the food processor or with a stick blender so it is extremely quick to make. In fact, it takes me less time to make hummus, than it does to look for a park at the supermarket, and run in and buy a tub.
Here is my delicious and super easy Hummus Dip. It is vegetarian, Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Vegan, high in fibre and full of flavour.
- 1 x 440gm can chick pea
- ½ cup tahini
- 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
- pinch of salt
- 2 garlic cloves
- Garnish
- ¼ t/s sumac
- 1 t/s olive oil (garlic infused)
- 1 t/s chopped continental parsley
- Place all the dip ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. If necessary scrape down the sides and re process.
- Garnish with a little oil, sumac and parsley and serve with Lebanese bread.
The recipe makes about 550gms, which is double the amount contained in a commercially prepared tub of hummus. Because there is no oil in my homemade version of Hummus, and you can skip adding it to the top as a garnish, you can safely enjoy this healthy, completely guilt free snack.
What is your favourite dip? Do you make your own dips or do you prefer the convenience of the store bought variety?
