Our talented gardening friend Catherine Hill made all these dips and served them with homegrown lettuce, carrots, french beans, mange tout, spring onions, broad beans and golden beetroot. If you grow your own veg it’s great to eat them fresh (and raw). If you don’t have your own veg patch, you can order a veg box from a local market garden like Shalbourne Growers.
Dips
Dill & Mayonnaise Dip
I really didn’t think I liked dill much but this dip has changed my mind. Simply chop the dill and stir into your favourite mayonnaise.
Chutney & Yoghurt Dip
Got lots of jars of chutney at the back of the cupboard that you don’t know what to do with? Here’s the answer: simply mix any kind of chutney with plain yoghurt for a colourful and tasty dip (it’s the yellow one in the photo). You can add extra spices and chilli to taste as required.
Beetroot and Apple Dip
Sweat onions in oil. Add boiled beetroot and cubed, peeled apples (any type will work but Bramleys are nice and fluffy). Put the lid on and cook until apples are soft. Blitz in the blender and serve hot as a side dish or cold as a dip. (Recipe from Jane Grigson).
Hummous
Catherine makes hers every Sunday from scratch by cooking dried chickpeas in a pressure cooker and she includes plenty of cumin and coriander. Here’s a good recipe. I use a combination of tinned and sprouted chickpeas which creates a consistency like crunchy peanut butter. You can of course buy hummous in which case I’d add some water/lemon juice/oil to make it thin enough to dip into.
Tapanade
Blitz olives, garlic lemon (capers and anchovies are optional)
Pesto
I invented this dandelion and sundried tomato pesto recipe which works well as a dip or as a pasta sauce.
Crudites
Any fresh vegetable, raw or blanched, is delicious to dop. But you can also use breadsticks or sliced pitta bread.