dippity-do-dah

When I was growing up in the seventies homemade dip equalled a packet of powdered French Onion soup mix stirred into cream cheese. That, my friends is a fine example of not real food.

Dips are a popular snack and while there does exist a couple of decent commercially made dips containing real food and no additives, finding them requires close label reading, something I’d like to minimise for you.

In the time it takes to read the fine print you can make your own dip, know exactly what you put in and create a dip with exciting flavours.

Here are three super easy favourites:

Carrot hoummos

1 400g can organic chick peas

2 medium or 3 small carrots

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

1tbs tahini

1 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp cumin

a pinch cayenne pepper

juice of 1 lemon

Steam the carrots until soft

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend to desired texture, you may need to add a touch more lemon juice or water to create a smooth texture (if you don’t have either mashing with a fork will achieve the same result and give your arm a workout).

Place in a bowl swish a touch of olive oil over the top and a pinch of cumin.

Ready!

Tzatziki

1 cup natural yoghurt (definitely no added sugar)

1 small cucumber, grated skin on

2 tbsp fresh herbs of your choice, chopped (I like to use parsley and/or fennel)

1 clove garlic, crushed

a pinch of sea salt

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until blended.

Ready!

Avocado

1 big avocado

Juice of one lemon

1 garlic clove, crushed

2tbsp chopped herbs, (coriander works in well)

1 small finely chopped onion (optional)

1 medium tomato, diced (optional)

Scrape flesh of avocado into a bowl and mash

Add the lemon juice and crushed garlic, stir in with a fork

If using, stir in diced tomato, onion and coriander.

Ready!

A final word on dips – beware your dipping cracker of choice is not filled with trans fats, sugar and salt.

Best for dipping is of course fresh vegetable sticks. Rice crackers come in next best, more label reading required though to make sure they don’t have weird ingredients like ‘anti-caking agent’ another example of not real food, where does the ‘anti-caking agent’ tree grow I ask?

The rice crackers I like are EatRite brown rice seaweed – brown rice, seaweed and tamari. Available in the health food aisle of Coles and Woolworths supermarkets.

Happy dipping.