Serves: A picnic
Prep: 10 min
Cook: 0 min

Ingredients:
2 handfuls of rocket
1 cup of macadamia nuts
1 loose handful of flat-leaf parsley
2 cloves of garlic
150g of pecorino (or Parmesan /Romano)
¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil

1. Roughly chop the rocket, parsley and garlic then grate the pecorino to make blitzing it easier.
2. Place all ingredients into a bowl and blitz.
3. Eat with crackers, as a condiment or stir into pasta and serve.

This dish was for Mikey’s new housie home making.

Serves: us
Prep: 15 min
Cook time: 0 min

Ingredients:
1 red char grilled capsicum **
1 can of chickpeas
½ lemon juice
1 clove of garlic
1 modest handful of coriander (fresh)
1 table spoon of tahina
1 lug of olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste (paprika if you like)

1. Make your own char grilled capsicum or buy it. I constantly make my own, but must say it is my most hated cooking food/method. Hate it!
2. Take the capsicum and all other ingredients and blend – leave a few coriander leaves for decoration.
3. Serve with slithers of carrot, capsicum, green beans, cucumber, celery, bread or crisps.

Beetroot Dip with Mint

Serves: Many
Prep: 40 min
Cook time: 1hr

Ingredients:
3 medium beets
2 cloves of garlic
1 small tub of yogurt
2 tablespoons of mint

1. Lob the top off the beets.
2. Place beets into a pot of boiling water and boil until soft (aprox 25 minutes)
3. Allow to cool.
4. Wearing gloves (so the beets don’t stain) rub of the beetroot skin
5. Roughly chop the beetroot and add to the bowl along with the yogurt
6. Blend until roughly smooth.
7. Add mint and stir

Roasted Eggplant Dip

Serves: Many
Prep: 40 min
Cook time: 1hr

Ingredients:
2 large eggplants
Juice of one lemon
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons tahini
Spring onions to decorate (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 200°C
2. Place the eggplant on a grease paper lined roasting tray and cook for 40 minutes. Turn once during cooking.
3. Set aside to cool so that you can handle them comfortably.
4. When cooled, peel the skin away and discard. Leaving the filling in a bowl.
5. Combine with the rest of the ingredients and blend.

Makes: About a cup and a half
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: n/a if you used them tinned.

Ingredients:
1 can of chick peas (ceci)
2 large desert spoons of tahini (sesame paste)
1 clove of garlic
Juice of one lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Serve on the same plate as the main for a nice change

1. Crush the chick peas with a fork
2. Add tahini, crushed garlic, lemon juice and taste
3. You can always add more lemon or garlic for more bite as well as salt and pepper to taste.

Lasts about a week.

Serves: Many
Prep: 10 min

Ingredients:
2 small tubs of yogurt
3 Lebanese cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 handfuls of mint finely chopped
1/2 lemon juiced

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Make ahead of time and refrigerate, giving time for the flavors to develop.
3. Serve with bread, crackers and dipping vegetables.

Ingredients:
3 medium beets
½ – 1 head of garlic
1 small tub of yogurt
2 tablespoons of dill

1. Preheat an oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Lob the top off the beet, and the head of garlic. (leaving the peel on)
3. Place beets and garlic on to a trey and cook for 45 or so minutes or until soft.
4. Allow to cool.
5. Wearing gloves (so the beets don’t stain) rub of the beetroot skin
6. Squeeze out the garlic from the skins into a bowl.
7. Roughly chop the beetroot and add to the bowl along with the yogurt
8. Blend until roughly smooth.
9. Add dill and stir

New Years Eve Party Food!

Serves: many
Prep: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients:
100g of Salmon
250g of cream cheese
5 tablespoons of chives
1 ¼ tablespoon of horseradish
½ lemon juiced
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Whisk the cream cheese a little with the horseradish and a good squeeze of lemon
2. Chop chives and finely chop salmon and add to mix with seasoning
3. Stir & serve

This combination of flavors always works well with Italian food. I’d use the same combo to stuff ravioli or in lasagna layers.

Makes: 1 ½ cups
Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients:
500g of fresh low fat ricotta
1/2 bunch of basil chopped
2 teaspoons of fresh lemon zest
Salt and Pepper to taste
optional variation – chopped semi sun dried tomato / fresh chili

1. Combine ingredients

Last year I made a sweet potato dip to take to Ellie’s housewarming. She asked me to bring it again for her house warming this time around as well. So I came up with this Roast Pumpkin Dip for the sake of variety.

Makes: 1 ½ cups
Cook time: 30 min

Ingredients:
1kg of pumpkin chopped into small pieces
2 teaspoons of cumin powder
1 red chili, de-seeded and chopped finely
2 clove of garlic chopped
1 teaspoon of honey
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 lug of olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Cut Pumpkin into small pieces for roasting. Once it has been cooking for 15 minutes add the cumin powder and garlic to the roasting pan and toss.
2. Roast for another 15 minutes
3. Remove from oven, and blend with remaining ingredients
4. Serve with crispy toasted Lebanese bread ( I cut this up first and then used the pumpkin roasting trey to cook this and it added flavor)

I really don’t know how I made this dip. Anyway, it freaks me out quite frankly. :}
I wanted to make a dip using sweet potato. So after looking on line at a few recipes I decided that with some garlic, tahini, coriander and stuff that it would be lovely. Although once I started to whiz at it with my bar mix, I realized that all I was actually doing was making mashed potato. People at the party liked it. In fact it may have out performed the hummus!!