Things you should know about me:
1. All dips are a food group to me.
2. I would eat chips, dip and drink beer every day in the summer. The days that I didn’t want that, I would have a snowball or ice cream.
3. Vegetables are important, and I don’t eat enough of them.
4. Dinner is a chore. Often a daily struggle, but this one is pretty easy, and great one for summertime.
I need more of number 3 and sanity during number 4, so here it goes. This is also a great way to empty out the veg drawer before hitting the produce stand again.
I had on-hand asparagus, red onion, red pepper, cucumber, and tomato. I marinated chicken tenderloins in my soy marinade, and sliced up a leftover NY strip.
The asparagus I cut into thirds and poached for a few minutes in boiling water. I ran them under cold water and then tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper. Everything else I thinly julienned. I grabbed a few pieces of naan and toasted them.
Minus grilling the chicken, all the prep can be done ahead of time. And because everything is cold, it can easily be transported to the pool, or park, or backyard.
Wrap it up, and done.
Classic Hummus
makes one pint
15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained and reserving the liquid
3 T tahini paste
4-5 cloves of garlic
2-3 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
juice of one lemon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper, or a few cracks from the pepper mill
3 T olive oil
In a food processor, combine the garbanzo beans, garlic, tahini paste, lemon juice and spices. Pulse until just blended. It will look like chunky peanut butter. Add a few (3-4) tablespoons of the reserved liquid, and blend. The consistency should be similar to creamy peanut butter. Steam in the olive oil. Chill for an hour or two.
This will keep in an airtight container for a week.
This is great for dipping chips, pretzels, veggies of all kinds, on a turkey sandwich, BLT, toast, and more.
