A delicious creamy and earthy dip with warming cumin spice
I am consciously calling this recipe a dip. Previously I would have called it Hummus, but having read and learnt more about the cultural and historical origins of foods and recipes I believe that to truly honour the culture and the peoples who created them, we need to not appropriate these dishes by changing all the ingredients and then still call it by its original name.
I've recently followed some interesting conversations on social media on this topic and reading the opinions expressed by people of varying different cultures on how their traditional and indigenous recipes, dishes and methods of cooking have been altered beyond recognition, has felt dismissive of their cultural heritage.
Hummus is a traditionally Middle-Eastern dish of mashed chickpeas with lemon, garlic and olive or sesame oil. So when we add any other ingredients such as tahini (sesame paste), other vegetables or herbs and spices we are moving far away from the original creation.
For those of you that follow my garden stories, you'll know I love growing carrots of all colours and varieties. This year I've really enjoyed growing yellow-stone carrots with their long golden tapered roots. Super easy to grow with big green tops that together with olive oil, garlic and pumpkin seeds, make for another delicious herbed spread that looks and tastes like "pesto"- you catch my drift :-)
One of my favourite ways to eat homegrown carrots in particular is to roast them with olive oil and cumin seed. Delicious as they are then as a side to some fish and boiled new potatoes or chopped up and added to quinoa with lots of fresh parsley, or my lovely Warming Winter Salad.
So with this recipe i've used lots of olive oil, tinned chickpeas, tahini and plenty of garlic. For those of you that enjoy fermenting, fermented garlic goes exceptionally well for making this kind of dip- a vibrant taste and extra love for your gut bugs.
Ingredients:
300g of scrubbed carrots
1 tin of chickpeas
1tsp salt
1tblsp tahini
3-4 tblsp olive oil
2 heaped tsp cumin seed (and a little to sprinkle)
3 garlic cloves
juice of 1 whole lemon
Method:
Cut the carrots length ways, and if they are very big, cut them in half again. drizzle with about 1tblsp olive oil, sprinkle of salt and the cumin seed. Roast in a moderate oven (170C) for about 25-30 minutes and leave to cool a little.
Drain the tin of chickpeas and rinse them well. Add the chickpeas to a food processor along with the garlic, tahini, salt, and lemon juice to blitz till course. Add the roasted carrots (make sure to scrape the lovely cumin seeds in too) and blitz again whilst slowly adding in the olive oil. See how the texture is. if you'd like it smoother add a little cold water and adjust seasoning to taste. To serve, spoon into a dish and drizzle with some more olive oil and sprinkle with a few cumin seeds. This dip is delicious served with any breads, pitta, crackers or with vegetable crudités and will keep in the fridge, covered for 4 days.