Levantine Feast

Four Mediterranean inspired hummus dips that are versatile delicious and easy to make. Feel free to adjust the quantity to your taste and preferences.

To make a dinner size Levantine mezza feast is easy with very little cooking. You’ll just need to gather a few ingredients.

• choose a few raw vegetables: carrots, cucumber sticks, radishes, baby tomatoes, sweet pepper sticks, broccoli florets
• Roast or Grill a few veggies: grilled cauliflower, zucchini, peppers work very well.
• warm a few pitas and cut into scoop-able sizes
• bake or fry a few falafel or grill a few prawns, firm fish, chicken or any protein of your choice
• grill a few slices of halloumi cheese
• make a chopped salad like tabouli

• To assemble :

• On a large platter place different hummus on three or four corners of a plate.
• Place a few pieces of raw and grilled veggies in contrasting colors. All around the platter.
• If you make tabouli salad, place it in cabbage shells for a pretty presentation and easy no- mess serving.
• Place the proteins and cheese in the middle. Or can be served separately.
• Serve the warm pita separately in a bread basket for a pretty presentation.
• **Give each of your guest small appetizer plates to serve themselves.
• ** make sure not to cram everything on one platter. You can make two platters for more servings.
• ** You don’t have to use all the veggies suggested, just a few from raw and grilled will work.

 

 

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Avocado Hummus

This is a classic chickpea hummus that I made from Ottolengi’ book “Jerusalem“. I’ve made it a few times now and it’s perfect just the way we like it.  For this recipe I added an avocado, it makes the hummus super creamy and delicious with warm pita or veggie crudités.

youll need;

• 2 small cloves garlic chopped
• One 15 oz can organic chickpeas rinsed and drained ( I prefer to cook my own, about 2 cups cooked.)
• One largish Hass avocado pit removed, scooped and diced
• 2-3 tablespoons tahini
• juice from 1/2 lemon about 2 tablespoons
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• Salt to taste
• Smoked Paprika to sprinkle sweet or hot your choice
• Your best cold pressed e.v olive oil

In a food processor, add the hummus ingredients: garlic,ground cumin, chickpeas, avocado, Lemon juice, tahini and salt.
Pulse until the hummus mixture is broken down. Then blend adding a little iced water to get a smooth texture or texture of your preference.
Transfer the avocado hummus to a serving bowl; with the back of your teaspoon draw a circular trench. Drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle paprika
Serve with crudités and warm pita or pita chips.

 

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Babaganoush

Babaganoush is a classic Medeterrnean eggplant dip enjoyed all over the region and around the world. This recipe is with a little twist. I’ve added caremelized onion to add a little onion sweetness. Omit if you don’t like onion, it still is very tasty. Look for eggplant that are firm, heavy for their size and have rich green tops, brown tops are a definite no no.

 

 

Babaganoush

1 large eggplant
1 small onion or a regular shallot chopped ( this is not traditional, but I found it adds great flavor)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1½ tbsp tahini
1 fat garlic clove
Juice from 1/2 a lemon, about 2 tbs lemon juice, more if you like
Salt and pepper

Garnish
Your best cold pressed e.v olive oil to drizzle
1 tsp smoked paprika sweet or hot your choice
Pinch of sumac
Finely chopped flat leaf parsley

Here’s how
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Make a couple of stabs in the eggplant. This prevents exploding in the oven by venting the steam that builds up in the eggplant. ( it actually happened to me once). Place the eggplant on a baking sheet.
Bake in the 425 degree F heated-oven for 30 minutes or until the eggplant is charred and softens through. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
While it cools. Warm a teaspoon of oil and sauté the chopped onion for 10 minutes on a medium heat till caramelized.
When the eggplant has cooled, scoop the flesh out and transfer to a food processor (discard the eggplant skins).
Add the eggplant pulp, caramelized onion, tahini, garlic, lemon juice. Run the food processor until you get a creamy texture. You could also just pulse a few time for a chunky texture. Taste and adjust flavors to your liking.
Transfer and spread the baba ganoush on to a plate. Right before serving, draw a trench with the back or side of a teaspoon. Then drizzle the olive oil in the trench, sprinkle the baba ganoush with sumac, paprika and chopped parsley leaves. Enjoy with a crudités and/ or warm pita bread.

 

 

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Muhummara

Muhummara is a Syrian style dip made with roasted red pepper, pomegranate molasses and walnuts amongst other tasty ingredients. It has now become my favorite sandwich spread. If you like other Mediterranean dips you may like this as well. If you can’t find pomegranate molasses use pomegranate juice, but it’s easy to find the molasses which can be found in Middle eastern markets, health food stores or Asian sections of grocery store.

 

Muhummara

• 1 jar roasted red pepper drained completely or 2 largish roasted red peppers
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 scallions white and light green parts chopped
• 1/2 cup walnuts + a few for garnish
• 1 slice regular bread torn into bite size pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin or more as needed
• 1/2 a lemon juice
• Sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or regular red pepper flakes
• 2- 4 tablespoon Pomegranate juice or molasses
• A drizzle of your best cold pressed e.v olive oil
• a few pomegranate arils to garnish

In a food processor combine red peppers, scallions, lemon juice, cumin, salt, 2 teaspoons pomegranate juice or 1 tablespoon molasses, ½ teaspoon pepper flakes and walnuts in a food processor and purée until mostly. Add half the torn bread pieces and pulse a few times. If mixture is still too thin to hold its shape, add remaining bread and pulse again till the bread is incorporated and smooth. Season to taste with salt and red pepper flakes. Transfer to a serving plate or bowl. Drizzle olive oil, the remaining pomegranate juice or molasses and chopped walnuts.

 

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Beet Hummus 

 

 

Beet Hummus

• 1 small roasted or steamed beet
• 2 small cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 1 15 oz. can cooked chickpeas or white beans, or 2 cups cooked chickpeas drained
•  juice of 1/2 a large lemon
• pinch salt and black pepper
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Garnish
• chopped parsley
• toasted pinenuts

 

• Instruction
  Roast or steam the beet.
  Once your beet is cooled,  peel chop and place it in your food processor. Pulse a few times till you get a mash.
  Combine all of the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
  Pour the olive oil in a thin drizzle while as the hummus is blending.
  Taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more salt, lemon juice or olive oil if needed. If it’s too thick, add a bit of iced water. Serve with garnishes as suggested.