3 Vegan Party Dips With Homemade Pita
These easy vegan party dips are the best I've tasted of all the dips and spreads I can think of: a mango chutney coconut hummus, a truffle sweet potato spread with caramelized onions, and a curry-style eggplant dip. The hummus is the all-encompassing sweet-spicy-savory one, the sweet potato truffle is the smooth heavy main course, and the eggplant is the refreshing sour one, the perfect holy trinity of dips. And with amazing dips you need an amazing base, so my easy pita recipe is in here too.
Ingredients
- 400 g cooked chickpeas (canned works, but dried and soaked gives a much better result)
- 1 tsp baking soda (only if cooking dried chickpeas)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 tbsp tahini
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 3 tbsp aquafaba (the saved chickpea cooking water)
- 3 ice cubes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tbsp sweet-and-sour mango chutney (1 tbsp blended in, 3 tbsp folded through, plus extra to garnish)
- 2 tbsp grated coconut (1 tbsp blended in, 1 tbsp folded through, plus extra to garnish)
- 10 cracks salt and pepper
- 1 very large sweet potato (or 2 small), peeled and cut into large cubes
- 2 yellow onions, cut into strips
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 3 tbsp tahini
- 1/4 tsp cumin powder
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika powder
- 3 tbsp truffle oil (the higher the quality, the better)
- 1 lime, juiced
- a drizzle olive oil, for roasting
- to garnish white sesame seeds and a cilantro leaf
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 10 cracks salt and pepper
- 2 eggplants
- 2 red onions, roughly cut
- 4 cloves garlic
- 4 tsp curry powder
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 1 lime, juiced
- 4 tbsp tahini
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus some for roasting
- to garnish cilantro leaves and black sesame seeds
- 10 cracks salt and pepper
- 520 g all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
- 7 g instant yeast
- 340 ml lukewarm water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 7 g salt
Method
Mango chutney coconut hummus
- 1
Using dried chickpeas? Soak them overnight, around 12 hours, in cold water. Cook them in that same water with a teaspoon of baking soda at a simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, lay a wooden spoon over the pan so the boiling foam doesn't overflow. Drain, but save the cooking water: that's your aquafaba. Rinse the chickpeas cold.
- 2
In a food processor, blitz the chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, 10 cracks of salt and pepper, cumin, chili powder and 3 tablespoons of aquafaba until combined.
- 3
Add the ice cubes and olive oil and process again until smooth.
- 4
Add 1 good tablespoon of mango chutney and 1 tablespoon of grated coconut, and process for another minute until smooth.
- 5
Scrape the hummus into a bowl, fold through 3 more tablespoons of chutney and 1 more of coconut with a spatula, and garnish with the chutney and coconut you kept back.
Truffle sweet potato caramelized onion spread
- 6
Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Toss the sweet potato cubes on a baking sheet with olive oil, salt and pepper, use a sharp knife for the cutting or it gets dangerous, and roast for 30 minutes.
- 7
Meanwhile, caramelize the onions: strips into a pan with some oil or butter and salt, then 30 minutes on low-medium heat, stirring occasionally.
- 8
Let the roasted sweet potato cool slightly, then blitz it smooth in the food processor.
- 9
Add the tahini, garlic, cayenne, cumin, smoked paprika, truffle oil, lime juice and 10 cracks of salt and pepper. Process a few minutes until completely smooth, and adjust the taste.
- 10
Serve in a small dish with the caramelized onions on top, white sesame seeds and a cilantro leaf for color contrast.
Curry-style eggplant dip
- 11
Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Stab the eggplants all over with a fork so they don't explode, put them on a baking sheet with some olive oil, and roast for 45 minutes.
- 12
While they roast, cook the red onions, garlic, curry powder and garam masala in a pan for 3 minutes, then set aside.
- 13
Let the eggplants cool a bit, peel a line of skin off, scoop out the insides with a spoon and discard the peels.
- 14
Blitz the eggplant and onion mix with the maple syrup, lime juice and 10 cracks of salt and pepper. Then add the tahini and olive oil (don't forget them like I did) and blitz again, keep it a bit chunky, you don't want this completely smooth.
- 15
Taste and adjust with salt, pepper, or more lime juice if you like it more sour. Garnish with cilantro and black sesame seeds.
Homemade pita
- 16
Mix the flour, salt, yeast, lukewarm water and olive oil in a stand mixer bowl. Knead with the dough hook (or by hand) for 10–15 minutes, until you can shine light through a stretched piece of dough without it tearing.
- 17
Shape into a tight ball and let it rise in a greased bowl for 1.5 hours or until doubled in size.
- 18
Punch the dough down, cut it into 12 even pieces and shape them into small tight balls. Lay them on an oiled or paper-lined baking sheet and rest for 30 minutes under a damp kitchen towel.
- 19
Preheat the oven as high as it goes, preferably 250 °C, with a pizza stone or metal plate inside. Roll each ball out to a flat disc of about 5 mm, flour your surface and rolling pin, because sticking tears the dough and torn dough won't puff.
- 20
Bake 2–3 minutes, until they balloon up and take a slight brown crust. No hot-enough oven? Cook the discs in a cast-iron skillet on medium-high heat for a few minutes instead.
- 21
Let the pitas cool under a damp kitchen towel to keep them soft.
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