SUMMER: Take a Dip

Summer is a time for celebrations. Fruit is ripe, BBQ’s are hot and drinks are cool. While there may be a load of exciting produce and food on offer, nothing quite piques our interest and stimulates our taste buds more that one particular food in summer…

So summer is well and truly here – at least for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere – and our larders are full of all sorts of yummy goodies. Berries have been harvested and the their price has significantly dropped. We have already made our stomach sick with the greedy consumption of apricots, peaches and nectarines. We have eaten our fill of mangoes (if that is possible?!) and generally overindulged in too much wine, beer or some fruity cocktail that we innocently sipped for it’s fruity bouquet rather than the fruity behaviour we soon started to exhibit after it’s heady consumption. But the funny thing is there is actually one thing that fine summer-tarians seem to indulge in above all else. Dipping.

Yes there is dipping in pools, lakes and rivers. Not to mention midnight skinny swims and hot day beach bathing. But that is not the kind of dipping we are discussing here. The summer obsession is to do with dipping our food. We will happily dip our ice creams and strawberries in chocolate or caramel. Give us a crisp, cracker or crudite and you will see us beeline for the nearest bowl of dip. We absolutely love eating chips on the beach, serenely gazing at the sunset as we furiously dip our fried potatoes in as much tomato sauce as the stingy local takeaway has given us.

Yup we become dip crazed zombies come summertime. Dipping anything we can get our greasy little hands on. So much so that we will be prepared to pay a king’s ransom for a small pot of tomato sauce for our chips, we will happily fork out a fiver for hummus that would taste better served out of an old boot. We will even convince ourselves that we can purchase pre-made guacamole if we get the best money can buy. And why you may ask yourself? Why do we buy un-fresh and expensive dips day in day out throughout summer?

I am sure that your answer has to do with the fact that you think that dips take time to make – with things like chickpeas taking over 40 minutes to cook. Also you want a selection. Maybe you just aren’t confident how to get the flavours right? Or of course there is the fact that you are already on the way to the beach or a BBQ and you don’t have the knives, forks, beaters or bowls to make such a complicated recipe?

These excuses are, of course, all rubbish! I am going to leave this piece of writing standing here for 15 minutes. I am going to go to the fridge or pantry (or in your case the supermarket) and make three dips using nothing but my hands as tools and picnic bowls to house them. I have not pre-bought any ingredients so will use whatever I have on hand. Just to prove to you that all you really need to make a delicious dips is five minutes and some imagination. Oh and I’ll also let you know the cost just to show you how much money you can save! See you in 15 min…

…Ok so it took me 17 minutes, but only because it took me a while to figure out out to chop garlic with my bare hands! But if you read on then I will tell you my little secret for crushing garlic with your bare hands.

Barlotti bean hummus, guacamole and yoghurt aioli only took about five minutes to make – no special tools required. And you can make exciting dips with any number of available ingredients on hand! These ingredients were not planned remember. No method required because you just add the ingredients into a bowl and squish them and mix them with your hands – obviously you can use utensils if you are at home – but the hand method is great if you are stopping into a supermarket on the way to the beach etc.

And how much did it all cost? Less than $3.00 per dip. And bear in mind that these are 300-500g instead of the average 200g packs of dip you will normally buy at the supermarket for $4.00 upwards.

This is a must try for every picnic goer and beach baby banqueter. A trio of dips made using nothing but your hands, that can be bought for a few dollars and made within five minutes. You bring the chips, carrots sticks and crackers and we’ll show you how to conjure the dips from your bare hands…