Beat the Heat with Dips for Dinner
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When summer is scorching, my go-to dinner is cool and comforting — dips. All the dips. All manner of dips!
Seriously. They generally are easy to prep. They hold well for several days. They can pair with fresh vegetables, crackers, toasted bread, flatbread, tortillas, even tortilla chips.
You can eat them by the water, at the pool, on the porch, in front of the TV with the AC blasting. Heck, you don’t even need plates or silverware. Just scoop and shove it in your mouth.
Last night I made a “fancy” dip — a French tian. Basically, it’s just thinly sliced zucchini, onions, tomatoes and whatever else you care to add, plus garlic, tons of olive oil and some herbs. Let it roast low and slow (in the morning!) until it turns tender and almost jammy, then serve it cool or room temperature with your carb of choice. I made mine following whim and what-have-you, but our recipe is excellent, too!
The other day I made mutabal, which is a Jordanian eggplant dip similar to baba ghanoush. The tahini adds just the right richness to it. I didn’t have pomegranate seeds, but a drizzle of pomegranate molasses was perfect.
And one dip never is enough, so I also made my favorite tzatziki. I learned to make it in Athens and it is so simple and so much better than any I’d ever had here. The secret is grating the cucumber, then salting and draining it. The result is especially thick and never watery. Also, no lemon juice! Greeks prefer red wine vinegar in their tzatziki.
While we’re talking Greek food, you also should try this whipped feta cheese dip. It’s creamy and tangy with just the right punch from a bit of garlic. Ditto for Greek split pea dip topped with an onion and roasted pepper relish.
Many of my favorite dips begin with Greek yogurt. I love how thick and creamy it is, even if you get the low-fat variety. I often use it to make instant two- or three-ingredient dips. My favorite — don’t judge me — Greek yogurt stirred with a little tahini and a lot of Sriracha. If that’s too freewheeling for you, try our four-ingredient recipe for harissa-yogurt dip.
If you don’t mind turning on the oven in the morning (when, we hope, it’s at least a little cooler), you can try our charred zucchini and tahini dip. The zucchini takes on such a great savory-rich flavor. Of course, you also could char the zucchini on the grill or over the bonfire.
No discussion of dinner dips would be complete without hummus. I learned to make it in the Middle East and it changed my hummus game forever. The trick is to let it puree WAY longer than you think is needed and to add FAR MORE tahini than you think is right. The result is almost whipped cream light. Try it with our quick creamy hummus, which uses canned chickpeas (because summer is no time for making dried beans).
Or for something a little different, try the sunflower seed hummus I learned in Georgia (the country, not the state). It’s savory and creamy and rich and a little more complex than typical hummus.
That’s going to be my theme for this summer — take a dip to cool down, then do a deep dive into dips for dinner.
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