Easy Dips Recipes to Make Your Bar Snacks Yummier!

Easy Dip Recipes For Home

Are you an experienced social butterfly? Or, like me, just someone who wants their guests to have a good time? Take my word for it, you can never fail with the age-old yumminess of chips & crisps served with a delicious dip. Or three!

So I spend a lot of my time chilling with my foodie friends and family, either at home or visiting restaurants and eclectic cafes wherever we go. These following dip recipes are easily made at home and will bring goodness from around the world to your table. The best part about these simple dip recipes is that the ingredients are easily available at home, the cooking time is rather short, and the taste is absolutely superb!

Hummus

Hummus is a pastry preparation that is mostly eaten in the Middle East & Mediterranean cuisines. Historically, it seems to have originated in Egypt in the 13th century. Today, it is popularly eaten as a sandwich spread, dip, base for salads & wraps, and just by itself as a snack.

Ingredients for the Dip

Hummus is an easy dip that you can make at home out of easily available ingredients.

Ingredient	Quantity
Chickpeas (garbanzo beans/white chhole/kabuli chana)	200 gms
Garlic (preferably roasted)	3-4 small cloves OR 2 large cloves
Cumin Seed Powder (Roasted Jeera Powder)	1 tbsp
Salt	1 & 1/2 tsp
Tahina (a paste made out of hulled sesame seeds)	30 ml
Lemon Juice	1 lemon
Sliced olives	5-6 slices
Olive oil	1 tbsp

The Recipe

The first stage in making hummus is to make Tahina. Tahina is a preparation made out of hulled sesame seeds, a pinch of salt, and some virgin olive oil. Alternatively, you can skip adding Tahina altogether to save time when in need or if you don’t like the flavours!

For the Tahina

1. Toast ¼ cup of white hulled sesame seeds and put them in a blender
2. Add 1 tbsp of avocado or virgin olive oil
3. Add a pinch of salt
4. Blend until a smooth, creamy white paste is made.

For the Garlic

My secret is that I always lightly roast the garlic in ghee/butter before adding it to the hummus. You can simply add a raw whole slice if that’s what you prefer.

For the Cumin Powder

1. Lightly roast a tablespoon is full of whole cumin seeds on a non-stick pan without any oil or grease. 
2. Roast for 60-90 seconds till they’re aromatic and dark brown. Remember not to let it burn.
3. If you’re an Indian like me whose mother taught them to do it on a Tawa, well, do that!
4. Let it cool for 10 mins.
5. Grind into a powder using Pestle & Mortar or a Grinder.

Preparing the Chickpeas

Now, there are 2-3 ways of doing it, based on the time/prep level that you have.

Method 1

1. Take 200 gms of dried Chickpeas and soak them in water overnight.
2. Put them in a pressure cooker and add water until they are slightly more than completely submerged.
3.  Let them simmer for 30-45 mins until soft 
4. OR, cook them in a deep pan, submerged in water, with a lid on top for 4 hours on high heat or 8 hours on low heat.
5. Let them cool down to room temperature.

Method 2

1. If you have not soaked them overnight, put them in a pressure cooker and cook them on medium heat for 60-75 mins until soft. Based on your chickpeas, stove heat, or cooking vessel, it might take 15 mins more or less than that.
2. Let them cool down to room temperature

Preparing the Hummus Dip

1. Take all the ingredients and put them in the mixer, along with the fresh juice of 1-2 lemons.
2. Mix well until it’s a soft, textured paste.
3. That’s it! It’s ready! Eat with your regular Lay’s chips, lavash bread, toasted pit bread or pita chips, or basically any snack that you a serving!

Pesto Hummus

This is a regular hummus, like the one explained above, except that it has the added fresh and palatable flavour of the Italian Pesto. It’s a modern amalgamation of European and Mediterranean flavours and is best had with pita crisps, lavash crisps, toasted bread and chips.

Ingredients for the Dip

Same as above + Pesto recipe

Ingredient	Quantity
Basil Leaves	1 full teacup, plus extra for garnish
Pine Nuts or walnuts	¼ teacup
Garlic	2 cloves
Parmesan Cheese OR homemade cream/malai	¼ teacup
Olive oil (preferably virgin)	1-2 tbsp

Alternatively, you can also use store-bought pesto dip and it to the hummus blend in the recipe above and Eureka!

Easy Pesto Hummus Dip Recipe

Preparing the Pesto

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender, except the olive oil
2. Add the olive oil at intervals to ensure good consistency.
3. Blend till the paste becomes creamy and smooth

Preparing the Hummus

1. Follow the classic hummus recipe above, and add the pesto to the final blend.

Tzatziki

Tzatziki (pronounced as dja-dji-ki) is one of the easiest and healthiest dip/spread options that my family and I are absolute fans of. You can literally put it together in minutes. Honestly, it’s been a face-saver for us on many last-minute guesting occasions. Tzatziki is an easy dip that is mostly eaten in the Middle East and Southeastern Europe. It’s a cool, refreshing preparation made out of mostly cool ingredients. It is best eaten with salad vegetables, chips, crisps, carrot/cucumber sticks, etc.

Ingredients for the Dip

Ingredient	Quantity
Greek Yogurt (store-bought or made at home)	400 gm
Cucumber	1 piece
Garlic	2 cloves
Salt	1 tbsp
Olive oil (preferably virgin)	1-2 tbsp
Lemon Juice or White Wine Vinegar	30 ml

The Recipe

Preparing the Greek Yogurt

1. The easiest alternative is to get store-bought classic/plain/unsweetened Greek yoghurt. (I swear by Epigamia Unsweetened Greek Yogurt which is easily available on Milkbasket)
2. If you want to prepare it from scratch, then just take a muslin or a cheesecloth and put it over a deep pan.
3. Take 750gm of dahi/curd/yoghurt (Amul, Mother Diary, or whatever local brand you prefer) and put it on the cheesecloth
4. Wrap the cheese/muslin cloth around the yoghurt and let it strain for 2-3 hours.
5. Open the cloth to reveal perfectly creamy, smooth, and thick strained yoghurt.

Preparing the Easy Tzatziki Dip

1. Blend the cucumber and peeled garlic cloves into a granular paste
2. Mix this blend with the yoghurt, lemon juice, salt, and olive oil, and add some cilantro or parsley leaves if available,
3. Mix them in a bowl with a wooden/steel spoon.
4. Voila! Enjoy with your favourite chips.

Why I love these recipes is that they are fairly simple and the cooking time is really low. There are no complicated or sophisticated cooking techniques needed. What is even better is all the ingredients are readily available. Personally, I use Milkbasket to order all these essentials just a day before I need them as they have over 13000 products available on the platform.