Harmony Kitchen

July 14, 2025 Recipe of the Week

After a slow start to the season, our gardens are bursting with so many delicious veggies. I have so many things I want to do with them but it turns out summer is BUSY and HOT and at the end of a long hot day, sometimes I prefer to have some delicious things prepared in the fridge that I can just pull out and serve. Summer nights we will often have some bread, cheese, quail eggs (pre-boiled and peeled from the fridge), veggies and dips. This week’s recipes include three of our favouites: 1. hummus, 2. baba ganoush and 3. tzatziki, all great to prep in advance and keep in the fridge for easy snacks, lunches or easy dinners

Pantry items #1 Garlic Scape Hummus: – Chick peas, two cans or 750 ml jar home pressure canned dried peas – Extra Virgin Olive Oil (~1/4 cup) – One Lemon ~1/3 cup sesame seeds – 1 tsp cumin seeds – Table/kosher salt AND fleur de sel – Paprika or Sumac for garnish Pantry items #2 Baba Ganoush: – Extra Virgin Olive Oil (~1/4 cup) – One Lemon ~1/4 cup sesame seeds – 1 tsp cumin seeds – Table/kosher salt AND fleur de sel – Paprika or Sumac for garnish Pantry items #3 Tzatziki: -Extra virgin olive oil (2-4 tbsps) – Red wine vinegar (1 tbsp) – Salt

Method

All three of these dips are pretty flexible and forgiving. Once you know the basic recipes, you can scale them up or down and add fresh flavours depending on what is in season and delicious in the moment.

#1: Garlic scape hummus

This is a riff on a basic hummus recipe. Here, I have replaced the usual clove of garlic with 1/2 cup of chopped garlic scapes.

Before you start:

• clean, trim and chop the garlic scapes. Remove any woody stems or dry ends.
• toast cumin in a dry pan if you like, it will take the flavour to the next level:)
• squeeze the juice from the lemon
• strain the chickpeas (save the liquid/”aquafaba”)
• chop parsley

Start by making a paste from the sesame seeds, cumin, two large (three finger) pinches of salt (see photo), juice from one large lemon and 1/2 cup or so of chopped garlic scapes.

Put all of these ingredients in a high powered blender or food processor and make sure the blades are covered. If there is not quite enough to cover the blades, top it up with aquafaba (the liquid in the chickpea can), a bit of water or even some chickpeas. It is better not to add any olive oil just yet as over blending olive oil can make it bitter.

Blend, starting with low speed and gradually increasing to high speed, pausing now and then to scrape down the sides, until everything is completely smooth.

Add the chickpeas and blend, again starting at low speed and gradually increasing to high speed until everything is smooth and creamy

If the consistency is too stiff and the blender/processer can’t blend it, add some aquafaba, a bit at a time, until it is blending well and the consistency is smooth and dip-y. Don’t have aquafaba? No worries, just use some water.

Scrape the hummus into dishes, top with chopped parsley and drizzle with olive oil then garnish with paprika or sumac and a little bit of fleur de sel.

#2 Baba Ganoush:

This is the quickest of the three dips, as long as you have frozen eggplant puree prepared ahead of time!

Before you start:

• defrost eggplant puree
• toast cumin in a dry pan if you like, it will take the flavour to the next level:)
• squeeze the juice from the lemon
• mince one clove of garlic
• chop parsley

Put eggplant puree, cumin, lemon juice, sesame seeds, garlic and salt in a high powered blender or food processor.

Blend, starting with low speed and gradually increasing to high speed, pausing now and then to scrape down the sides, until everything is completely smooth.

Add the olive oil gradually, while blending on the lowest speed, until it is incorporated; no need to turn up the speed, this is best blended in gently.

Scrape the baba ganoush into dishes, top with chopped parsley and drizzle with olive oil then garnish with paprika or sumac and a little bit of fleur de sel.

#3 Tzatziki:

Start by straining the yogurt. This takes the longest and you can work on other things while it slowly firms up.

Place a fine mesh colander in a bowl and line it with a clean kitchen towel. Pour the tub of yogurt into the towel-lined strainer and cover it over. Secure the top with an elastic band or two if you like. Adding a bit of tension helps it to strain more quickly.

Next, grate the cucumber on the fine side of the cheese grater. Place this in a bowl and add a couple of good pinches of salt. Give it a stir and leave it to do its thing as well.

Next, finely chop the dill and garlic.

When you have finished your other jobs, squeeze as much water as you can from the salted cucumber, add the strained yogurt, most of the dill (save some for garnish), olive oil, red wine vinegar and garlic. Mix everything together and taste it. Add some pepper and a bit more salt, olive oil or vinegar if it needs it. Scrape it into bowls and top with a drizzle of olive oil and some reserved dill.

Time Savers, Storage Tips and Spin off Recipes

• Keep the dips in 250 ml deli containers in the fridge. They keep well and make perfect lunches or snacks any time.
• Extra garlic scapes can be used raw anywhere you would normally use garlic or you can cook them like green beans as a side dish or in a stir fry.
• Save parsley stems in your stock bag in the freezer. They make an excellent addition to homemade stock.
• All of these recipes are pretty flexible. Don’t have dill for the tzatziki? Use another delicious green herb. Have extra flavourful veggies in the fridge? Throw them in the hummus! We love to sub roasted garlic for raw garlic or add roasted sweet peppers.

Did you Know?

The main source of ultra processed foods is snack foods.

Preparing extra portions of healthy snack foods and keeping them in the fridge can reduce the chances of reaching for candy and chips and will better satisfy your hunger because of the high fibre and protein content.

This Recipe’s Plant Count: #1: eight; #2: eight; #3: five

Time Required: #1: 10-15 minutes; #2: 5-10 minutes; #3: up to one hour, 5-10 minutes active

Number of Servings: each dip recipe yields about 4 cups of dip