Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Dip
We served little cucumber cup canapés at our wedding and I have had a soft spot for anything scoopable ever since. This dip is the one I make most often, partly because it uses up peppers going soft in the salad drawer and partly because it tastes far more complicated than it actually is.
Roasting the peppers until the skins genuinely blacken in patches is what makes this work. Under-roast them and you end up with something thin and watery. Once they come out of the oven, sit them in a covered bowl for ten minutes and the skins will slip off between your fingers.
Walnuts and breadcrumbs together give it body, which is how it stays thick without any cream or yoghurt going in. Toast the walnuts first in a dry pan, because it takes about four minutes and makes a difference out of all proportion to the effort.
It keeps for five days in the fridge and freezes well, so I generally double the batch. Serve it with warm flatbread, or spooned alongside grilled fish where it does the job of a sauce. A little olive oil over the surface stops it drying out.
Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Dip
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Serves: 6 people
Serving size: 123g
Calories per serving: 242
Fat per serving: 19.2g
Ingredients
- 4 red peppers, halved and deseeded
- 100g walnuts
- 50g dried breadcrumbs
- 2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- Salt to season
Method
- Heat the oven to 220C. Lay the pepper halves cut side down on a baking tray with the unpeeled garlic cloves and roast for 25-30 minutes, until the skins have blackened in patches.
- Tip the peppers into a bowl, cover it with a plate and leave for 10 minutes. The trapped steam loosens the skins so they pull away easily.
- Meanwhile toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan for 3-4 minutes, until they smell nutty. Set a few aside for the top.
- Peel the peppers and squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skins. Put both into a food processor with the walnuts, breadcrumbs, olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, chilli flakes and a good pinch of salt.
- Blitz to a coarse paste, taste for salt and lemon, then spoon into a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and scatter the reserved walnuts, roughly chopped, over the top.
Nutrition
| Nutrition information | Per serving (123g) |
|---|---|
| Energy | 1013kJ / 242kcal |
| Fat | 19.2g |
| of which saturates | 2.2g |
| Carbohydrate | 15.3g |
| Fibre | 2.7g |
| Protein | 4.7g |
| Salt | 0.3g |
Calculated from USDA FoodData Central for the ingredients as listed. Salt excludes seasoning added to taste. Values not shown could not be calculated reliably.
