Easy Guacamole and Hummus Dips

Two dips that take a blender and about five minutes each: a fresh guacamole and a classic tahini hummus.

Both are the kind of thing worth knowing by heart rather than looking up, so the technique notes matter more than the quantities.

Guacamole

Ripe avocados are essential. Everything else is seasoning.

Ingredients

• 4 avocados
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. Add all the ingredients to a blender.
2. Process until smooth.
3. Serve with cut vegetables or crackers.

Makes a large batch, roughly 1,120 calories in total across the bowl: 111 g fat, 58 g net carbohydrate, 13 g protein.

How do I tell if an avocado is ripe?

Two checks, and the second is the reliable one.

1. Squeeze gently with your palm, not your fingertips, which bruise the flesh. If it yields slightly, it is ready. Firm means a day or two away. If it gives easily, it is probably overripe and brown inside.
2. Check under the stem. Pull the small stem at the top. Green underneath means ready. Hard to remove means it needs a few days. Brown underneath means overripe.

The stem check is worth doing because it tells you about the flesh rather than the skin, and skin firmness can mislead on a cold avocado.

To ripen faster, put them in a paper bag with a banana. The ethylene speeds it up considerably.

How do I stop guacamole going brown?

Cover it with water. It sounds wrong and it works.

1. Put the leftover guacamole in a container and pat it flat with a spoon so the surface is even.
2. Pour about 1 cm of cold water over the top.
3. Put the lid on and refrigerate.
4. When you want it, drain the water off, give it a stir, and it is ready.

The water forms a physical barrier against air, which is what causes the browning. Tested over three full days and it holds. It does not go soggy, because the guacamole is dense enough that the water sits on top rather than mixing in.

Lemon or lime juice slows browning too, which is why it is in the recipe, but it will not stop it on its own.

Hummus

Good for sandwiches, or served with breadsticks or pitta.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 to 4 cloves of garlic, to taste
• 1/2 to 1 tsp salt, to taste
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 to 4 tsp olive oil, depending on the texture you want
• Optional: 1 tsp turmeric for colour

Method

1. Blend the tahini and lemon juice together first, until fully combined.
2. Add all the other ingredients. Start with two teaspoons of olive oil and add more as you go to reach the texture you want.
3. Process until smooth.
4. Serve with cut vegetables or crackers.

Roughly 916 calories across the batch: 31 g fat, 61 g net carbohydrate, 58 g protein.

Why blend the tahini and lemon juice first?

Because it is the single technique that separates smooth hummus from grainy hummus, and almost every recipe skips it.

Tahini and lemon juice whipped together on their own turn pale and fluffy, roughly doubling in volume. That aerated base then carries the chickpeas smoothly. Add everything at once and the tahini stays dense, which is why home hummus is so often heavy and slightly gritty.

It takes about a minute and it is worth it every time.

How do I get restaurant-smooth hummus?

Beyond the tahini step, three things:

• Peel the chickpeas. Tedious but transformative. Rub the drained chickpeas between a tea towel and the skins slip off. Twenty minutes of work for a noticeably silkier result.
• Add iced water, a tablespoon at a time while blending. Sounds counterintuitive next to olive oil, but it lightens the texture more than oil does.
• Blend longer than feels necessary. Three to four minutes, scraping down. Most people stop at one.

A quicker cheat: simmer tinned chickpeas with a quarter teaspoon of bicarb soda for ten minutes before blending. It softens the skins so they break down on their own.

What is the easiest dip to make?

Guacamole, by a distance. Mash a ripe avocado, add lemon juice and salt, and you have a legitimate dip in ninety seconds. Everything after that is refinement.

Other genuinely easy ones:

• Tzatziki. Greek yoghurt, grated cucumber squeezed dry, garlic, lemon, salt.
• Whipped feta. Feta and Greek yoghurt blended until smooth. Three ingredients with the olive oil.
• Beetroot dip. Tinned beetroot, Greek yoghurt, garlic, lemon.
• Salsa. Tomato, onion, coriander, lime, salt. No cooking, no blender.

What do I need to make a dip?

Most dips are the same four components in different proportions, which is why they are so easy to improvise once you see the pattern:

• A base. Something with body: avocado, chickpeas, yoghurt, beans, roasted vegetables.
• A fat. Olive oil, tahini, nut butter, or the fat already in the base.
• An acid. Lemon, lime or vinegar. The most commonly under-used, and the usual reason a homemade dip tastes flat.
• Salt. More than you expect. Cold food needs more seasoning than hot food to taste the same.

If a dip tastes dull, it is almost always short on acid or salt rather than short on an ingredient.

Storage

• Guacamole. Up to three days in the fridge using the water method above. Without it, one day at best.
• Hummus. Up to five days in an airtight container. A thin layer of olive oil on top helps.
• Freezing. Hummus freezes well for up to three months. Guacamole does not; it goes watery on thawing.

For more like this, browse the full recipe collection.