Sometimes you don’t need to whip up something exotic or lengthy to have an incredible entrée for your next dinner party. Something simple, like this recipe for Split Pea and Mint dip can be just perfect.

The Old English word deepen gave us the modern word ‘dip’. The original meaning was ‘to immerse’ and it was sometimes used with reference to baptism too.

I’ve always found food dips to be great fun as it is so easy to share food and socialise with people while eating. Breadsticks and crackers are good for this sort of thing but I prefer using crunchy vegetables like carrots or celery sticks too.

Making food dips is very simple so I rarely bother with supermarket-ready items these days.

Here’s my recipe for a quick healthy and tasty dip that is as versatile as it is easy to make:

Ingredients

• 250 grams peas. Use fresh peas if you’ve got them but frozen will do fine.
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Pay attention to the type of lemons you’re using here. Some lemons can be mild and the taste of lemon juice will be hardly detectable. If that’s the case, increase the dosage.
• 1 tablespoon of chopped mint
• (Optional) 1 tablespoon of basil. I’ve heard of people adding sage as well but that strikes me as being too much.
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

• Bring a medium pot of water to boil, and then add the peas for 4-5 minutes. The peas should be tender but still be bright green.
• Drain peas and immerse them in a bath of ice water for 5 minutes. This will stop the cooking process and will help preserve the colour, which is quite helpful.
• Drain peas again and let them dry.
• Using a blender, whisk the peas, adding the olive oil as you go along.
• Place the mixture into a bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients. (Tip: I just mix the ingredients into the blender and let technology do it’s magic)
• Serve chilled or at room temperature.

The versatility of this recipe is what I like about it; you can have this with corn chips or other dipping foods; you can spread it over toasted bread or you can even mix it with pasta as a sauce.

Bon appetit!