Henry & Ian's Quick Mezze Platter

Henry & Ian’s Quick Mezze Platter

Henry Firth & Ian Theasby (Bosh!)

Featuring:

Beetroot

Celery

Peas

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 2 mins

Ingredients:

For the beetroot, tahini & dill dip:

½ lime

2 cooked beetroot

2 tbsp tahini

a small handful of dill

½ tsp sesame seeds

salt

For the muhammara dip:

½ lemon

1 roasted red pepper from a jar

2 tbsp pomegranate molasses

½ tsp chilli flakes

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

80g walnuts

For the topping: 10g walnuts and a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley

For the pea, feta & mint dip:

½ lemon

80g frozen petit pois

100g dairy-free feta (or regular feta if not vegan)

3 tbsp rapeseed oil

handful of fresh mint leaves

For the topping: 1 tbsp olive oil and a small handful of fresh mint leaves

For the crudités, dolmades, pickled chillies & flatbreads:

6 flatbreads

1 carrot

½ cucumber

½ fennel bulb

6 celery sticks

a bunch of radishes with leaves

pinch of dried mint

½ lemon

1 x 300g jar pickled green chillies

1 x 280g tin dolmades (stuffed vine leaves)

Veg Portions / Serving: 1

Speedy BOSH! by Henry Firth & Ian Theasby is out 17th September (HQ, HarperCollins). / Food photography credit: Lizzie Mayson / Headshot credit: Nicky Johnston.

Perfect for entertaining, nibbling or eating for lunch at your desk, little mezze dips are a weekly staple in the BOSH! household. We’ve combined some newly discovered flavours a few classics; our Beetroot, Tahini & Dill Dip is incredible, and our Pea, Feta & Mint Dip
is an old favourite made plant-based. The mighty Muhammara takes the crown here, with its rich roasted pepper flavour, and for the full Levantine effect we’ve matched the dips with flatbreads, shop-bought dolmades and dippy veg. If you’re wanting to up your dip game and impress guests at your next party, these recipes are gonna help you out. You’ll definitely need a food processor here and, if you’re making them all, having a silicone spatula to hand would be very helpful to speed up the process.

Method:

Remove the peas for the Pea, Feta & Mint Dip from the freezer and set aside to thaw slightly until needed.

Next, make the Beetroot, Tahini & Dill Dip:

Squeeze the lime juice into the food processor • Add the beetroot, tahini and a generous sprinkling of salt • Blitz until smooth • Check the seasoning and adjust if necessary • Scrape the dip into a serving bowl • Roughly chop the feathery fronds of the dill and sprinkle them over the dip along with the sesame seeds • Quickly rinse the food processor bowl and blade to use again.

Now make the Muhammara:

Squeeze the juice of the lemon half into the food processor • Add all the rest of the muhammara ingredients and blitz until smooth • Scrape into a serving bowl • Chop the walnuts and sprinkle them over the dip, then garnish with the parsley leaves • Quickly rinse the food processor bowl and blade to use again.

Assemble the Pea, Feta & Mint Dip

Squeeze the lemon juice into the food processor • Add the slightly thawed petit pois, feta, oil and mint leaves • Blitz until well combined, but still retaining some texture • Scrape into a serving bowl and swirl the top with the back of a spoon to make a small indent • Drizzle the olive oil into the dip and garnish with mint leaves.

Prepare the Crudités, Dolmades, Pickled Chillies & Flatbreads

Toast the flatbreads under the hot grill for 1–2 minutes • Trim and slice the carrot, cucumber, fennel and celery into sticks or wedges for dipping • Rinse and halve the radishes, retaining their leaves • Arrange the vegetables on a platter, sprinkle over the dried mint and squeeze over a little lemon juice • Drain the pickled chillies and dolmades and transfer to small serving dishes.

Bring to the table with all the dips and let your guests tuck in!

Engaging Kids

Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.

Kids in the kitchen

Kids can have great fun with this recipe – have them help you place items in the food processor and push buttons to make dips. They can sprinkle herbs and squeeze lemons and limes. Let them help you arrange everything on a platter to serve.

Activities

While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.

Sensory

Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.

Serving

The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.