Mix all these until combined well. Wait it in refrigerator for about half an hour. Enjoy with anything you like.

Sumac could be considered as the most important ingredient for lentil dip, so try to find it before preparing this tasty and healthy dip.

Put red lentil, rice, chopped onion and water in a pot. Cook it over medium heat. Add salt and spices when it boils and boil until it is very soft and mushy.

Start preparing its sauce for topping. Heat olive oil, add pepper paste into it and mix. It’s done in 30 seconds.

Take some lentil dip on a plate. Top it with a little pepper paste sauce, parsley and sumac and serve with lemon wedges. Traditionally, lemon is squeezed on it before eating and you can serve onion slices or pickles with it.

Besides these benefits, the color of this delicious and healthy vegetable has a role in our language. There is a proverb in Turkish related to the color of beetroot: To turn as red as beetroot. When do we use this proverb? We use it to describe a person if he turns red when he makes a mistake, when he is embarassed, when he gets furious or when he is sunburned. The proverb means ‘extremely’ angry, embarrased or burned. Have you turned as red as beetroot lately?

This time the one who turns as red as beetroot is not a person, but a food. You know hummus, a fantastic dip made from chickpeas, don’t you? I made a different version of it with beetroot addition. It was as tasty as our regular hummus, a bit thicker than it. You must try it if you love colorful foods or want to make a change on hummus you already know.

Blend chopped beetroot and add chickpeas. Blend them together.

Add a little water in which you boil beetroot if necessary.

Squeeze lemon, add tahini and salt. Blend until smooth.

Add parsley and mix with a spoon. Wait it in refrigerator for half an hour or a bit more and serve cold as mezze or dip.

Scoop some with a spoon and serve it with a little mashed beetroot as topping, on arugula leaves and with a lemon wedge.

Notes:

1. You can play with the amount of beetroot depending on how pink you like your hummus.
2. Pickled beetroot works too! You don’t need to add salt then.

Cut the avocado lengthwise. Tap its pit gently with a knife and make it hold the pit and pull the knife with enough force to discard the pit. Then scoop out its inside with a spoon and transfer into a bowl.
Add olive oil and mix it with a fork to make it creamy.
Add cheese, parsley, garlic and salt and mix.
Spread it on bread slices and garnish with red pepper flakes.
Note: Prepare this dip just before eating so that it doesn’t get brownish.

(drawing by mom)

Are you those kind of people who love to snack while watching a movie or while working on your PC? If you are, what kind of things do you eat or drink? We sometimes have dried fruits with Turkish tea or cheese and red wine or beer and pistachio, crackers or chips. And we love to try new sauces with chips and crackers and our favorite ingredients in these sauces is strained yogurt, which might be called greek yogurt abroad.

I have heard many times that beetroot is on top of healthy foods. It is said that beetroot protects our body from diabetes and tuberculosis, helps liver work regularly and overcomes anaemia. Some doctors even claim that beetroot juice can be a remedy for cancer. So I’ve decided to have it more often in my kitchen. I’ve been trying to discover some new dishes with beetroot. Some fast food restaurants here have a pink sauce that is taking my attention and I love to have it in sandwiches or on baked potatoes. I’ve learnt that they make it by mixing yogurt and beetroot.

I had been planning to make this sauce for some time until last Friday. We made this pink appetizing dip on Friday and have it with crackers while watching a movie called Soul Kitchen by a famous Turkish director, Fatih Akın. It is an amusing movie about an unlucky man trying to save his restaurant. We enjoyed it a lot and it was also great to have something to eat while watching as there were always people eating and drinking something in that restaurant.

Pancar Sos
Ingredients
-    2 beetroots
-    2 cloves garlic, mashed
-    Fresh dill, chopped
-    ½ cup strained yogurt
-    1 tbsp mayonnaise
-    Salt

Boil the beetroots without peeling. When they are soft enough, take them from fire, wash and peel. You can drink the remaing water in the pot. I squeeze some lemon in it and I loveto drink it when it gets cold enough.

Grate or puree the peeled beetroots.

Mix strained yogurt, mayonnaise, salt and mashed garlic until combined very well. Then add the beetroot and chopped fresh dill. Put it ina bowl and serve it with crackers or chips.

Whenever I start to think such things, I become a bit melancholic. Hopefully, I’ve found a way to lessen it. The flavors! You may ask how…  When I have the feeling of missing, I try to concentrate on the foods I had in my childhood, decide on one and cook. When I just have the first bite, I’m taken to my childhood home or a part of my hometown. Don’t ask how much I eat to stay there longer… Do you have such feelings? And what solutions did you find?

Today Hummus came out with this feeling. It has even a more special place in my memories. I used to ask mom to make Hummus very often and each time, she tried not to refuse it. But it wasn’t enough for me, so every weekend after my English course, I used to go to one of those restaurants which had just Hummus in their menu. And when I returned home, I had to eat what my mom cooked. I still wonder how I didn’t get fat those days.

Hummus is mostly made by the people living in the South part of Turkey. In fact, it is a common appetizer in the whole country, it’s very usual to see it near a glass of raki. But it’s more common in the South as a main dish or appetizer. If you want to learn this appetizing dish, go on reading.

Ingredients

•    2 cups chickpeas, soaked overnight
•    ½ cup tahini (sesame paste)
•    ½ cup water
•    2 lemons
•    4 cloves garlic, mashed
•    2 tsp cumin
•    2 tsp salt
•    2 tbsp olive oil
•    2 tsp red pepper or pepper paste
•    1 tsp sumac
•    A few leaves of parsley

Boil the chickpeas in a pot until they get soft. Put them in a food processor with ½ cup of that boiling water. Mix them until smooth. Then add tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt and cumin. Mix again until they combine well. Then put some in a dish.

Now you’ll prepare its sauce. Put olive oil in a pan and when it heats, add red pepper or pepper paste and fry it for just one or two minutes.

Spread this sauce on Hummus with a spoon. Sprinkle sumac on it, put some parsley leaves and serve it with a piece of lemon. Any kind of pickles go very well with Hummus.

After dinner today I had to drink a bottle of mineral water to relax my stomach. Just imagine how much I ate!