The beauty of this dish is that it’ll work with whatever vegetable trimmings you might have in your home – and works as an excellent snack to serve friends (or simply, yourself). Chantelle Nicholson’s Wasted dip has been, until recently, a mainstay on the menu of Apricity, her Green Michelin-starred Mayfair restaurant that champions locally foraged ingredients and produce from small scale farmers.
Depending on the time of year, New Zealand-born chef’s tasting menu could feature hand-dived Scottish scallops with cauliflower, black garlic and lime; butter-poached pollack with langoustine bisque, orzo and baked lemon; and London butterhead lettuce with miso, pickled rhubarb and crispy kale. It’s not currently on the menu – but below, you’ll find a recipe to make it at home.
The recipe is designed to be flexible depending on what you need to use up in your pantry, whether it’s tinned beans or pulses, old salad leaves, soft herbs (parsley, coriander or chives), or spices.
Wasted dip
Serves 4 as a snack
Preparation time: 5 minutes (plus leaving bread to soak overnight)
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the bread crackers
Old stale bread, soaked in water overnight
Fennel seeds
Salt
For the dip
300g roast vegetables (for example, carrots, cabbage, beetroot, broccoli, cauliflower)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp fine salt
4 tbsp water
Method
For the bread crackers
Leave the bread to soak overnight.
Remove the bread from the water and squeeze out any excess. Blend in the blender until very smooth. Season with table salt.
Spread evenly over oiled silicon mats and garnish with fennel seeds and sea salt flakes.
Bake at 150°C for around 25 minutes, until crisp.
For the dip
Roast the vegetables until soft (length of time will depend on which vegetables you are using)
Blend all the ingredients until smooth and serve with the crackers.
