We love this recipe – it makes a delicious starter for summer entertaining. Making your own dips and marinade rather than using store-bought varieties gives you more control and means you know exactly which ingredients have gone into those dishes.
Not only are the chickpeas in the hummus rich in slowly-digested starch and fibre, helping to control blood sugar levels, but they are also a great source of plant-based protein, vitamins and minerals.
Using whole-wheat flour and oat flour in the flatbread adds healthy fibre, lowering the glycaemic index and aiding in blood sugar control. Because this is still a carbohydrate-containing food, people with diabetes should enjoy the flatbread in appropriate portions.
Homemade chicken skewers are a great lean protein option, and this protein further lowers the glycaemic index of the meal.
RECIPE (Serves 4 as a main or 8 as a starter/snacks)
Chicken skewers
600 g free-range chicken breast
2 lemons
1 Tbsp wholegrain mustard
salt & black pepper
30 g chopped oregano
8 sosatie sticks (you can cut them in half if you want smaller ones for snacks)
TO MAKE IT
- Cut the chicken breasts into cubes, about the size of an ice cube
- Put the chicken in a mixing bowl, and add the zest and juice of the lemons, mustard, and chopped oregano, then season with salt and pepper.
- Leave the chicken to marinade in the juices for an hour or so
- Skewer the cubes of chicken onto the sticks
- Put a pan onto a medium/high heat and add some canola oil
- When the pan is hot, add your chicken skewers, and allow them to cook on the first side for about 2 or 3 minutes before turning them. Cook the other side for another 2 or 3 minutes and then check between the pieces of chicken to see that the flesh is white, and no longer translucent. You want the chicken to be cooked all the way through, but not dry. Remove from the pan and set aside until you are ready to serve.
Hummus
1 can chickpeas, drained
125 ml Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 fresh lemon
salt & pepper
5 ml tahini
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
TO MAKE IT
- Put the chickpeas, oil, lemon juice, garlic, tahini into a blender or food processor, and season with salt & pepper.
- Blend together until smooth
- Scrape the hummus from the jug with a spatula into a serving bowl
- Top the hummus with toasted sesame seeds and drizzle with olive oil
Tzatziki
1 cup plain yoghurt
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
15 g fresh mint
salt & pepper
1/2 a cucumber
TO MAKE IT
- Grate the cucumber into a bowl, and squeeze off the excess water
- Add the yoghurt, lemon juice, mint, and season with salt & pepper and put into a serving bowl
Tomato Pesto
100 g sun-dried tomatoes in oil
30 g roasted plain almonds
10 g fresh parsley, chopped
TO MAKE IT
- Roughly chop the tomatoes
- Put the sundried tomatoes with the oil into a blender
- Add the roasted almonds & chopped parsley
- Pulse the blender to combine the ingredients into a chunky pesto
- Scrape from the blender into a serving bowl
Seed flatbread
100 g whole-wheat flour
100 g oat flour
150 g cake flour
100 g plain yoghurt
250 g water (lukewarm)
1 sachet yeast
2 tsp salt
50 g mixed seeds: sesame, flax, sunflower, poppy, pumpkin
TO MAKE IT
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flours, yeast, salt and seeds and mix together
- Mix together the water and yoghurt
- Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and gradually add the yoghurt/water mixture little by little and mix together to form a dough.
- Stop adding liquid once the dough comes together, or add extra if you find the dough to be too sticky.
- Knead the dough together to form an elastic ball of dough.
- Separate the dough into golf ball sized balls
- Put a griddle pan onto a medium high heat
- Dust a clean working surface with a little flour, and roll each dough ball into a flat bread (about 3mm thick).
- Place the flatbreads onto the hot griddle and allow to cook until a little golden and firm on the first side, and then repeat on the other side.
TO SERVE
On a large board or platter, place the flatbreads and drizzle with a little olive oil. Place your bowls of dips and you chicken skewers onto the platter and sprinkle with fresh herbs
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