Pep Up Your Party with This Homemade Roasted Capsicum Red Pepper Dip

This recipe for roasted capsicum red pepper dip takes all of 5 minutes to make and makes a big tub or around 1.5-2 cups of this dip! Home made dips are so delicious as you can make them to your taste and they're also perfect for serving with crackers or crudites. Once you try this capsicum and cashew dip you won't stop dipping I promise! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.

I would call this capsicum dip a simplified version of a muhamarra dip, that delicious Leventine and Turkish roasted red pepper. While Muhamarra has a range of nuts and spices added to it, this is a much simpler version made with much less ingredients and yet is still so tasty and closer to a pesto. In Australia, a few years ago these nutty dips started showing up at the supermarket and they were delicious. Like versions of pesto and muhamarra they were utterly moreish. Making them at home is a cinch as long as you have a food processor or mortar and pestle. In a food processor or Thermomix they take 5 minutes to make tops!

I made this dip using some home made roasted capsicum recipe here but you can make it using bought roasted capsicum too. The roasting process makes the capsicum pepper sweeter and removes the skin too. Another serving suggestion for this dip is to serve it alongside some basil pesto in the same bowl for a half half dip or even try this triple layer dip recipe with hummus, basil pesto and a red dip!

I know that making your own dips appeals to some people while others it's so much easier to buy them but home made dips are a real money saver especially in today's economy. This dip makes 2 cups worth or around 500g/1.1lbs or 5x100g/3.5ozs tubs of a similar dip which are $5 a tub! All for 5 minutes of prep time and around $10 worth of ingredients. I actually prefer the flavour of this to the bought ones too.

My maths work here might even appeal to Mr NQN who is resolutely a non-cook. The other day I asked him to guess what was for dinner. He thought about it for a second before answering "Oregano!". Now I am 100% sure he knows what oregano is and how it is used and on that basis that makes his answer even stranger that he thought it was a dinner dish like chicken!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you make your own dips or do you buy them?

Roasted Capsicum Red Pepper Dip

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

• 200g/7ozs roasted red capsicum/red peppers
• 170g/7ozs sun dried tomato slices in oil, drained
• 150g/5ozs roasted cashews
• 60ml/2flozs of oil from sun dried tomatoes
• 1 large clove garlic, peeled
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 3/4-1 teaspoon salt or to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Note: I also add some fresh red chilli (optional)

Step 1 - Place the roasted capsicum/red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, cashews, oil, garlic, lime juice and brown sugar in a food processor and pulse until blended. Pulsing is best so that you can control the amount of chunkiness that you'll end up with (I like it a little chunky still). Stir through the salt and pepper. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week (it probably won't last that long, it's so good!).