Flatbread With Spreads or What To Bring To A Summer Cocktail Party

One of my favorite memories of New York was eating tapas at the tiny little restaurant we chanced upon. Luckily, our table neighbor recommended them and they were delicious!

I thought it would be fun to recreate the spreads we had, and take them to Olivia's 30th birthday party.

I think I came pretty close. Some of the recipes I found online (links below) and some I created on my own. I started the flatbread first and while the dough was rising, mixed up the spreads in my food processor.

Flatbread
These came together really easily and I think they'd also be great for sandwich wraps. The only change I made was to place them directly into a folded towel after cooking to ensure they'd be extra soft.


Beet Dip or Mama Dallou’ah
This recipe makes a lot of beautiful, brightly colored dip, lucky for you! A few recipe notes: my beets were giant so I had to roast them about 1 1/2 hours, not the 45 minutes it calls for in the recipe. I also halved the amount of tahini. And if you've made my recipe for muhamara, now you have something else to use your pomegranate molasses with. This is my personal favorite of the 3 spreads.


Olive Tempanade
I couldn't find a recipe online that I thought would work, so I combined a few and came up with this. You could use any combination of olives—kalamata, black, or green.

1 cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup pitted kalamata olives
1 6-ounce can black olives, drained
2 tablespoons capers
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil

Place the garlic clove into a blender or food processor; pulse to mince. Add the olives, capers, parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil. Blend until everything is finely chopped.


Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
This is another one I had to alter. It turned out just how I wanted it, with a little more tangy bite than any of the recipes I found online. This one was Younger Son's favorite.

1 clove garlic
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained
1/2 cup julienned sun-dried tomatoes in oil
2 tablespoons tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 jar roasted red peppers, drained
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

Place the garlic clove into a blender or food processor; pulse to mince. Add remaining ingredients and blend until finely chopped.


That's it! Yum.

As I type, I am downloading the 400+ pictures I took in New York and mulling over my experiences there. Blog posts to follow.