If there are dips on the table, I will deliberately sit myself as near to them as possible. My love of crisps is legendary, and having something tasty to poke them in is hugely rewarding.
For the last six months I have been obsessed with caremelised onion flavoured hummus, so I was almost relieved when G’nosh offered to send me their range of gourmet dips to try as it’s forced me to break my habit.
About 10 years ago dips used to be a sickly affair – an icky four pack of uninspiring sour cream and chive, vampire slaying garlic, artificial thousand island and the sickly blue cheese one that always got left.
Fast forward a decade and the dips have changed quite a bit. A thousand flavours of hummus have taken over, but there’s not always a lot else to choose from. I’m far more tempted to try making my own these days.
G’nosh founder and mum-of-two Charlotte Knight wanted to created a range of dips that taste as fresh as if you made them at home using inspiring flavours you’d find in New Zealand (where she originates from).
Charlotte’s also keen for them to go further than just being dips, but to be used as ingredients in your cooking too – for stirring into pasta or soups, dressing salads, marinating meat etc. It’s a great concept and a refreshing change from the usual range of dips on offer.
Putting G’nosh dips to the test
They’re not thigh-increasingly creamy – instead they’re packed with intense flavours and chunky vegetables. Here are my three favourite flavours:
Sun-dried tomato & basil: Intensely tomatoey and with basil, pine nuts and Italian hard cheese along for the ride it’s like pesto in less oily dip form. Astonishingly good. It’d make a great base layer on a home-made pizza.
Beetroot & mint: Tasted fresh and middle eastern with a small jolt of chilli. It would be lovely spread in a flatbread with some falafel and salad leaves, but we were less creative and hoofed the lot with a pack of tortilla chips in front of the telly.
Muhumarra spicy red pepper dip: Not that spicy really but the fresh pepper taste really shone through. I used half a pot of this to whisk into eggs to make a particularly delicious lunchtime omelette.
I still have the Babaghanoush (smoky aubergine) and Black bean dips still left to try, they seemed the least appealing of flavours but having liked the first three so much I will certainly be cracking them open.
Overall verdict: Different from the usual supermarket offering and looks like something you could make at home. In fact you could easily pop them in a small dish and pass them off as your own creations at drinks parties. They’re versatile too – so if you’re left with half a pot (unlikely) you can pep up some pasta or stick it on your salad.
Where to buy: Ocado – £2.49 for 160g
Many thanks to G’nosh for sending me their range of dips to try. I was not obligated to write this review, or paid to do it, it’s just my straight up feedback. Let’s face it, you don’t need to twist my arm to taste test a range of gourmet dips!
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