Basically, this radicchio salad is just wonderful!

Normally, trust me, I would not be suggesting to you that you actually make hummous (much easier to buy…). Regular readers will know all about the Saucy Dressings’ Life Is Too Short philosophy. See the About page for more on that.

But this hummous, with its light cucumbery, summery flavour is fabulous. You will not be able to resist wiping the blender container with your finger. The recipe makes more sauce than you need… but it’s certainly not a problem!

And the radicchio, once bitter, is sweetened and turns smoky under the grill.

Serve with home-made flatbreads – to die for!

Recipe for red leaf and green cucumber salad with a light, summery hummous sauce

Serves 3

Ingredients

• 1 cucumber
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed with a little textured salt
• 5 tbsps tahini
• 120 ml/½ cup yoghurt
• 1 x 240g/8 oz tin chickpeas
• 1 long radicchio
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 30g/¼ cup shelled pistachios
• 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

Method

1. Using a potato peeler, slice off strips of skin lengthways off the cucumber, leaving it striped. Put the stripped off peel into a small blender.
2. Cut off about 10 cm/4” off the end of the cucumber, cut in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds, dice roughly, and add to the blender.
3. Add the garlic, yoghurt and tahini to the blender. Blitz briefly.
4. Drain the chickpeas and rinse them. Add to the blender. Blend to make a smooth hummus.
5. Meanwhile heat the grill. Lay the radicchio leaves out on an attractive serving platter, and coat them, with your fingers, with olive oil. Lay the leaves out under the grill pan, sprinkle with a textured salt such as Malvern, and grill, some distance away from the heat – about 20cm/8” underneath, until the leaves just begin to char.
6. Meanwhile slice the remainder of the cucumber.
7. Lay the leaves out, artistically, on the platter. Lay around the cucumber, pour over the cucumber hummous. Drizzle over the pomegranate molasses, and sprinkle over the pistachios.
8. Serve with a flourish!

“I have eaten hummus every day for at least the past 20 years. I ate it when I got home from school. I ate it – lived on it, really – all the way through university. Tubs sat in my fridge throughout my twenties, standing in for proper meals and post-pub snacks. Now my toddlers dunk cucumber into it and smear it all over the house. Creamy, garlicky, nutty hummous, brightened with a dash of lemon, finished with a ribbon of olive oil.”

^{-Rebecca Seal, The Financial Times, November 2019}