Halloween Graveyard Dip Recipe

At last year's Halloween party I dressed the dining table as a large graveyard with tombstones for every guest. This year the graveyard was a pet cemetery made out of hummus, avocado and spinach dip, with cracker tombstones, a pretzel fence, quail egg ghosts and broccoli and celery trees. Once the dip is made (and I ended up making a lot) putting it together and quite easy and fun and I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out! Well as pleasant as a Halloween dip could be...

Firstly measure how much capacity your rectangular tray will hold mine was about 6-7 cups. Adjust the recipe below according depending on how big your dish is. Inspired by the Disney Family Fun site

Haunted Graveyard Dip Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

For dip

• 1 bunch English spinach

• 4-6 garlic cloves

• 4x 400g/14oz tins chickpeas, rinsed well and drained

• 1 ripe avocado

• 6 tablespoons smooth peanut butter or tahini

• 8 tablespoons or 1/2 cup lemon juice

• 8 tablespoons or 1/2 cup olive oil

• Salt and pepper to season

For decorating

• Rectangular shaped crackers (for tombstones)

• Pretzels (for fence)

• Quail eggs

• Edible black pen to draw faces and write on tombstones

• 1 small head broccoli

• A couple of celery tops with leaves

• A rectangular tray

Step 1 - First, blanch the spinach in some water until it is wilted. Run cold water over the spinach and then squeeze all of the water out of the spinach-this takes a few minutes as there is a lot of water in the spinach and just when you think there isn't any more, there is! It's important to get all of the water out though as you don't want a runny dip-otherwise the broccoli and celery will have trouble standing up in a runny or soft dip.

Step 2 - In a food processor, process the garlic first to break it up and then add the well drained chickpeas, spinach, avocado, peanut butter or tahini, lemon juice and oil and process until smooth. It is a large mixture so it will take a few minutes to get to a smooth stage. Then place in a large airtight container covering the dip directly on the surface with cling wrap. Refrigerate until needed (this can be done the day before).

Step 3 - When ready to serve, draw faces on the quail eggs (drying the surface of the egg first on a paper towel) and crackers. Then stand a small head of broccoli in the dip and then the celery next to it (the celery needs the broccoli to lean against). Then place the gravestones and quail eggs. Place pretzels around the edge and voila! You have your graveyard.

Note: the crackers get a touch wet if they sit around in the dip all night so insert the crackers close to serving time and offer your guests a bowl of fresh crackers and pretzels too.