Egg, Hummus and Avocado Sourdough Tartine

BY RACHEL GREEN

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 British Blue eggs
• Sea salt flakes
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 x 300g tub Hummus (unless you want to make your own, see below)
• 4 slices sourdough bread, toasted
• 2 ripe avocados, peeled, stone removed and roughly chopped
• 4 spring onions, sliced very thinly
• A handful of basil leaves, torn
• A handful of dill fronds, torn
• 2 tbsp chopped chives
• ½ a lemon, finely grated
• A good squeeze of lemon juice
• Good quality olive oil, for drizzling
• A small handful of watercress or other green salad leaves, to serve

Method:

Gently lower the eggs into a large saucepan of boiling salted water and cook for 6 minutes. Transfer the eggs with a slotted spoon to a bowl of iced water and leave until cool enough to handle. Drain and peel the eggs, cut into large pieces and season with salt and pepper.

Spoon the Hummus onto the toasted bread slices and top with the egg.

In a small bowl, toss the avocado, spring onions, basil, dill, chives and lemon zest together. Add the lemon juice, drizzle with a little olive oil, season with a little salt and toss lightly. Pile this mixture on top of the egg and scatter with a little black pepper.

Serve immediately with some watercress or other green salad leaves.

To make the hummus

Ingredients

• 200g dried chickpeas or 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 6 tbsp tahini
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• A pinch of cumin
• Sea salt flakes

 Method:

Put the chickpeas into a bowl and cover with twice the volume of cold water. Stir in a teaspoon of the bicarbonate of soda and leave to soak for 24 hours.

Next drain the chickpeas, rinsing well, and put into a large saucepan. Cover with cold water and add the remaining half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently until the chickpeas are tender and almost falling apart – this will take around 2-3 hours. If at any time they are beginning to boil dry, then add a little more hot water to the saucepan.

Once tender, drain the chickpeas, reserving the cooking liquid and putting it to one side to cool (if you are using tinned chickpeas, you won’t need to use any additional liquid).

In a small mixing bowl, mix the tahini with half the lemon juice, half the crushed garlic and stir in enough of the reserved cooled cooking liquid (if not using tinned chickpeas) to make a loose paste. Put this mixture into a food processor along with the cooked chickpeas and blitz to a purée.

Add the cumin and a pinch of salt to the purée then gradually add some of the reserved cooking liquid to make a soft paste. Taste, adding a little more lemon juice, garlic or salt to taste.