Not-Doritos and dips.

To whet appetites before the lamb, I made a couple of classic Mediterranean dips: houmous and tzatziki.

I took a lot of stick for the nachos "recipe". Homemade tortillas may yet be in my future, but as a compromise I bought flatbreads, cut them into triangles and toasted them in a dry frying pan until crisp. Recipe. Yup.

Growing up, I always thought of beetroot as intrinsically Russian, but in the past couple of years I have found it cropping up in many Middle Eastern recipes. I have mixed feelings about the so-called earthiness of beetroot - I have yet to be convinced that chocolate beetroot cake is anything but a waste of ingredients - but I appreciate its pure intensity of colour. A while back I made a Lebanese style pickle, using raw beetroot to dye the white turnip flesh a fabulous shade of fuchsia. The pickle often accompanies falafel, so I already knew beetroot and chickpea could work together in moderate amounts. I decided to test this further and make beetroot houmous.

I bought steamed (not pickled) beetroot, as I didn't have time to deal with the murder-scene aftermath cooking beetroot from scratch entails. I simmered chickpeas in salted water until soft, and added them to the blender along with the diced beetroot; tahini; toasted ground cumin and coriander; a couple of cloves of crushed garlic; extra virgin olive oil; lemon juice and salt. On a whim, I threw in a handful of crushed walnuts. I didn't think they particularly came through in terms of taste, but they added a distinct creaminess which worked well. I might try adding different kinds of nuts to other houmous recipes. Whizzed to a smooth pale pink, it looked very pretty on the table.

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I also made a minty tzatiki: deseeded a cucumber (but left the peel on for colour and texture); grated on the larger setting of the Magimix; scattered with plenty of salt and left to drain in a colander under a weighted bowl. I made a dressing from full fat Greek yoghurt; plenty of torn mint leaves; lots of crushed garlic; a small amount of extra virgin olive oil; ground black pepper; lemon juice and salt to taste.

I prepared this in advance and left it in the fridge for a couple of hours so the flavours could muddle down.