Appetizer | beets me

I’ve made this dip before for my grandparents and it was even better the second time around! It’s tricky to serve up a healthy dip when all you really want to do before the meal comes out is gorge on some buffalo chicken dip (amiright?) So, say you’re starving. You show up at as a guest at someone’s house and not wanting to be rude, you don’t ask what’s for dinner. But then, you’re like, okay what if the food is not going to be enough? Then I’m just stuck at the dinner table trying to stay engaged in the conversation whilst chewing on what would be a delicious paella if the guy next to you hadn’t taken all the chicken and sausage. So now you’re just eating some spanish rice and wishing you would have eaten more of the delicious chile con carne dip served during cocktail hour.

Um, point being, (where’s my point…) you need a dip that’s hearty but not too hearty as to overpower the meal if it is going to be alot!! Whew. We had a delicious tandoori chicken, Indian cauliflower, and curry-peanut slaw for dinner, and this dip was a light yet wonderful hors d’oeuvres for the meal. My mom is growing some dill outside, so she asked me to come up with some kind of dip that could use this up. I’ve made HowSweetEats’ version before, and it’s SO SIMPLE to add/subtract from.

My version with only one ingredient-chopping necessary: Add 2-3 cloves chopped garlic, a few squeezes of dijon mustard, one can of rinsed white northern beans, about 2-3 tsps lemon juice, a few sprigs of washed fresh dill, salt, pepper, and a little less that 1/4 cup olive oil to a food processor. Puree until it reaches the kind of chunkiness you’re looking for. Refrigerate to thicken it up for ~30 minutes or serve immediately with crackers or cucumbers

You know that saying that goes something along the lines of “you don’t know that it’s a lion until you finally see a lion?” Okay, that’s not quite right, but when you’re trying to think about your favorite thing to do, I mean, how hard is that to nail down??

Well, this epiphany thing happened to me on Saturday. I was setting up my kitchen at home in ATL to make these samosas, and I thought, “this, THIS, is my absolute favorite thing to do! Cook at home in the springtime, music playing, with my fam.” Well, “with my family” is a bit of a stretch bc basically I made the food (along with my Granna) and my sister, dad, mom, and Granna ate it. Nonetheless, GREAT spring day.

When most people think of traditional holiday food, Easter brings to mind deviled eggs, lamb, green beans, spring things. In my family, we like to add some sort of Indian food to every holiday. The day before Easter, I decided these samosas would be a good snacking food, appetizer, and part of the dinner menu if they ever made it that far. They turned out to be pretty delicious, but I never realized the sweetness factor in parsnips. If I were to make these again, I’d add some more curry powder and maybe some curry paste or something. We ended up topping them with various pickles (garlic, mango, chili, shrimp…)

Happy easter!

Recipe from goodthingsgrow: http://goodthingsgrow.com/baked-red-lentil-parsnip-samosas/

yogurt, flour, butter, salt