Category Archives: Dips

Jun29

Mediterranean 7-layer Dip

Posted on June 29, 2014 by athaidek

Thank you thank you @annies-eats for this recipe! I went to a friend’s house on a lake last weekend and promised to bring a dip along. I haven’t made any dips in a while and wanted to try out something cold since Atlanta summer isn’t the best environment for hot buffalo chicken dip. Also – this could be a dairy free dip if you want to eliminate the feta.

In my family, we LOVE a Mexican 7-layer dip, so if you’re one of those people who likes a big mound of dip on your chip, tune in! This is pretty versatile too – you could really add a variety of different veggies – bell peppers, small chopped broccoli, some whole chickpeas or roasted chickpeas, etc.

I cheated a bit and used store bought hummus, but I think the homemade pesto and fresh veggies make up for it. I think I’ll be bringing this recipe back for the 4th of July weekend and hopefully trying some different variations. Anyone think there’s some way to make a Chinese 7-layer dip? Penny for your thoughts.

Mediterranean 7-layer dip, adapted from Annie’s Eats

Cilantro pesto:

1 1/2 cups fresh cilantro (I used stems and leaves)

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided

4 TBS walnuts

1/4 cup crumbled feta

Dip:

3/4 of an English cucumber, diced

half of a red onion, diced

banana peppers, chopped in half

kalamata olives, sliced

julienned sundried tomatoes (I think you could also used diced cherry tomatoes)

crumbled feta cheese (about 1/2-3/4 cup)

1. Make the cilantro pesto: Add the garlic, cilantro, walnuts, some fresh cracked pepper, and 2 TBS olive oil to the bowl of a small food processor. Pulse until not quite a paste, but everything is mixed evenly. Then, slowly drizzle in your olive oil. I didn’t end up needing the whole 1/3 of a cup, but I do like my pesto thicker. After you’ve finished pulsing, mix in your feta (don’t pulse in the food processor, just slowly mix into the mixture)

2. Assemble! I used two different kinds of hummus so I spread them both together in the bottom of a pie plate. After the hummus, add your cilantro pesto in the middle and spread out in an even layer. Then add your toppings! Cukes, red onion, pepps, olives, tomatoes, and you can either end with the feta or add it in batches.

Jan27

Kalamata Olive White Bean Hummus

Posted on January 27, 2014 by athaidek

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For some reason, I’ve always been more successful with the white bean dips over chickpea hummus. But I really wanted to make this after I found olive hummus at Publix the other day and forgot to buy chickpeas, so white bean dip it is!

Let me tell you about a little creation that was the first recipe I ever wrote. And I apologize to my loving family for forcing them to eat this. I guess I was a super salty child because this was an appetizer composed of round tortilla chips, penne pasta, and kalamata olives. Here goes: Set out some round corn tortilla chips on a tray. Chop up your kalamata olives into really tiny pieces like tapenade. Stuff the olive pieces into cooked penne pasta and set two atop each tortilla chip. Serve. Cold. Hence, the beginning of my kalamata olive love.

I like my hummus thick but not really chunky so I’ve adapted from this lovely recipe.

Kalamata Olive Hummus

makes about 2 cups of hummus

1 1/2 15 oz. cans of white northern beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, including some juice from the jar

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 TBS tahini

4 TBS lemon juice

2 TBS olive oil

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of cayenne

cracked black pepper to taste

1. Whisk together tahini and olive oil until smooth in a small bowl. Combine lemon juice and water in a separate bowl.

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2. Add beans, spices, olives, and garlic to the bowl of a large food processor. Pulse until fairly smooth and then scrape down the sides before adding the lemon/water mix.

3. Stream in the tahini/olive oil and add more beans if you like your hummus even thicker than this. Add some cracked black pepper at the end.

4. Refrigerate to let flavors meld or eat immediately with pita chips, carrots, other veggies or on a sandwich.

Aug1

Cornmeal-crusted Sweet Potato Fries with Summer Herb Aioli

Posted on August 1, 2013 by athaidek

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I love how aioli is the fancy end-all be-all name for mayonnaise+lemon juice +you-name-it. Oooo my Mom and I went to lunch a few months ago at this girly lunch place where they serve their french fries with Kalamata olive aioli. Life will certainly never be the same. I really feel a connection to someone who serves me a common menu item like french fries or toast or something and a dip that I could have SWORN I came up with. Like the time I had oatmeal pancakes with blueberry applesauce and SERIOUSLY thought the chef must have pecked through my mental legal pad of sauce ideas. Back to that kalamata aioli. Ah, salt.

These fries come from the wonderful Sarah Britton’s MyNewRoots blog and can be found here! I love her pictures and I really wish I could travel to cool places!!!! Every time I make sweet potato fries, I’m with all of you in the struggle to get to the appropriate crispyness level. I’m actually not opposed to the softer ones especially if they’ve got a good spice blend on the sweeter side, but when serving others, I feel like I should reach the definition of “fries.”

So Sarah’s recommendation to douse them in cornmeal was brilliant. These came out with a crusty layer (these CRUSTY CRUSTS I GOT, see Glozell for explanation) and really need very little seasoning. I followed her instructions closely, finding it very helpful to soak the cut strips in water. I have heard of that trick for potatoes before but never really saw it in action. Let me tell ya, after taking those potatoes out after 10 ish minutes and seeing the silt in the bottom of the bowl, I’m following the rules again next time.

Toss these guys in cornmeal, olive oil (we dont have any other ones although I heard coconut is good!), salt and pepp, and some garlic powder

There was supposed to be a yogurt sauce, but I only had mayo. So I went with it. To make the aioli, I chopped up some chives, basil, green onions, squeezed half a lemon, a clove of garlic, and some black pepper with the mayo. It was DELISH.

Oooo I thought I’d share this just for kicks. Made some dijon/balsamic roasted brussel sprouts too 🙂

Jul29

Poblano Salsa

Posted on July 29, 2013 by athaidek

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I’m not really entirely sure why this turned out to look like a rainbow, but hey what can ya do! I had a leftover poblano pepper and really wanted to make some salsa; however, didnt really have any tomatoes. Woops! Here’s what I did in a pinch:

Turned the toaster oven on broil and charred this baby. A few things to remember here, when you hear loud fireworks coming from your kitchen…fear not, it’s just the outside of the poblano pepper charring. Another thing I learned is that broiling them in the toaster oven for like 20 minutes is WAY easier than trying to char them on the gas stovetop. While I love chatting with my mom whilst cooking, it was so much less enjoyable contorting my hands as a makeshift spit to turn the poblano constantly.

Next, I peeled off the charred part, scraped out the seeds and cut the top off, adding the chopped pepper to my food processor. To it I added my salsa additions: cumin, cilantro, lime juice, TONS of garlic, half a chopped Chipotle pepper, a few dashes of adobo sauce from the Chipotle can, some extra virgin olive oil, two cherry tomatoes (rando but all I had) some red onion and pureed it all up with some salt n pepp.

After mixing, it was still a little too smooth bc the poblano is such a mild pepper. To it I added some chopped red onion to give the salsa a little crunch bc that’s how I like it, but that’s the beauty of salsa, it can be adjusted easily to your tastes! Per usual, this kind of dip tasted better after having some time to fuse flavors in the fridge for a few hours.

Jul8

Peach Avocado Corn Salsa

Posted on July 8, 2013 by athaidek

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Delicious for a side salad or as a good chips ‘n’ dip! YUMMO inspired by cookie+kate’s Avocado Peach Salsa, I decided to try the sweet salsa road. I’m a total sucker for that Peach Mango salsa from the grocery store, but I’ve never tried to make a sweet and salty salsa. Having all that leftover chimichurri sauce, I needed to use it on something good. Even though the chimichurri has ginger in it, the cilantro lime cumin part of it is great for a salsa sauce.

I added 1 chopped peach, about 2 tbs of my chimichurri, half a can of drained corn, an avocado chopped up, some red onion, extra limejuice, fresh cracked sea salt (this is key), a tiny dash of sugar (the peaches were a bit tart) and yum, fresh salsa!