D is for Dips.

After yesterday's chocolate extravaganza, I thought I'd go for quick, delicious and healthy dip recipes today.

Dips make great party foods or last-minute miracles when you have impromptu visitors. They also add spice to an everyday meal.

I wanted to share 2 of my favourite quick dip recipes here. They're easy to make and require only ingredients that keep a while (in the pantry or fridge), or that you can grow yourself.

Greek yoghurt and green garlic dip 



Ingredients:

• Greek yoghurt
• fresh, green garlic, cleaned and chopped into small pieces
• salt & pepper
• splash of lime juice (optional)

Recipe:

• Add the garlic (white and green parts) to the Greek yoghurt, add salt and pepper, stir the ingredients together.
• If you can, let the dip sit in the fridge for a few hours to let the flavours blend.
• Add a splash of lime juice.

Tips:

• As a variation, add chopped onions, shallots or fresh herbs (chives, coriander, dill, thyme, etc.).
• This is a great dip for raw vegetables (carrots, celery sticks, cucumber, etc.), nachos or potato wedges. It's nice to serve with fish fingers or calamari as well.

Feta cheese and sundried tomato dip

Ingredients:

• feta cheese
• sun-dried tomatoes (dry or in oil)
• olive oil
• pepper
• chillies, fresh or dried (optional)

Recipe:

• Mix the feta cheese and sun-dried tomatoes in a blender.
• Drizzle in some good olive oil (or use the oil from the tomatoes) until you get the right texture (not too firm if you're using nachos or crisps). Use lemon or lime juice instead of oil if you'd rather not add more calories.
• Add pepper (and chillies, if you want it spicy) to taste.

Tips:

• Add chopped fresh basil for extra flavour, or a clove of garlic if you like.
• As a variation, instead of sun-dried tomatoes, you can use roasted red peppers (type bell pepper) in olive oil. The sweetness of the red peppers goes really well with feta cheese.
• This is a great dip to go with nachos or pitta bread.
• You can also use it as a pasta sauce (like pesto) or as spread on ciabatta bread.

What are your favourite easy dips?

♥ Bookmark or share this post ♥