Category: Sauces & Dips & Spreads (Page 1 of 3)
Spinach Cheese Dip
September 8th, 2018 in Appetizers & Snacks, Sauces & Dips & Spreads by Julia Volhina
One more recipe to the lineup of appetizers using cream cheese for me. This time it is for hot spinach cream cheese dip with parmesan and garlic.
Good choice if you are looking to increase the amount of leafy greens in your diet.
It is pretty easy to do and you can get a bowl full of goodness ready for your party or gathering literally in minutes.
Serve hot with tortilla chips or veggies.
Homemade Chickpea Hummus
July 15th, 2017 in Sauces & Dips & Spreads, Sides by Julia Volhina
Got a can or two of chickpeas stuck in the pantry? Or boiled a cup too many of garbanzo beans and looking for creative way to use them? Try this homemade hummus recipe.
It takes about 5 mins to make and you get a fresh batch of hummus to eat with your favorite vegetables, pita bread, chips or for further use in other recipes.
For this recipe I cooked beans from scratch. If you do the same save some of the water beans are cooked in and use it instead of water in this recipe.
Jäger Sauce (Mushroom Hunter Sauce)
November 19th, 2016 in Sauces & Dips & Spreads by Julia Volhina
It took me couple of tries to get close enough in recreating a recipe for Jager Sauce which I tried in local German restaurant.
I must say I love how it turned out: creamy, mushroomy with a hint of wine and a little more than a hint of smoked bacon.
Traditionally, Jager Sauce is being served with schnitzels.
And I found it works great with meat roasts and fried meat, as well as with any kind of potato sides.
Basil Pesto Sauce
September 10th, 2016 in Sauces & Dips & Spreads by Julia Volhina
There are so many ways to enjoy basil pesto sauce. It is perfect for dipping bread, works great as salad dressing, pasta or pizza sauce, or pesto butter. Toss some cooked chicken with it to give a salad or a wrap some extra kick. Sky is a limit.
Already pre-made pesto sauces from the store are an option too, however nothing beats freshly homemade one.
And it is pretty easy to do too: just plug all ingredients into a blender, chop until smooth and then mix cheese in.
Pecorino cheese may be hard to find, using shredded parmesan should work as well.
Yogurt, Mustard and Lemon Juice Salad Dressing
March 12th, 2016 in Sauces & Dips & Spreads by Julia Volhina
Yogurt, mustard and lemon juice salad dressing tastes great especially in meat based salads, but is also good with tomatoes, good on sandwiches and as dipping sauce.
It can be used as lighter substitute for mayo: if you compare 900 calories for 5oz of mayo to about 140 calories of similar amount of this dressing.
Now, taste of this dressing will vary based on what kind of mustard you use, as well as based on proportion of mustard and lemon juice. Just experiment with different types and proportions to your liking.
I like using chobani yogurt for this one: there is enough space in the container to fit mustard and juice and mix, so no need to use extra bowl for mixing.
Herb Butter with Dill and Garlic
August 24th, 2013 in Sauces & Dips & Spreads by Julia Volhina
Herb or herbed butter is not only a good way to dress plain butter for further use, but also a good way to preserve fresh dill if you have too much on your hands and no other use for it.
For some reasons stores here choose to sell dill in such big bunches that it is sometimes too hard to put it all to use before dill spoils. By the way, you can mix other fresh herbs to prepare herb butter.
Herb butter is essential ingredient of Chicken Kiev recipe (which goes out next week), but it can be also used on steaks, fish, potato or other vegetables.
Blue Cheese Dip
March 30th, 2013 in Sauces & Dips & Spreads by Julia Volhina
This dip is one of my US discoveries, along with celery stalks which I never tried before I came here.
These two I can eat together endlessly, as an appetizer, a side or just a snack. It just made a lot of sense to learn to mix the dip from scratch myself.
Blue cheese dip goes great with fresh vegetables (e.g. celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower), spicy chicken wings or as a fresh salad dressing (I would suggest to put a bit more kefir to the mix in this case).