Snacking Part One: How to Make it Healthy

I have been doing a not-small amount of snacking since the apocalypse started. I think we all have! If given a chance, I will eat chips and dip for every meal. That’s not so great for your waistline, or your health, so I’ve come up with a snack tray that is full of whole, marginally healthy ingredients to snack on. It’s a dip plate with hummus, kalamata olive dip, salmon dip, and a pretty green avocado-arugula-asparagus dip. If I’m going to be dipping foods all the time, I want to get some healthy and whole meals in there, and this dip combo does just that. Plus, you’ll be the star of your next potluck if you bring it, post end-times.

I won’t reinvent the wheel with hummus here. It’s a basic recipe that requires canned chick peas, a little of their reserved water (which is also a great ingredient you can use for vegan baking called aquafava!), tahini, salt and pepper, and lemon juice. This is Erin’s favorite hummus recipe, and it’s a good one!

The other dips here were my own creations. The first step is to go back to our pizza recipe page and make yourself some homemade ricotta. Yes, you can use storebought, but one of my golden rules of cooking is that if you can make it at home, and you have the time, you should. It’s always better. ALWAYS! You’ll get a lot of mileage out of this recipe once you master it, so get to it!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR THE DIPS

KALAMATA OLIVE DIP

• 1/2 a cup of kalamata olives (you can use canned, but you really want the flavor to pop, so I highly suggest kalamata, even in a jar)
• 1/2 cup homemade ricotta
• 2 roasted garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp Sriracha or 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

SALMON DIP

• 1/2 cup homemade ricotta
• 1 small, baked salmon filet (you can leave the skin on. I use frozen and it comes out just fine)
• 1TB fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper

AVOCADO-ASPARAGUS-ARUGULA DIP

• 1 avocado, ripe
• 4 TB Olive Oil
• 2 cloves roasted garlic
• 4 pieces of asparagus, steamed
• the juice of 1/2 a lemon
• a dash of salt and pepper
• 2 TB parmasan cheese
• a small handful of arugula

THE PROCESS

The process here is simple. Combine all ingredients in a blender. I don’t have a great one, I use a two-cup smoothie blender, and it still works out fine.

That’s it! You can use crackers or bread, or make some crackers yourself by using our focaccia recipe, slicing it thin, spraying the tray and the bread down with some olive oil, sprinkling it with salt and pepper, and throwing it in the oven at 350 for about 4-5 minutes. Or dip slices of cucumber, which go great with all these flavors! And you’ve got a healthy snack to munch on!