Several of my friends are doing a program at our local swim/tennis club that involves going on a paleo diet for 20 days. So when I hosted a mom’s night in last night, I thought I’d do my best to support their efforts by offering up something other than the usual dairy and gluten fest that is the cheese board. First, I made this olive and almond dip (recipe from Eating Well Magazine)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pitted briny green olives
- 1/4 cup Marcona almonds, or other almonds, toasted (see Ingredient Note and Kitchen Tip)
- 1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Preparation
- Combine olives, almonds, tarragon and lemon juice in a food processor. Pulse until roughly chopped. Add oil in a steady stream and process just until the oil is absorbed. (Alternatively, finely chop the olives, almonds and tarragon by hand and combine with lemon juice and oil in a medium bowl.) The spread should have a coarse but easily spoonable texture. Let stand for about 30 minutes for the flavor to develop.
I also made Baba Ganoush:
I took 1 big eggplant and roasted it with a few whole cloves of garlic at 350 for about an hour (or until the eggplant was super soft)
then I scooped out the eggplant and put it with the garlic into a blender (food processor might work better – I didn’t feel like dealing)
added a couple big blobs of tahini, juice of one lemon, about a tsp of salt and blended the bejesus out of it 🙂
I served both with crudites and sweet potato chips.
Happy snacking!
