Sprout & Pea

This week was one of re-​​using left­overs and dishes inspir­ing new dishes. It all started with a deli­cious Fen­nel, Leek & Red Beet Salad. With some leeks left­over from this, I decided to buy some arti­choke hearts and feta which I suc­cess­fully made a great arti­choke dip with– one that rivals the tra­di­tional mayo-​​tastic party food in both taste and health fac­tor. With the tasty fla­vors in this dish lin­ger­ing in my mind, I decided to use the very same ingre­di­ents the fol­low­ing night, this time incor­po­rat­ing pasta and lemon. Read more:

I had some leeks left­over from my fen­nel, leek and red beet salad, so I thought I would attempt to make one of my favorite dips-​​healthy style. Mayo-​​packed arti­choke dip is one of my favorite dips to serve at par­ties. I fig­ured that there had to be a way to make this dish a bit health­ier, so I ditched the mayo and sim­ply com­bined chopped up arti­chokes, leeks and feta with a lit­tle olive oil in the food proces­sor and blended and baked. Read more:

Eggs Bene­dict has always been one of my favorite brunch indul­gences but I love when I find healthy vari­a­tions of it on restau­rant menus. Enter my favorite veg­etable– the arti­choke. I was eat­ing a whole arti­choke for din­ner one night and when I got to the heart of it, I real­ized that it was the per­fect lit­tle shape for a poached egg to rest in. Since then, I’ve been scour­ing the inter­net for the per­fect sauce to top this idea off with. I wanted to do some­thing a lit­tle dif­fer­ent than the usual Hol­landaise, and I finally came across a great recipe for red pep­per aioli that made my mouth water a lit­tle bit.
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In addi­tion to my favorite edamame dip, I decided to do blend up a quick spicy white bean and arti­choke dip for pump­kin carv­ing night.
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Arti­chokes have been a long time favorite veg­etable of mine and there’s no bet­ter way to enjoy them than steamed with a great side sauce.  Grow­ing up, when most kids begged their mom for mac and cheese for din­ner, I would beg mine for steamed arti­chokes.
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I love arti­choke dip but could some­times do with­out the unhealthy fac­tor that most mouth­wa­ter­ing, cheese and mayo induced dips con­tain. While I still make the unhealthy stuff from time to time, I decided that I wanted to try out a more kind to your body arti­choke dip.
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