I am in love…..with a dip. I may have said before that dip is one of my favourite foods. In that game where you have to choose five foods to live on for the rest of your life (obviously with no health consequences) chips and dip are two of mine (black beans, curry and ice cream are the others BTW) and this weekend I discovered a dip of such amazingness life may never be the same.
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It came from the new recipe book The Art of Eating Well from uber-cool cooking sisters Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley.
Everything in this book looks amazing and I’d been wanting to try something since I got my hands on it.
Sadly, when the ‘urge to create in the kitchen’ struck me this weekend, it was 5pm this Sunday – and the only thing I had all the ingredients for in the cupboard was their Sundried Tomato and Jalapeno Dip. Ambitious eh?
Still, I figured something was better than nothing and wow….. you know those websites that let you write up how grateful you are for little things in life, well mine would read:
“Today, I am grateful that I’m a rubbish shopper and only had yogurt, sun dried tomatoes and jalapenos in the cupboard because this was one of the best dips I have ever tasted.”
I’m craving it again already. It was super creamy, had a great chilli kick and was so satisfying I actually just ate it and some grilled courgette bits for dinner (see I really can live on dip).
So, here’s how you make it…
Sundried Tomato And Jalapeno Dip Recipe
Ingredients
200g full-fat probiotic natural yogurt
6 large sundried tomatoes
8 slices of jalapeno
1 garlic clove
a pinch each of cayenne pepper and one of paprika
Method
Put everything in the food processor and blend.
Yes, that’s it – it really is that simple!
What I Learned Making It
No, despite the gratitude thing this isn’t another moment of spiritual discovery, it’s just a few potentially helpful tips….
I made only half this amount as The Boyfriend is not as dip obsessed as me and I didn’t want it to go to waste if I didn’t like it. Next time I’d make the full amount because a) it’s delicious b) not having lots of yogurt in the food processor meant the sundried tomatoes didn’t chop that well. If you were making a smaller quantity I’d maybe chop them by hand first and just whisk them in with the mixer.
I’d also add a couple more jalapeno slices and give it an even stronger kick.
Oh, and I only had fat-free Total Greek Yogurt in the fridge so I used that instead of the full-fat stuff. Technically this goes against H&H principles to not be afraid of fat but it’s so thick and doesn’t have any added sugar so I figured I’d be okay. It worked brilliantly.
If you’re also a Greek yogurt fan, you might also want to check out this post on fun ways to top it)
The one thing this dip doesn’t do is photograph well – which may explain why there’s also not a picture of it in the book! And why I don’t have one either.
The Art of Eating Well
I’m now really looking forward to trying more of the recipes in the book – I need a serious planning session and a supermarket shop with a list first though – these recipes have a lot of ingredients!
The Hemsley’s principles on healthy eating are that food should be as close to nature as possible. They do eat meat, but they aren’t keen on processed grains, refined sugars, gluten or anything artificial or messed about with (which includes low-fat versions of foods like yogurt).
Their meals aren’t necessarily low calorie as they don’t believe that weight control is as simple as calories in vs calories out and more that if you only feed your body natural, unprocessed foods and listen to what it’s telling you about what it needs – and how much of it – you’re weight will naturally start to balance itself out.
The Art of Eating Well is the Hemsley’s first book, (since I wrote this they’ve had a few more) and contains 150 healthy recipes.
As I said, the recipes do have a lot of ingredients so if you prefer to keep things simple, it’s probably not the book for you (you might however like their book Good & Simple but they do all look and sound amazing.
If you want to check them out yourself, the book The Art of Eating Well is out now published by Ebury Press.
Click here if you want to check out The Art of Eating Well yourself.
Who is The Wellness Nerd?
My name is Helen Foster and I’m a health journalist and wellness author. Publications I’ve written for include Women’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Body and Soul, Good Health at the Daily Mail and more. I have also written 16 books on health and nutrition.