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Sunday’s multi-course potluck dinner included a multitude of gourmet dishes, some time consuming, prep-ahead recipes, others less complicated but just as delicious.

One of the dishes I brought was a simple, creamy white bean dip. I love white beans for their ability to add a richness to a dish without adding fat. The beans’ nutrients and fiber are just an added bonus!

I enjoyed the dip on Sunday, but I know that I could definitely make some improvements to it, so I have included those thoughts along with the recipe. This white bean dip would be a great, easy starter for your Thanksgiving guests and can be made a day or two in advance.

white bean dip ingredients

The ingredients:

1 can white kidney beans, drained

juice of 1 lemon (next time I would use at least 2, plus the zest)

4 cloves roasted garlic (next time I would use 6-8)

4 Tablespoons white truffle olive oil (next time I would use 5-6 for a stronger truffle flavor)

lemons and garlic

I started out by roasting an entire bulb of garlic. Just chop the top off, drizzle the bulb with olive oil, wrap in foil, and roast at 450 for 20 minutes or so. Make sure to check on the garlic so that it doesn’t burn.

garlic

While the garlic was roasting, I chopped the white beans with the truffle oil. I added in a bit of ground sea salt and black pepper to taste.

white beans

Once the garlic was roasted, I squeezed it out of its skin and into the bean mixture. I also added the lemon juice at this time and pureed everything until smooth.

white bean dip

I served this with crostini toasts that Megan had in her pantry. This dip is also great with crackers and pita triangles and can be used in place of hummus in veggie sandwiches. It is pretty tasty!

Yesterday afternoon I received a great email from King Arthur Flour, a follow up to our visit earlier this year. They are offering all of my readers up to 25% OFF items in their online store, perfect for shopping for gifts for the bakers in your life (or yourself!) Just click on the button below!

KAFonlinepromo

Speaking of shopping, will you be out at the stores at the crack of dawn on Black Friday? Or do you prefer to do your shopping from the comfort of your couch like I do? Winking smile

Tags: appetizer, Food, healthy recipe, lemon, potluck, recipe, truffle oil, Vegetarian, white bean dip

Before today’s post, a couple of updates:

I have added a professional background page to my About page; check it out if you get a chance.

Today my first guest post on CRAVE Boston was published. It covers one of Boston’s best wine shops, The Wine Bottega, and you can check it out here:

http://thecravecompany.com/boston/2010/08/05/thewinebottegaboston/

 

Recreating my meal at zazu was what I had in mind when I started in on this Israeli couscous creation, and I must admit, I was quite successful. Minus, of course, the beautiful Santa Rosa scenery and TasteLive! friends.

zucchini, onions, tomatoes, couscous

On Saturday night, I opened the windows, put on some Grateful Dead, and got to cooking this delicious dish.

I cut 3 medium sized zucchinis into thin discs, then slowly sautéed them on a very low heat with a sweet farmers’ market onion. 

zucchini

In the meantime, I took an entire box of Israeli couscous and mixed it with a few teaspoons of olive oil, garlic powder, and black pepper and allowed it to start to toast over a low flame. Then I squeezed in the juice of three lemons (would use at least two more next time!) and then added a couple cups of hot water to allow the couscous to cook all the way through.

To the zucchini I added semi-cooked corn and raw heirloom tomatoes, then some olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper.

I squeezed half of a lemon over the cooking veggies, then combined everything and topped it off with a good pour of olive oil.

image

lemony veggie couscous

Such an easy, flavorful, and filling vegetarian recipe. It was no zazu, but it was close and quite delicious. I will keep working on it to see if I can make it more up to zazu standards, but until then, I have a new vegetarian dinner in my repertoire, and you can’t beat that.

Do you have a favorite restaurant meal you have tried to recreate? Where was it from, and how did you do?

Tags: couscous, Food, garlic, heirloom tomatoes, Israeli Couscous, lemon, recipe, tomatoes, vegan recipe, vegetables, vegetarian recipe, zazu, zucchini

new restaurant
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