I’m back with another article on nutritious and delicious food. This time, I wanted to share two healthy dips with our readers. These dips are bursting with flavour and nutrition, which is the perfect combination!
I’ve been making these recipes almost every week this summer. My family likes to enjoy them with veggie sticks, pita bread, crackers, corn chips – you name it. Since they’re a crowd-pleasing duo, they’re great for when you’re entertaining. Not only are they a refreshing snack, but I find myself adding these healthy dips to all kinds of meals including salads, pasta, toast, burgers, sandwiches, and more.
The base ingredient in these healthy dips is cottage cheese. It’s definitely trending these days! Cottage cheese is a curdled cow’s milk product with a mild flavour and creamy, soft texture. With about 18 grams per ½ cup serving, it’s high in protein, which the body needs to repair and build muscle. Eating more protein and fewer carbs is also one way to improve your body contour. It’s also high in calcium and low in fat. Since cottage cheese is fermented, it’s considered a probiotic, which supports gut health. It makes for amazing dips once you combine it with other ingredients to add flavour.
Red Pepper Dip
You’ll want to have about 5 red peppers for this recipe. Sometimes grocery stores will have bulk sales on red peppers. You can also use multicoloured sweet peppers, which often come in a bag. When I see either of these ingredients on sale I buy them for this healthy dip recipe.
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare the peppers by washing and slicing them into large pieces. Remove the stalks and seeds then place the peppers on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast them for about 30 minutes or until soft and browning.
Once roasted, add the peppers to a blender with one 500g container of cottage cheese, a teaspoon of salt, and another drizzle of olive oil. Blend on medium until smooth. You can add more olive oil if the dip is too thick to blend properly. Have a taste and make any adjustments you’d like at this point.
Last but not least, put the dip into a shallow bowl, drizzle with a little more olive oil, and enjoy. It’s that easy!
Herby Dip
If you like herby, lemony, and garlicky falvours, you’re going to love this dip. You’ll need one bunch of fresh parsley and one bunch of fresh cilantro. If you can’t find cilantro or don’t care for it, you can use fresh basil instead.
Add the herbs to a blender with 2 cloves of garlic, the juice of 3 lemons, a teaspoon of salt, and one 500g container of cottage cheese.
Now you blend on medium until smooth. For this healthy dip, you’ll probably have to pause blending a couple of times to scrape down the sides and stir the dip. If it’s not blending very well, add enough olive oil so that it blends more easily.
Taste the dip to see if you’d like to make any adjustments. More garlic? Salt? It’s your call! When ready, pour the herby dip into a shallow bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and serve.
Get Creative With Healthy Dips
These healthy dip recipes can be inspiration for more creations. Instead of red peppers and herbs, use another set of ingredients that’s calling your name. Maybe you want to keep it simple with a garlic dip. Or perhaps you want to make an onion dip with green onion and shallots. You could even add a handful of spinach to that one to enhance the nutrition profile and make a brighter green colour.
There are lots of possibilities. Just pick your preferred flavour-forward ingredients, add cottage cheese and maybe lemon juice and olive oil.
Simple, nutritious, and delicious. Happy snacking!
