Thursday, May 17, 2012

Vegan Dip

I have to say I am NOT a huge fan of vegan food. I know people who will swear up and down about the health benefits, the wonderful flavors etc etc, but I just can't live without a good steak, cooked medium rare with a roasted red pepper sauce. Maybe its genetic, maybe I'm more of a caveman/woman, I don't know. I do know that when I eat too many carbs I get fat and can't lose weight no matter how much I count calories or cut fat, so I'll stick to my low carb lifestyle. Plus my husband doesn't consider a meal a meal unless it has some kind of meat involved. Switching to a virtually no-carb diet has made us lose weight and his cholesterol has dropped considerably, so I think we're on the right track. I am open minded and will try vegan foods whenever I hear about something good. Like today on  the Rachal Ray show I saw her make a tasty veggie dip with tofu cream cheese that sounded really tasty and though she mentioned she had it on a bagel (omg the calories and carbs in one of those) she served it up with zucchini strips, red peppers and carrots. The recipe did not have any salt or pepper in it so I added some, it really needs some spice, I also added  squish of lemon juice.
Yum!
Serve cold with veggie strips.

Rachal Ray's Vegan Dip

Ingredients

    1 box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and wrung dry
    1 tofu cream cheese
    2 cloves garlic, grated
    1/4 cup onion, grated
    1 can water chestnuts, coarsely chopped
    4 scallions, whites and greens, chopped
    1/2 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
    1 carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
   
    I added:
    salt and pepper to taste
    splash of fresh lemon juice
    dash of crushed red pepper flakes


blend in food processor until smooth.