…and recommend what they should be dipped with.
Hummus, babaghanouj, taramasalata, salsa, tzatziki! I love them all. I’m thinking about having a dip party. (Atkins dieters are NOT welcome!) But, see, I’ve never actually made any of these items, except for babaghanouj. So I’d love to hear some good recipes to try to make. Also, the type of bread, cracker, etc. that goes best with it.
Okay. People love my hummus, if I do say so myself. It’s an adaptation of The Moosewood Cookbook recipe. You pretty much gotta have a food processor if you want to make it; otherwise it’s far too fussy.
1)Throw a good handful of parsley into the food processor.
2) Follow it up with a couple cloves of garlic,
3) a spring onion broken into finger-long pieces,
4) a dash of cumin,
5) and a dash of cayenne.
6) Whirl this around until everything’s finely chopped.
7) Add a 15-oz can of drained garbanzo beans,
8) the juice of one lemon,
9) and a good splash of tamari.
10) Whirl this around until you’ve got a puree.
11) Add a big heaping spoonful of roasted tahini
12) and a dollop of olive oil.
13) Give it a final whirl, and adjust to taste.
If it’s too bland, try adding more lemon juice first: better to have it too tangy than too salty, in my opinion. If it’s too tangy, consider adding more cumin, which will deepen the flavor, or add more tahini. More olive oil will help if it’s too pasty.
Serve it with toasted pita wedges or with raw vegetables. After the party, leftovers are great on whole-wheat toast.
Daniel
Sour cream, horseradish, and rosemary. (Needs to “sit” at least overnight for the flavors to do their thing.)
Good with veggies, esp. cukes.
A block of cream cheese, softened, a small jar of salsa and a medium bag of finely shredded cheddar. Mix well and serve with tortilla chips or Wheat Thins.
A big block of Velveeta (I never said I was a gourmet!) and a big jar a hot salsa. Put in a microwave-safe bowl and nuke on medium, stirring every 30 seconds or so until the cheese melts and it’s well-blended. Serve with tortilla chips. It’s better than you’d think, really.
A pint of sour cream and an envelope of dry Ranch dressing mix (Hidden Valley is good). Mix well. Like twickster said, let it sit several hours or overnight in the fridge so the flavors can intermingle. Serve with veggies.
OK, I make the best dip in the entire world. Everyone I know begs me to make it.
Artichoke Heart dip:
Two cans of artichokes (can be quartered or whole, just not marinated)
1 cup mayo (don’t use light)
1 cup parmesian cheese (same as above)
Drain the cans of artichokes and put them in a baking dish about the size of a 9"x9".
Mush the artichokes up. (I personally use a fork)
Stir in the mayo and the parmesian cheese.
Mix well. Sprinkle a little extra cheese on top.
Pop the dish in your preheated oven (uh, I usually use something like 425 but I don’t think it’s that important) and bake till the top is golden brown (and you smelly a really yummy aroma).
Take it out and let it cool some (I’m never patient enough to wait and always burn my tongue. 
Serve with tortilla chips.
Now this is in way good for you but what the heck. You need the full fat mayo so the flavors meld. Personally, I don’t even like mayo (or parmesian cheese for that matter) but in this dip, it’s great. The dip is also good reheated in the microwave for the next day. Hmmmm, maybe I’ll just have dip for dinner tonight…
-1 block of cream cheese
-1 block of cream/feta mix (most grocery stores have this)
-pesto
-minced garlic
-Roma tomatoes
You can do one of two things with this: the quick way is to blend the cream cheeses, spread them over a large flat platter, cover the cheese with the minced garlic (including the juice), then the pesto, and let sit for as long as possible. Cut the tomatoes onto it before serving. Melba toast or bagel chips.
The long way: do the same as above except instead of using a platter make individual servings on bagel chips or Melba toast. If you really have a lot of prep time, you can use the green background of the pesto and the sliced tomatoes to make it look like peacock eyes. (The library where I work has a huge collection of Flannery O’Connor archives [Flannery owned and bred peacocks] and I did this for a reception we once had for O’Connor scholars.)
I make the same dip as tremorviolet and it is fantastic…we usually serve it with Wheat Thins or French bread slices. It was my signature dip for years, but I have now handed it over to my friend Barb, as I have discovered a new dip that people love even more.
You know how when you take a dip or some other dish to be part of a buffet table at, say, a concert at your church, and you return home with more than half a container full? Well, the first time I made this dip, 5 people approached me for the recipe, people stood around the bowl and wouldn’t move, and people followed me into the kitchen when I removed the empty bowl, waving a cracker or a slice of cucmber, hoping for just a smidge more. This has never before happened to me! I figured since it was the only dip (with crackers and veggies) at a table filled with sweets, that people were just desperate to eat something not sweet. But it happened the next time, too, when there was enough variety. So now I make a double batch, save some for myself at home and just take Pepperidge Farm Variety pack crackers (the ones with the round, the butterfly shapes, and the wheat). I then place my bowl next to whatever veggie tray someone else has brought (with the basic ranch-type dip) and watch while my dip and their veggies disappear.
Sun-dried Tomato Dip (from The Barefoot Contessa cookbook)
1/4 c. sundried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped (8 tomatoes)
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c. good mayonnaise (I use Hellman’s)
10 dashes Tabasco souce
1 t. salt
3/4 t. black pepper
2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)
Puree all ingredients except scallions in foo processor.
Add scallions and pulse twice.
Serve at Room Temperature with raw veggies and/or crackers.
I have made this with low-fat cream cheese and sour cream and it’s been fine. Haven’t tried it with low-fat mayo yet, and do not, not not use Miracle Whip!!! I didn’t really have to tell you that, did I? Despite what my mother thinks, you can not interchange the two!
This is one of my favorites. It’s decidedly not low fat or low carb. (Well, maybe it is low carb, but I don’t know nor really care.)
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 scallions, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon spicy mustard
3 cups shredded Swiss cheese
1 roasted red pepper, finely diced
1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well-drained
Your favorite hot sauce, to taste
Olive oil for sauteing
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Using just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a small saute pan, saute the scallions and garlic until translucent but not browned. Remove from heat.
Place the other ingredients together in a mixing bowl and mix until well blended. Add the sauted scallion and garlic and incorporate quickly, then transfer to a shallow small casserole or baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees until browned and bubbly, approximately 15 minutes.
It goes great with rye bread, Sun Chips and Wheat Thin or Triscuit style crackers, stuff that has some heft to it and a good, hearty taste on its own.
If you’re going to throw a dip party, don’t forget dessert! You can serve fruits – sliced apples, strawberries, raspberries, seedless grapes – and light textured cookies (pizzelle fingers would be great) with a quick dip of 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sour cream and 1 cup of whipped cream or Cool Whip.
Oh, I meant to add that my hot swiss cheese dip originally included bacon, and the scallions and garlic were sauteed in the bacon drippings. I omitted the bacon and added the olive oil because I’m a vegetarian, but I’m sure, if you’re free of objections to cured pork products, it’d work really well.
I started making fruit trays with dip for all the family type parties a few years ago, trying to get the kids to eat something other than cheetos. It worked so well that I’m now expected to make this dip for every single gathering, not bad except for paying for strawberries, kiwifruit etc out of season. :rolleyes:
2 8 oz bricks of cream cheese, softened
1 large jar marshmallow fluff
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Beat together, add food coloring if desired (birthday kids always get to choose the color for their own parties, this is a Big Deal, natch)
Serve with sliced apples, grapes, berries, etc.
I haven’t tried this one yet, but for the carnivores, a Good Eats dip:
Chicken Liver Mousse
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped tart apple
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 pound chicken livers, cleaned
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brandy
1 cup heavy cream
In a large saute pan over low heat, melt the butter and cook onion, apple, and thyme, covered, until apples soften. Remove lid and increase heat to medium add the livers and cook until firm and still pink inside. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Add the pepper, salt, and brandy and puree in a food processor; then chill, covered. Meanwhile whip the heavy cream to medium peaks. Fold into cooled, pureed liver mixture. Serve chilled.
Can’t make my favorite deviled ham dip any more. They no longer sell pimento cheese in those little glass jars. 
Not for the terribly timid of palate:
Tapanade
3/4 cup pitted black kalamata olives, drained
1 cup FRESH parsley
5-7 fresh, peeled garlic cloves
3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes (NOT PACKED IN LIQUID)
1/4 cup pignoli (pine nuts)
Throw it all in the food processor and run it until the dip/spread is finely chopped, about the consistency of wet cornmeal. Cover and refrigerate at least overnight, and up to a week. This is too thick to actually dip into - I stick one of those cutesy little cheese spreader dealies into it. I can’t decide if I like this better with pita triangles or with pumpernickel cocktail bread. Although it’s prettier with the pitas.
You can alter the quantities of any or all ingredients to taste - it’s a very forgiving recipe. I stopped measuring years ago and now just throw in a whole package each of kalamatas and sun-dried tomatoes, a largish bunch of parsley, and a handful each of garlic cloves and pine nuts.
This isn’t terribly fancy, but it always goes over really well at get-togethers.
Pizza Dip
2 8oz packages cream cheese
1 c sour cream
Italian seasoning to taste
minced garlic (from the jar) to taste
1 tsp salt
1 jar/can pizza sauce
chopped pizza toppings - pepperoni, green pepper, olives etc.
2c shredded mozzerella
For the bottom layer, mix the cream cheese, sour cream, italian seasoning, garlic and salt together, then spoon it into a casserole dish.
Cover with pizza sauce.
Layer finely chopped pizza toppings over the pizza sauce.
Cover with shredded cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly.
Serve with nachos, crackers, corn chips or bread sticks.
Sure they do, check Kraft’s web site here.
So how about that recipe?
Well, I’ll be! Last New Year’s I went looking for the stuff, tried FIVE grocery stores from three different chains, no luck. I finally asked Customer Service at the last one, they looked it up in their supplier’s records (or pretended anyway) and said it was no longer available. Bastards.
But I can have my dip again, so that’s good news anyway.
This dip recipe came from my Grandmother, btw, and probably dates from the 30s or 40s:
Deviled Ham Dip
1 jar Kraft pimento cheese (This is neufchatel cheese blended with pimentos, btw, roughly a 6 oz jar, in case anyone wants to try improvising.)
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
2 1/4 oz. can of Underwood Deviled Ham
1 Tablespoon grated onion
Stick everything in a bowl, blend it together thorooughly. The result is a rather pretty pale pink color dip, about 1 1/2 cups, quite thick, so an eletric beater is easier than trying to dig the stuff out of a blender. Chill for a couple of hours at least, to let the flavors meld. I like to sprinkle a bit of chopped scallion greens on top before setting it out.
This is a very salty dip, so it goes best with non-salty items like veggie sticks or make-them-yourself toasted pita triangles. If you insist on potato chips, be sure and get the ruffled type or you’ll end up with a bowl studded with broken chips.