Dip Night Out! (TM) — Dip Parties!

The HeartMark Health Dip Parties are open to anyone who wants to try them! This is yet another HeartMark original invention!

Dips began as a popular dish on the cartoon character world Planet Heart.(TM) The Heartling Chef Tendercor made dips in different stories and episodes. It was very entertaining as a cartoon. Then it dawned on me that I love dips because they can be so healthy. I noticed that I steam easily a great variety of healthy organic vegetables, mash them quickly–often in the pot that I steamed them, add some tahini and spices, and voila! These were a subconscious inspiration for the cartoon until I brought them to a conscious level. Now they are a fun theme party for adults or children!–right here on planet earth! This follows my theme of “Making planet earth a Planet Heart!”(TM)

Goal: Each guest will steam a vegetable, smoosh it, mix in other ingredients, and prepare a dip on the spot. Each guest will taste and vote on each other’s dip. You can email me your favorite recipe, or you can share it with your friends as well!

Preparation:
You invite your friends. Ask them to bring in a vegetable for steaming. It is your choice if they come with the vegetable and the pot, or if the vegetable is already steamed. Think of the number of pots that you might need to steam each vegetable’s guest. You could use some portable burners if you wish.

Prepare in advance a few chip options. You can purchase them or make your own in the oven. (Drizzle pita bread with olive oil, salt, and garlic and bake until crisp for example.) I like to focus on the dips at a dip party to simplify.

Prepare in advance a few favorite ingredients and spices to mix with the smooshed vegetable. Suggestions:

*Tahini–a nut free paste from sesame seeds.
*Greek Yogurt–This can be turned into a spicy, sweet, or salty dip! You can use the low fat or non fat option. The dip always turns out delicious!
*Chocolate–you may add this as a secret ingredient if you wish!
*low fat cream cheese- It’s more challenging to blend in a freshly steamed vegetable without a blender. It’s great for children when you’re not adding in a mashed steamed vegetable. Try slicing the vegetable instead, or mixing the cheese with the Greek yogurt first.
*Salsa–mix with tahini and beans, Greek yogurt, …or whatever you come up with!
*barbecue sauce or any sauce favorite
*Ketchup– kids might enjoy it.
*mustard–I may have tried it once in one item.
*olives, capers, pickled anything! (Dice it small!)
*salmon, tuna,… adventures I have not experimented with!

Flavor Enhancers:
*Garlic
*Turmeric
*Olive oil
*dill
*Other Fresh leaves–basil, parsley, cilantro, thyme…
*fresh lemon– useful for the tahini
*salt
*Tabasco! or other spicy options
*honey
*fajita seasoning, pumpkin pie mix, Asian seasoning, falafel mix… and so on!

Tools:
dip containers–one or two for each guest.
Tools that mash or blend such as a potato masher, and a blender.
Spoons, knives– enough to mix and taste the dips per person.

Sample vegetables you can steam and turn into a dip:
rutabaga (delicious!) (hint– mix with tahini and mung beans!)
cauliflower
spinach
parsley root! This is sweet and textured like carrots. It’s white.
carrots
Jerusalem artichoke
broccoli
cilantro root– delicious. It’s near the parsley root.
squash
beets

Beans work well too!–Mung beans cook fast and are easy to mash down!

Get creative– Any other ideas can work! Nut butters, corn, potatoes, eggs– Consider people’s allergies, your budget, your mood, and optimum health benefits!

Avoid ingredients that add few nutritional benefits. Avoid sour cream, mayo, sugar, artificial colors, and so on.

Make sure you steam the “secret” vegetable thoroughly so it mashes easily. Allow the guests to have some of the options listed above to flavor their dip. Write down the ingredients. Each guest can experiment with a few options. Even though I included a lot of suggested ingredients, my favorite dips are always the ones that are tahini based or Greek yogurt based. Some vegetables have more water than others. Just add keep that in mind as you mix more or less liquid to the dip.

The logo used on every page of the recipe book I published several years ago for the nutrition lectures, before I changed the name to HeartMark Health, and before the HeartMark heart hand was ever stolen

Simple Delicious Winner:
OLIVE DILL DIP

Preparation: 3 minutes. Flavor: Heavenly!

Ingredients:

Greek Yogurt– 2% or 0%
Olives– (green or black) (I use green olives with red pepper in the middle.)
Dill–Fresh is best! Chopped finely.
Optional Garlic

Preparation (3 minutes):

Chop the olives finely
Mix into yogurt.
Add the chopped dill.
Add the garlic but this is not required. Even garlic lovers will agree this dip will be heavenly without it. Garlic is a great choice for dips that are not for a big party.

Presentation:
Serve dip along with pita chips, or any other chip or sliced.
Add other vegetables as chips and for color. Children love long red pepper sticks, cucumber slices, and carrots!

This dip is delicious and nutritious! The yogurt is high in protein and calcium! At parties, it gets consumed completely. No one can tel that you made it with a healthy, guilt-free Greek Yogurt and not sour cream unless you tell them.

Enjoy!