I’m the type of person who goes to a BBQ/Dinner Party/Lunch, and pigs out on all the snacks that come out first, leaving no room at all for the main event.
When I used to eat cheese, I swear I used to polish off most of the cheese and dip on the platters, and then feel not so great afterwards.
I still love to pig out on platters, but these days my platters are a whole different beast – fruit, carrot sticks, olives, pickles – nothing that leaves me feeling crappy afterwards.
Warm spinach and artichoke dip is one of those comforting things that used to get made with a pile of cream cheese, but this recipe is heavy on the spinach, and replaces the cream cheese with cashews. The only thing you need to be careful of is not pigging out on the bread, but you can also serve this with veggie sticks or corn chips to make it gluten-free.
- ⅓ cup cashews
- 250g frozen spinach
- 200g artichokes
- ½ onion
- 1 dried red chilli
- Juice /2 lemon
- 1 cup water
- Cajun seasoning to taste (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F).
- Soak your cashews overnight if you have time (or otherwise, soak them in hot water for about 30 minutes).
- Thaw your spinach (or if you're using the equivalent amount of fresh spinach, roughly chop it). Chop your chilli as finely as you can (you can try to do it all in the blender, but you might end up with quite large chunks).
- If you want your dip to be more creamy, blend your cashews with the water first, or if you prefer a more 'rustic' feel, just add all the ingredients together into the food processor and whiz until they're the consistency you like.
- Put the mix into an oven-safe dish and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes.
- If serving with bread, slice it and pop it in the oven about 5 minutes before serving.
