A healthy dip unless you eat a box of crackers along side

Yesterday, I tried a new recipe from the August 2013 Eating Well magazine.  Although I didn't plant zucchini I did plant a couple of Flying Saucer squash and as you know when you have a squash plant you end up having way more squash than you ever want to eat.  If you don't have a garden it is the time to purchase zucchini because it is cheap and in season.

 

Zucchini is not my favorite vegetable so I'm always looking or ways to make it better or do something different with it.  A dip sounded like a different spin on this somewhat plain vegetable.

 

One thing I didn't like about the dip was that it was too loose (runny,  but runny sounds bad).  For a dip I just wanted it to be a bit stiffer so I'm thinking if I would have cut my squash in a smaller dice and browned it slightly I would have removed more of the moisture from the squash and that would help.  So as always there is room for improvement and with the next harvest of squash will come another attempt.  I also used the flying saucer squash which I like better but you can't always find these in the store.  I'm not sure but maybe these are moister than zucchini.

 

The other changes I made to the original recipe besides the type of squash was that I used less oil to sauté the squash, less mint because I was afraid but next time I'll try adding more and I added horseradish because hubby thought it needed more kick.  When he said that I thought he was going to suggest hot sauce which I didn't think would be right but horseradish was the perfect suggestion.  Since I added it only to the serving we were eating I'm not exactly sure how much to add to the entire dip.  I maybe added 1/2 t. to our serving so for the entire bowl you will need more but start small, taste and add more until you get it.  I'll do the same next time and modify this recipe to reflect what I find.  If you don't like horseradish stick to the original recipe.*

 

One thing I liked about the dip besides that it used zucchini was that it was healthy.  Healthy until we ate half a box of pita crackers (6 crackers equals 70 cal., 2.5g fat, 140mg sodium, 11g carb., 1g protein).  So much for healthy, but I did discover some new pita cracker s that I liked and they were baked as if that made a difference in the end.  Another option to keep it more on the healthy side would be to bake you own pita chips or use veggies as your dippers.

 

 

MIDDLE EASTERN SQUASH DIP
-Drizzle of EVOO
2 squash (flying saucer, zucchini), diced
2 cloves garlic, grated
½ C. Greek yogurt
2 T. lemon juice
1 T. mint, scissor cut
¼ t. salt
¼ t. coarse ground black pepper
½ t. - 1 T. horseradish (*add a little and taste- see note above)
-Pita Chips

Heat oil in a skillet. Add squash and cook, stirring occasionally until soft and slightly browned, about 5 minutes.. You want to cook it long enough so that it is not as wet. Add garlic, cook 1 minute more. Let cool 5 minutes. Transfer to food processor or blender. Add remaining ingredients. Pure till smooth. Serve with Pita chips.