Rich follows this magazine, Sweet Paul, on line, and forwards any recipes he thinks it’d be nice for me to try.
This one, a cracker spread/dip made from crumbled feta cheese, garlic, and lemon, seemed like just the thing for an early spring dinner gathering of barbecued corned beef and roasted sliced potatoes with French peas on the side. A moist, flavorful dark chocolate mayonnaise cake with espresso mocha buttercream frosting rounded out the meal, and we were all well pleased.
I will say that I thought the dip a touch on the thick side to work as a dip, so I would mebbe assemble it in a food processor to give the blades a better chance at blending. I thought the lemon flavor was more than enough with the zest and one tablespoon of the juice, but you do what you like.
INGREDIENTS
•8 oz crumbled feta cheese
•1 to 2 tbsp lemon zest
•2 tbsp lemon juice
•1 garlic clove
•Aleppo pepper
•6 tbsp olive oil
•Crushed red pepper flakes
•Additional zest and olive oil for serving
Add the feta, lemon zest, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil in a blender and pulse until combined but still.
Sweet Paul notes that it’ll be dense, so mebbe definitely use the food processor for this job, or stir it together with a fork.
Give it a taste and add more lemon juice if you feel it’s too salty. I thought mine was fine, but added a pinch of Aleppo pepper and stirred that in with a fork.
Spoon the dip into a serving bowl and add a drizzle of olive oil to the top, along with some crushed red pepper flakes and additional lemon zest.
Serve at room temperature with crackers or crudités. I went with sea salt pita chips and thought it worked well.
I also spread some leftover dip on a flour tortilla the next day, topped it with some chopped Romaine, Persian cucumber, and sweet onion salad, dressed it with a bit of Vintage French Salad Dressing, then rolled the whole thing up and called it a very nice sammich for lunch. Ermmm, I might could’ve added a bit of maple roasted bacon, as well, ’cause, it was there.
Nice dip. Flexible; I like that in a dip.