Strategic Veggie Tray

I love going though my fridge and cabinets on a Saturdays, dreaming up recipes to take to a whatever party is happening that night. Yesterday, it was our pal Kate’s b-day! She loves veggies, it was so hot I didn’t feel like cooking  and as you may have seen in some previous posts I have tons of veggies to use, so I decided use some strategy and bring a veggie tray. 

The Tray: Cucumbers, celery, carrots, green beans, snow peas and another cucumber. I tried to fill this swanky tray with Kate’s favorites so I did pick up a few non-CSA items (celery + carrots).

I decided I needed some kind of dip to go with this so I googled “white bean dip” and a Giada De Laurentis recipe was the first thing that Google popped up. I had all of the ingredients, so I was sold. I modified the original recipe a bit.

White Bean Dip: The Recipe modified from this recipe:

• 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cloves garlic
• juice of one whole fresh lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup (loosely packed) fresh Italian parsley leaves
• Salt/Pepper to taste

Easiest Directions Ever:

1. Put the garlic and parsley in the food processor until all chopped up.

2. Add beans, lemon juice and pulse until the mixture is combined.

3. Stream in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil until it becomes a little fluffier than before. Taste the delicious mix, add some salt + pepper to taste, pulse again and transfer to a fancy bowl.

It is really delicious. And maybe what makes it even more delicious is that I photographed it on Oprah tissue paper.

It was a hit at the party, and tasted amazing with some multi-grain pita chips our pal Lezgan brought over. And, I realized while writing this that it was all accidently vegan.