Spinach and Artichoke Dip plus Happy Mother’s Day

Dan and I spent the day spring cleaning. Together we purged 7 kitchen bags of clothes to go to Goodwill. It felt great to get rid of things that are too big (woo hoo), or that I have not looked at in years, let alone worn. That is what happens when your overflow closet is one floor above your bedroom. Things tend to get forgotten when they are out of sight. But we are both happy to have the excess stuff packed up and ready for donation.

Our food today has been rather uninspiring, at least to me. For lunch there was yet another collard wrap this time with hummus, caponata and leftover quinoa. It was quite tasty. If you want to see a hot version of a quinoa collard wrap check out Aimee’s blog. Her filling sounds absolutely delicious.

As I have mentioned before Dan and I always discuss dinner, at least we do on the weekends. As we were batting options back and forth I realized I had never made a vegan spinach and artichoke dip. This oversight had to be corrected immediately. Coming of age in the 80’s spinach and artichoke dip has always been one of my favorites. The beauty of this dip is that in can be used multiple ways, which I will discuss later. Here is what I made tonight:

Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Serves 8 as an appetizer

Ingredients:

½ cup dry oats, ground into flour
½ cup raw cashews (soaked for a couple of hours and drained unless you are using a high speed blender)
1 ½ cups water, for the initial processing
1 ½ cup of water, for adjusting the base consistency
¼ teaspoon garlic powder (or 3 cloves peeled garlic)
½ teaspoon dry mustard (Coleman’s in the yellow can)
4 tablespoons nutritional yeast
14 ounce can brined artichokes, finely chopped
8 ounces fresh baby spinach, chopped somewhat finely
Fresh ground nutmeg to taste (I probably used ¼ teaspoon)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Combine the oats, cashews and 1 ½ cup of water in your blender and process until smooth. If you are using the fresh garlic add it to the blender before processing.

Pour the cashew mixture into a saucepan, add the seasonings (garlic powder, nutritional yeast, and dry mustard) and heat on medium. As the mixture begins to thicken add water a little at time until you get the consistency you want. I needed an additional 1 ½ cups of water which I poured into the empty blender container to clean it before putting it into the saucepan.

When you like the consistency add the artichokes and spinach and heat until they are warm. Add salt and pepper to your taste.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 87.72
Calories From Fat (35%) - 30.27

Total Fat - 2.9g
Saturated Fat - 0.52g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 231.09mg
Potassium - 221.19mg
Total Carbohydrates - 9.24g
Fiber - 1.82g
Sugar - 0.54g
Protein - 3.25g

Comments:

This is destined to become another family favorite. This dip is rich and creamy and tastes very similar to the fat filled dairy original. I am not saying it has the fatty mouth feel of the original because it doesn’t. But it is almost buttery tasting from the nutritional yeast. The raw cashews and oat flour give the dip a nice thick and creamy texture. We really enjoyed this tonight. I hope you give it a try.

This can be served traditionally as a dip.

You can use it as a sauce to top pasta or quinoa.

Each serving of this dip contains approximately 2,650IU of vitamin A, 140mcg of vitamin K, 65mg of phosphorus, and 45mg of magnesium. I thought the nutrition was quite good for a sauce.

Unrelated Note:

Today is one of those days when I have always felt a little left out since I am not a human mother. My felines are my little babies who just happen to wear fur coats and walk on four feet. Anyone who has pets knows that they are an integral part of the family. At our house I am the cat mommy, just ask the cats.  ;-)  My husband always “takes” the felines shopping for Mother’s Day and this year was no exception. My family knows what I love. This year my babies (helped by my hubby) bought me a beautiful ring for Mother’s Day. They did a wonderful job shopping didn’t they?

I hope you are all having a wonderful Mother’s Day and that your human and animal children rose to the occasion and did something nice for you today. I will talk to all again tomorrow. With a little luck we will have a good start to the week. Mondays are always my least favorite day of the week.