Recipe: Fiery yogurt dip

Saturdays are for recovering from the excesses of Friday. And for testing your 'healthy resolve' by watching the latest season of Masterchef all day while snacking on carrots and olives! So, in keeping with the 'challenge accepted' mood, here's a recipe for a yummilicious dip worthy of accompanying mouth-watering Masterchef episodes. In the words of Matt Preston, this spicy dip left my 'mouth awash'. ;)

Ingredients -

• Dahi/ yogurt
• Garlic slivers
• Finely sliced red chillies
• Salt
• Coarsely ground pepper 
• Dash of mustard
• Olives 
• Onion powder (or finely chopped slices of onion)
• Feta cheese (purely optional)

Mix dahi well till fluffy and smooth

Add salt, most of the garlic, mustard sauce, half of the red chillies and feta. Mix well. 

Top with remaining sliced red chillies, remaining garlic pepper and olive

Serve with carrots, olives on the side, cucumbers sticks, celery stalks, nachos, whatever you please!

If you try it, do let me know!

Recipe: Herb Dip!

I decided to experiment and see where my culinary explorations will take me and started with the safest option possible - dip.

Now, a dip is as good a place as any to start because 1) it is a side and there are other things to balance it out if something goes wrong and 2) it's a BIG hit if everything goes right! 

Since I was focussing heavily on the main course and dessert that night, I thought I'd put together a simple dip with ingredients available on the kitchen slab. We are big fans of garlic and lemon which is a definitely a plus when it comes to curd based dips, so I used garlic powder with a liberal hand. The garlic and lemon give it a sharp tangy kick and the peanuts give texture and add crunch.

Here goes my recipe for the herby dip!

Ingredients:

Curd, even better if you use hung curd

Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

1 tbs lemon juice

Garlic powder

Chilli flakes

Dried oregano

Dried basil

Dried parsley

1 tsp olive oil

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Roasted and crushed peanuts (those allergic to peanuts can substitute with almonds)

To prepare:

Combine the curd and peanuts with the herbs and garlic powder in a bowl.

Add salt and pepper. Mix well.

Add lemon juice and olive oil and mix.

Garnish with parmesan - be careful with the quantity as a lot of people don't enjoy the sharp taste of this variety of cheese much.

Serve chilled and enjoy!

This is a perfect accompaniment for lavash, cheese sticks (as above), soya sticks, khakra, cream cracker biscuit etc.

Do tell me if you liked it - would love to hear from you, get feedback and learn from you! :)