Avocado Mayo and Sun-dried Tomatoes Dip

It is the 'Holiday season' and we all love having friends over for long chats. However when those conversations spill well beyond the meal hours and hunger pangs start to gnaw, we feel obliged to offer some fillers or finger foods. While frying a batch of french fries or cheesy nuggets may seem like the easier option, it sounds rather run-of-the-mill and not a very healthy choice too.

Time to switch to some gourmet snacking with real vegetable chips and a nice home made dip. These amazing vegetable chips from Terra are not just visually striking and much more healthier, they taste just out of this world when paired with a gourmet dip. I made this one in less that 5 minutes and let it sit in the fridge for half an hour for the flavors to come together. While the buttery texture of avocado is enough to give a nice texture to this dip, I added a dash of vegan mayo to enhance the creaminess. The tang of sun-dried tomatoes gets an added zing from a generous splash of apple cider vinegar. Garlic gives it the right note of pungency while the touch of heat from the Mexican Pasilla chile is enough to tickle the taste bud. The sweetness of honey rounds it off.

Read on for the recipe -

Preparation Time - 5 mins ( plus 30 mins standby )

Ingredients -

• 1 avocado
• 2-3 sun dried tomatoes
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp vegan mayo
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/3 tsp Sprig Mexican Chile Pasilla 
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp chopped cilantro

Preparation - Halve the avocado and remove the stone. Scoop out the flesh into a small blender cup. Add all the remaining ingredients to the same jar. Buzz into a smooth mixture.

Let it chill for sometime in the refrigerator for the flavors to blend in.

Serve with vegetable chips or even better with crudites.

I totally recommend serving this dip with some Blue Terra Chips as it serves as the perfect foil to the starchy crispness of these exotic blue potatoes. 

Pumpkin, Black Rice and Sun Dried Tomatoes Salad ( Christmas Special Colab )

These days there is a slight nip in the air, a certain spring in my steps, a smile on my lips and a rather familiar melody keeps playing in my head at all times of the day. And all this is making me feel more generous than ever. Little wonder that they also call Christmas as the 'season of giving'. No prizes for guessing that it is none other than 'Jingle bells' that's been on my mind all this time.

And I suspect that everyone who has been brought up in the sleepy little town of Rourkela also feels the same way about this festival. Giving the thriving numbers of the Christian community in our place, most of us were blessed to have a very special christian friend. For me, Christmas was all about hogging on cakes and more desserts at my special friend's house. And walking through the rows of shops selling all those glitzy stars and baubles! Of course living near a church and studying in a convent meant that those carols too had become an integral part of those days. No wonder Christmas makes me feel so nostalgic !

Coming back to the food, while it is the cakes, breads and pot-roasts which occupy center-stage during the Christmas festivities, the sides are equally important in my opinion as they help in balancing out the entire meal. And with the sugary stuff tipping the calorific scales, a filling salad is all I can ask for. Keeping it vegan is a personal choice though. While I prefer rice or pasta, feel free to use ricotta or feta cheese as a substitute (though I would rather not call it so as the former is carbs while the latter is all protein). And with this being a collaboration post, there are more such savory recipe ideas to help you out with a Christmas lunch/brunch/dinner.

Read on for my rather simple and yet wholesome recipe that boasts of a melange of flavors ( imagine the earthy flavor of spinach, the nuttiness of the black rice, the sweetness of the caramelized pumpkin and the tartness of the sun-dried tomatoes ) that have just been brought together in a manner that invokes sheer delight. And I bet you would calling for the seconds instead of reaching out for that rather sinful cheesecake -

Preparation Time - 40 mins

Ingredients - 

• 1 cup cubed pumpkin
• 1/3 cups black rice
• 1/2 cup spinach (blanched)
• 7-8 sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 tsp EVOO
• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• freshly ground pepper
• salt to taste

Preparation - Toss the pumpkin cubes with some of the balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Sprinkle salt and put in the oven. Roast at 180 C till it shows signs of browning / caramelization. 

Cook the black rice separately till it is cooked yet slightly firm to touch.

Mix the olive oil, honey, orange juice and remaining vinegar in a bowl.

Take the black rice, roasted pumpkin, blanched spinach, chopped sundried tomatoes in a bowl. Sprinkle the dressing all over it. Toss together.

Season with salt and ground pepper.

Serve warm. Or slightly chilled ( letting it sit in the fridge also allows the flavors to come together which makes it taste better ).

And there is more to be discovered as my amazing blogger friends share some of their delectable Christmas recipe !! Scroll down for more drool-worthy discoveries - 

Parinaaz's Mushrooms in Pepper Sauce with Herbed Rice & Roasted Potatoes

and

Saswati's Holiday salad with a honey apple cider vinaigrette

Happy gormandizing !!