{"id":913,"date":"2012-08-15T15:43:24","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T19:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=913"},"modified":"2014-09-03T21:44:10","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T01:44:10","slug":"fresh-herb-dipspread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=913","title":{"rendered":"Fresh Herb Dip\/Spread"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love growing new things in the garden. \u00a0There is a certain romance in the seed descriptions that gets me excited for all the great things I will make to eat. \u00a0I dream of how the plants will be fun and lush in the summer. \u00a0Once the summer gets here and the plants are lush I realize I have no idea what to do with my new bounty.<\/p>\n

I didn’t grow up in a family of chefs. \u00a0I grew up in a family of horse riders and we were too busy at the stable to make many home cooked dinners. \u00a0I have been on kind of a journey of discovery in regards to fresh food as of late. \u00a0I try to only buy things that are fresh and have to be cooked instead of easy to make processed foods. \u00a0If you have to go through the trouble of cooking, you will only bother if you are actually hungry instead of just bored. This is also helping me to ensure I fit into my wedding dress.<\/p>\n

As a part of my food journey, I have been trying to find ways to use the veggies and herbs in my garden as much as possible. \u00a0What I realized was although I had herbs I didn’t really know what to do with them. \u00a0Here is a little “recipe” I have come up with to use up herbs you may have in your garden. \u00a0It has a greek yogurt base which is good for you in a lot of ways but also is also pretty low calorie. \u00a0I use it as a dip for celery but mostly as a spread on sandwiches in place of mayo.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0ingredients\u00a0are basic: Greek yogurt, fresh herbs, salt and garlic. \u00a0No, I don’t know how much. \u00a0That’s why I called it a “recipe” earlier.<\/p>\n

1. Herbs. \u00a0Whatever you have or like. \u00a0Here I have basil, parsley, english thyme and silver thyme which have been given a rinse.<\/p>\n

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2. Chop. \u00a0The idea is to finely mince everything. \u00a0With the thyme, I pull all the leaves off of the woody stem and give them a bit a of a chop. \u00a0For the herbs like basil and parsley, the easiest way I find is to stack the leaves-<\/p>\n

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and then roll them up.<\/p>\n

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Then you take a knife and slice the roll which will give you little rolled up strips. \u00a0The French call this chiffonade. \u00a0Next run your knife through these to make them into smaller pieces.<\/p>\n

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3. The garlic. \u00a0TB & I love garlic and cook with it a lot. \u00a0We usually add more than is necessary. \u00a0Here we are talking raw garlic which will be way stronger than if it was cooked so I suggest you \u00a0start out with a little at a time. \u00a0 My process was to peel the garlic and mince it up finely. \u00a0Next make it into a paste so you don’t end up crunching on whole chunks.<\/p>\n

Take your minced garlic and sprinkle a little salt, I like kosher. Then take your knife at an angle and scrape across the bits while squishing the garlic into the cutting board.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

You will end up with a paste like this that mixes into the spread a little better.<\/p>\n

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4. Mix. \u00a0Start with a big dollop of Greek yogurt and mix in some of your herbs and some of the garlic. \u00a0Start slow. \u00a0The first time I did this I had each of the herbs chopped and sitting on their own so I could add them individually. \u00a0 You can always add more but you can’t take them out.<\/p>\n

A word on mixing the ingredients to taste – right now they mean seem to taste like stuff in yogurt. \u00a0If you leave it in the fridge overnight, the flavors will meld together and become delicious and a bit stronger.<\/p>\n

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5. Eat. \u00a0Here I have used this as a spread on a grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce from my garden. \u00a0Delicious and better for me then smearing it with mayo!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love growing new things in the garden. \u00a0There is a certain romance in the seed descriptions that gets me excited for all the great things I will make to eat. \u00a0I dream of how the plants will be fun…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,20,150],"tags":[169,168,167,170],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/herb-spread-7-1739-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1J4KT-eJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2717,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2717","url_meta":{"origin":913,"position":0},"title":"What we are planting this year – 2016","date":"March 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2016 growing season is here!!! I hope you read all about the Ridiculous Garden Club and the Facebook group that goes with it and have decided to join. \u00a0I hope everyone is asking questions and sharing info to make this year the best growing season yet. I am so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ridiculous-Redhead-seeds-herbs-2016.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2404,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2404","url_meta":{"origin":913,"position":1},"title":"It’s seed planting time again!","date":"February 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The holidays are over. \u00a0It's been snowing every other day for weeks. \u00a0The walls are starting to close in. \u00a0Summer seems so far away. But spring is not so very far away. February is one of my favorite times of the year. \u00a0After the fall clean up and the holidays,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Veggie-Seeds-Ridiculous-Redhead-2015.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":840,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=840","url_meta":{"origin":913,"position":2},"title":"Mid June Garden Update","date":"June 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The weather around here has been crazy. \u00a0It rains for a week straight then its sunny but in the 50s. \u00a0I went from a fleece at night three days ago to the middle of a 100 degree heat wave today. \u00a0While this is irritating to me, the plants seem very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/side-garden-view-6-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":601,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=601","url_meta":{"origin":913,"position":3},"title":"Seed update – One month","date":"March 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So today we are going to check in with our seeds and see how everyone is doing after about a month. \u00a0I say about a month because Saturday would have been a month but I was too busy on a St. Patrick's Day bar crawl to talk to my parsley.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/IMG_0916.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":121,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=121","url_meta":{"origin":913,"position":4},"title":"How much pesto can one person eat?","date":"September 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"So let me start out by saying I am an animal person.\u00a0 At one point during a party I can be found sitting on the floor with the family dog, who is usually better company than most of the party guests.\u00a0 I have in the past killed both ivy and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/pesto-shrimp.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2067,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2067","url_meta":{"origin":913,"position":5},"title":"End of July Garden Update","date":"July 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the best things about our garden is how little upkeep it requires. \u00a0Since we don't use any pesticides or chemical fertilizers I don't need to know anything complicated. \u00a0Add compost. \u00a0Add water. \u00a0And things grow. There are of course lots of little things that can make you life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Ridiculous-Redhead-Carrots.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=913"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2173,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions\/2173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}