the earthfood experiment: Artichoke Spinach Spread

One last creamy recipe to get you through the weekend, and possibly a Super Bowl Party.

If you're into that kind of thing.

Despite my best efforts, I personally am not a lover of football. I recently wrote a letter to football bringing to light my issues with it, and imploring it to make some changes so that I may end my days of being an outcast and possibly have a fighting chance of enjoying the sport adored by so many. You can read it here.

This spread is super simple. It's more artichoke than spinach... so hopefully you adore the choke hearts like I do. I could eat'm plain.

In my past dairy/meat eating life (I realize it's only been a month, but it truly feels like another lifetime ago already) whenever I came across a big cheesy bowl of spinach and artichoke dip I always found myself digging around, searching for the rebel choke hearts that escaped being smooshed with the rest of the dip. Any doofus can see that they're the best part.

So, I figured in my dairly-less remake of this common party food I'd just cut to the chase and focus on the good stuff.

~ Roast on entire head of garlic. To learn how to do this, go here.

~ Drain jar of marinated artichoke hearts, reserving the oil.

~ Saute 1/4 diced onion in drizzle of reserved oil with S&P until translucent. Add 1 Cup finely cut fresh spinach leaves and saute til wilted.

~ Blend 1/2 can of hearts until creamy. (I used my magic bullet)

~ to creamed artichokes add: remainder of chokes, sauteed onion & spinach, roasted garlic, 1/4 C. sour cream, 1/2 tsp. nutritional yeast, red pepper flakes to taste.

~S&P to taste.

~ put in oven proof bowl. Top with a few breadcrumbs if you like, and bake in a 350 degree oven until warm.

~ I served my spread on some Ezekiel Bread that I cut the crusts off, brushed with reserved artichoke oil, and baked for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. (I blended up the crusts from the bread, and used as the coating for my baked eggplant with spicy marinara that I served with this.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that wraps up our week of creamy things. We made some really great stuff (*euphoric face*) and some not so great stuff (*cry baby face*). Ya win some, ya lose some. Next week... Greens!

Really great stuff:

~ Creamy Coconut Quinoa with Berry Compote

~ Creamy Roasted Potato Soup with Fennel

~ The Mother of all Alfredos

~ Mushroom Risotto

Not so great stuff:

~Pad Thai - This version was WAY too much work and sticky sticky, but I had a great dinner party with friends , and pretty photos to prove it. Plus we made some super bomb lettuce wraps. I just said Bomb. I'm totally talking like Sweets now.

~Cheese-less Mac N Cheese. Don't do it. But it's kind of funny to see us do it.

Have a beautiful weekend! Here's the view outside my living room window this morning.