Delicious Dairy-Free Spinach Artichoke Dip - Part 2

Have you been on the edge of your seat, just waiting to hear how my dip experiment turned out?  Oh, I'm pretty sure you've had better things to do, but here's where the post gets really exciting - I share the recipe!  Read Part I here, in case you missed it.
 

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So I stick the nuts and milk in my trusty food processor, then call G and Gv in from the backyard, where they’d gone to escape all the crazy nut-grinding noise.  I add the other ingredients into the bowl and then attack the artichokes.

Oh. My.

Three hours later (no joke), I have finally finished taking apart those darned things.  I will not recount the process, but let me just say it included lots of “Not until I finish this stupid dip!” and “Just let me get this done cause I’m starving!” and “This better be the best dang dip that ever existed!” comments during the whole thing.

I jam the stupid artichoke pieces into the food processor and guess what?  It doesn’t process everything.  I should have thought about the single tiiiiiny little blade waaaay down there at the bottom of the bowl and asked myself how it could possibly chop all the spinach and stupid artichoke pieces I jammed in up to the rim of the lid, but nope, that never even crossed my mind.

The recipe I'd based this off of had pulsed the nuts in a blender and I'd thought that was a crazy idea, since I always make my nut butters and other nut-grinding thingies in my trusty food processor,so it got me all myopic that way.  I probably would have used our super-cool new Ninja,if I’d been using my brain, since it has the three levels of blades, but at least my brain had finally started to work, despite the stupid artichoke-peeling coma I was in.

So I scrape out all the junk from the blender and get it all into the Ninja and it took about two seconds to blend and I decided that I really needed to try to keep an open mind about this stupid dip because if I had used canned or jarred artichokes and the Ninja from the start, this would be probably one of the quickest, easiest dips on the planet.

Even though this dip had no reason to be baked (no cheese to melt), I decided I’d probably still prefer it warm, so I stuck it in the toaster oven for about ten minutes.

We were both starving, and totally over this dip by the time we sat down to eat it.  We each took a bite and remarked that it was okay, but maybe needed some Crystal (hot sauce) or something else to jazz it up a bit.  Luckily, laziness won out (or being just plain worn out, which I was after getting the meat out of those stupid artichokes) and we just kept eating the dip as it was and we started to realize that although the flavor was more subtle that we’re used to, it was really, really good.

So good, in fact, that it was proclaimed the best dip ever.

So here’s the recipe, and although I know we’ll make it like this in the future, I can also see playing around with it quite a bit.  I’d probably add more garlic (you can never have too much garlic!) and some cayenne pepper to jazz it up for something different, but really, it’s just so very good like this:

What You Need

¾ c. almonds

¾ c. almond milk

3 Tbsp. lemon juice

3-4 cloves garlic

¾ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground mustard

¼ tsp. pepper

2 c. fresh spinach leaves (pack or don’t pack, depending on how spinachy you want it)

2 c. artichokes (canned or jarred – please don’t put yourself through that crazy peeling experience!)

What You Do

1.  Blend the nuts and milk in something better than a blender.  I highly recommend a Ninja.   

2.  Add the rest of the ingredients and blend to whatever consistency you’d like.  I did it until it was all smooth. 

3.  Transfer to an oven-proof dish and bake about ten minutes at 375 degrees, or until warmed through.  We ate ours with our healthy-ish tortilla chips, but that’s only because I was too lazy/worn out from artichoke peeling to slice up some bread.

Are you hankering for a new dip to try?  One that's really tasty, but healthy, and doesn't rely on cheese to make it delicious?  Then give this recipe a go!  I'd love to hear about it if you do!
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