This is low-fat, but doesn’t taste it. Great served with carrot & celery sticks, sweet pepper strips, blanched whole green beans.

Roasted Pepper Dip

2 red or yellow bell peppers

2-3 jalapenos (red, if possible)

1 small onion, quartered

3-4 cloves garlic (place on small piece of foil, drizzle with a little olive oil and wrap)

8 ounce package light cream cheese (don’t use fat-free)

3 tablespoons fresh cilantro (or to taste)

coarse salt

fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 425°. Roast peppers, onion, and wrapped garlic on parchment-lined baking sheet for approximately 20 minutes or until peppers are blistered.

Place peppers in a small paper bag, close and let stand 15 minutes to loosen skins. Peel peppers; remove seeds. Puree peppers, onion, garlic, cilantro, and cream cheese in food processor. Season with coarse salt & fresh ground pepper to taste.

We dip veggies in guacamole all the time. Bell pepper strips are great for this because they have a "hook" for catching the lumps. :) We eat hummus with veggies too.

What makes a good dip for veggies is anything that has enough body (often fat, but there are other ways) to stick, and a strong flavor. Thinner dips are good with chips because too much is overwhelming and they stick to the broad surface. With a carrot you get a little ball, so it needs to stick. Veggies have more flavor than chips, too, so strong flavors like onion, garlic, hot peppers, roasted veg, salt, strong cheese and pungent herbs come through a lot better than a simple yoghurt dip.

Try roasting a few mixed veg and pureeing them with some cream cheese. Thin with a little milk and/or a drop of wine. Just a drop, though, or it'll taste boozy.

You can actually puree almost anything to make a dip. How about a little leftover duck breast, sauce and all? How about herb custard?

I also eat hummus with vegetables, mostly with celery sticks or red pepper strips. Although my mother eats spinach dip with rye bread or toast, both Amanda and I will use it as vegetable dip, but you have to cut the spinach up finely enough that it doesn't "string" up out of the bowl when you try to dip it.

I'm also a fan of peanut butter flavored dips and vegetables, like the Thai flavored ones, dunk in celery and it reminds me of ants on a log, LOL.

Annie

A nice simple one is a tub of thick creme fraiche. Add, to taste, garlic, creamed horseradish, (quite a lot!) lemon juice and seasoning.

I like hummus with veggies, but I also like a lot of lemon in my hummus.
I think that sour, acedic makes a good dip for fresh veggies.
A quick and easy one I make is about 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1 tsp of curry powder...or less, to taste and fresh lime juice....about 2 teaspoonsfull
Another is 1/2 cup mayo, 2 tablespoons bottled chili sauce and 1/2 tsp of worchestershire.
And another is1 /2 cup mayo and 2 tablespoons of Major Greys chutney. Either chop up any pieces in the chutney or use the food processor.

If you like peanut butter, a spicy sweet peanut dip is awesome w/ carrot sticks, etc...

• 1/2 cup smooth natural peanut butter
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce

• 1 or 2 tablespoons honey - or to taste
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• optional (& I always add): pinch or 2 of ground cumin & grated orange peel
• Sometimes I add orange juice as well.

1. Whisk the peanut butter, lime juice, garlic, hot sauce, honey & soy sauce together in a large mixing bowl until smooth, add hot water if necessary to thin to a dipping consistency.
2. edited to add, I don't know why it formatted like this - gahhh!

I recently served beet hummus and tzatziki on a veggie plate as dips for the veggies. They complemented each other very well, looked gorgeous, too. I bought both at Trader Joe's because of time constraints, but there are great recipes available for both.

Thanks all very much - both for the recipes, ideas, and general "how to." I will save them all. Sometimes I just get stuck - my son has food allergies, so when he was home, I didn't serve anything with nuts, for example, incl. peanuts and beans (being in the legume family) - so we didn't have hummus and stuff like that. He is in college now, but after so many years of avoiding certain things, I just don't think of them, and still have to be careful when he is home.

This is a nice light dip.

Curry Vegetable Dip

1 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp horseradish
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp curry powder
dash lemon juice
2 tbsp sour cream.

Yogurt, or yogurt blended with cottage cheese can also be an option, and chopped fresh herbs stirred in.