spinach-avocado dip.

In an effort to clean up some of the piles of papers I have in my house, I recently went through an issue (yes, only one so far) of Martha Stewart Living and ripped out all of the things that I wanted to try: recipes, craft projects, inspiration, etc.

One of those recipes was this one for Spinach-Avocado Dip, in the "Healthy Living fit to eat" section. It uses avocado and nonfat Greek yogurt to make it creamy instead of mayonnaise and/or sour cream. The first time I made it I followed the recipe pretty closely, but a friend of mine is on a diet where he doesn't eat dairy, so I pulled out a quarter of the dip before adding the yogurt (and only added 6oz of yogurt). We taste-tested both (with/without yogurt), and they're both pretty good, but I think I actually like the no-yogurt version better, so that's what you see in the picture above. You should try both though -- it's easy enough to make twice! And definitely delicious enough, too.

Here's my version of the recipe with some tips I learned.

Ingredients
~1 tbls olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots (from 2 large shallots)
1 tbls minced garlic (from 3 cloves)
8-10 oz spinach
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 medium ripe avocados, chilled
1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
12 oz sugar snap peas
9 small slices pumpernickel bread, cut into triangles (or less healthy, tortilla chips)

Instructions
1) Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook shallots and garlic, stirring often, until tender, about 4 minutes. Add spinach and about 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, until the spinach is wilted, about 4 minutes. Uncover, cook until liquid evaporates. (Note: mine never really had much liquid -- maybe a little. I just cooked it for about another 4-5 minutes after uncovering, stirring a little to make sure everything was soft.)
2) Transfer mixture to a plate and place in fridge until cooled, about 25 minutes.
3) While shallot/spinach mixture is cooling, purée avocados, yogurt, lemon juice, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a food processor (or if you're like me and don't own one, use whatever you have to mash the avocado -- I used a pastry blender in a metal mixing bowl -- and then fold in the rest of the ingredients with a spatula) until smooth. Season with pepper.
4) Remove shallot/spinach mixture from the fridge and transfer to a cutting board. Finely chop the mixture, and then stir into the avocado purée. Serve with snap peas and bread/tortilla chips.

Notes
I forgot to buy pumpernickel bread the first time I made it and the party I went to had a big bowl of tortilla chips, which this tasted fantastic on (it is basically just mashed avocado with some other veggies in it). The sugar snap peas tasted better with the no-yogurt version, I think because the yogurt plus the lemon juice made it a little too tangy for the peas. The has-yogurt version tasted REALLY good with the tortilla chips though, probably because of the extra salt. If you try it with the pumpernickel, let me know how it goes -- I'd be curious whether the flavor of the bread compliments the tanginess of the yogurt.