Lima Bean Dip

Last weekend, some friends brought dinner over to my house and I was left with a lot of leftovers, including about 1 1/2 cups of southern style lima beans. Since dear daughter bemoaned the fact that we have absolutely NO dip left in the house last night, I decided to make a dip from the limas. Limas are really good for dips because they are quite mealy and soft, and because they firm when they are cooled. This is what I did this morning:

Lima Bean Dip

1 1/2 C cooked lima beans (or one can)
approx 1 Tbs minced onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tsp Tony Chacheres (or any spicy seasoning salt of your choice)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

In the food processor, I first finely minced a 1/2 inch slice of a very small onion which yielded about 1 Tbs of minced onion. Add the limas, garlic, seasoning salt, cumin and lemon juice to the bowl and process till smooth. Taste for seasonings and adjust salt and pepper. With processor running, drizzle olive oil through the feeder until you reach the consistency you want. I used about 1 1/2 Tbs.

This tastes really delicious. This afternoon, after the flavors meld, I'll taste it again and post any changes I may make.

Clean Out the Fridge Soup Redux

Once again I looked in the fridge and saw too many leftovers, just little dribs of this and that. Yes, it is time to make soup! Yesterday I put all the vegetable trimmings that I've been saving in the freezer in the crock pot, about a quart's worth, covered them with water, added some garlic, basil, red pepper flakes and salt, and let 'er rip all day on low. The house smelled heavenly and the resulting stock was very tasty. The trimmings included parsley stems, lots of carrot peelings, potato peelings, onion ends and skins, bits of celery, ends of green beans, and some cilantro stems.

I used about 3 cups of the vegetable broth, about a half cup of some jarred spaghetti sauce and about a cup of the lentil-broccoli salad from a few days ago. Those all went into the pot, as well as a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes, and about four minced garlic cloves. It didn't seem to have enough "heft" so I looked in that box of canned goods I found last week and pulled out a can of Veg-All and put that in. I didn't even know that they still made that stuff! It tasted ok, but it needed something else, so I added some Soul Seasoning (a brand of seasoned salt), some basil, a few pinches of red pepper flakes and a splash of white wine. Yummy. Then I added in about a cup of small elbows and let them cook.

While the soup was cooking, I split two football shaped multigrain rolls, spread them with vegan margerine, sprinkled garlic powder, basil, and a bit of Soul Seasoning, and then toasted them in the toaster oven. The garlic toast was done at the same time as the soup. I had about a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil left in the bottle, so I drizzled it on the bread.

What a yummy meal! We have nothing for dessert, unfortunately, but I guess we don't really NEED it..... Maybe I'll make some more chocolate tofu pudding later on tonight.

Please leave a comment - I'd love to know what your results are when you try clean out the fridge soup.