Neimanmarcusdip

Packed to travel

Found this dip on the internet when I was looking for something about marinating feta – it was just an “you may also like . . . ” on the side of the page I was looking at. I was intrigued, firstly by the limited number of ingredients, the simplicity of flavours and lastly by the comments. I had all of the ingredients in the pantry and needed something to take to the street party that afternoon so I was hooked.

The recipe that I started with used “bacon bits” and bottled mayonaisse so this is my home-made interpretation.

(the quantities are not that important)

Ingredients

There are very few ingredients in this so make sure they can each hold their own. This makes quite a lot, extras can be used on toast or steamed potatoes. Get creative.

  • 5 – 6 spring onions – sliced about 5mm thick
  • 250 g cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise – use good whole egg mayonnaise or see home-made mayonnaise recipe
  • 120g Bacon Bits – This must be quite tasty, if home-made buy 2 x 300g bags of bacon pieces and fry until crisp, let cool. Store leftovers by spreading on baking paper in the freezer and when frozen place in bag or buy Hormel brand Real Crumbled Bacon in a bag from Costco. One bag lasts for about 4 serves.
  • 1/2 cup slivered almonds (a bag)

Method

  1. Mix the everything together and chill for a couple hours, place in a serving bowl and top with more slivered almonds – may be a good idea to toast these ones to add a bit of colour. I didn’t get to do that because the taste testers had almost finished the bowl of dip before it even got into the fridge to start chilling. Quite successful, quick and mainly, different.
  2. Serve with Jatz biscuits or corn chips.

Follow-up

I have made this many times now – I repeat quantities are not important and no seasoning is necessary.

Next time I am going to try using a ricotta and yoghurt mix – blended to make it smooth, with a bit of garlic, lemon juice and mustard to recreate the main flavours of the aeoli that I use. Should be a fair bit healthier. Also could try some steamed, squeezed out, chopped spinach to give a bit more nutrition. Will add to this post when I have tried these.