Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Gluten Free Quinoa Crackers And Curried Carrot Lentil Dip


The girls at my office decided to make tomorrow "Dip Day". 
I like where I work.
We have A LOT of food days.
Anyway, I decided to try and be a bit healthier. We're going to be having creamy spinach dip, chips and dip, chili and cheese dip, etc...etc.... I figured I may as well go the healthy route at least once in my life. 
I looked up a few recipes online to get an idea of how I could make the dip I wanted but couldn't find a recipe with the ingredients I wanted to use. I mixed and matched a few recipes together to come up with this one. Same thing with the crackers. 
They could be called "a little of this and a little of that" crackers. I have to be honest and say that they aren't my favorite crackers in the world...I found them a little bland...but they work pretty good as dip transport vessels.  Plus, they are gluten free (if that is a concern for you). 
The dip is vegan. The crackers are almost vegan...they do have a spoonful of honey in them. I'm sure you could sub maple syrup or something similar to make it completely vegan. 


Curried Carrot Lentil Dip

Ingredients
2 medium carrots, peeled
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
sprinkle of black pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 can (540 ml) lentils, rinsed & drained

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9 X 9 baking dish with cooking spray. 
Chop the carrot into 1/2 inch chunks. Place in baking dish.
Coarsely chop the onion. Place in baking dish.
Sprinkle with the minced garlic and spices. Drizzle with the oil. Stir together in the pan. 
Cover dish with tinfoil. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Remove tinfoil and bake another 10 - 15 minutes, until veggies are soft.


Remove from oven and let cool for 15 - 20 minutes. When no longer steaming hot, place veggies into a food processor with the rinsed & drained lentils. 
Process until smooth. (You can decide how smooth you want it to be. Process it less if you like chunky dip.)
Serve dip warm or at room temp. 


Gluten Free Quinoa Crackers

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa flour
1/4 cup ground flax
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp honey
7 Tbsp cold water
seasoning salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
In a food processor, combine the quinoa flour, flax, parsley, garlic powder, salt, and pumpkin seeds. Process until smooth.
Move dry ingredients to a bowl.
In a small bowl, stir together the oil, honey, and 2 Tbsp of water. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and, with a plastic/silicone spatula, combine the ingredients.
Add remaining water, 1 Tbsp at a time, until you have a thick dough.


Place the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper and roll to about 1/8 of an inch thickness. Cut out the shape of the crackers you would like (using a cookie cutter or simply a knife). Place on prepared cookie sheet. They can be very close together on the sheet as they don't spread. Sprinkle with the seasoning salt. (If you are wondering why some of the crackers are white in the photo below - it is extra quinoa flour that I used to roll them out.)


Bake at 350 for 15 or so minutes, they will be going a golden brown.
When done, remove to a wire rack and let cool.


It might not be the prettiest dip out there but it is really, really tasty. Plus, the house smells AMAZING while the carrots and onions and garlic are roasting with the spices. 
The crackers need a little somethin' somethin' to up their taste but, with the dip, they are really good. On their own, I'm not so crazy about them. If you give them a try, please let us know what you think or if you made any changes. 

Be sure to visit Adorned From Above and My Sweet Mission and Dizzy Busy & Hungry and Carole's Chatter for some fantastic links!!

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