Edamame Hummus Dip

Recently I've been doing a lot of daydreaming about what I want to do after culinary school. Maybe because people keep asking me, or because graduation day is approaching way too quickly, but I have so many ideas I don't know what to do with them all. I have an ongoing list of restaurant names on my iPhone that I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes to jot down (those aren't usually the best ones, but at the time they seem beyond brilliant) One of my dreams is to open a super girly spot (not aesthetically though of course, just conceptually) where people can go to actually get a light and healthy meal. Surprisingly these places are really hard to find. I would have less healthy/ heartier items to appeal to the hungrier folk, but a place like this really needs to exist everywhere. We kind of have one at Elon, and it does really well; always filled with girls too of course, but it doesn't have the ambiance I'm looking for.

It's a fact; girls love appetizers. We love dip, and small things that you can pop into your mouth. Just snacks in general really. I think its safe to say that girls snack/graze significantly more than boys, right? Anyway, I want to open a spot that has killer brunch and lunch (we would serve dinner too. can't expect to stay open without dinner) and an amazing terrace or outside seating paired with an extensive app, salad and wine list with small and light desserts. (because every girls WANTS dessert, but only wants a bite, right?)

Thus, I have made it a new goal of mine to try and invent and test out as many different dips as possible. It also helps that I bought a mini food processor over the summer when I was having a bad day and have been loving it ever since. I have made three kinds of hummus so far, and all of them have been really good, but I think this edamame hummus has been my favorite because it's so light.

Edamame Hummus Dip

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups low sodium chickpeas/garbanzo beans 
1 1/2 cups cooked edamame (I used the frozen kind)
1 1/2 cloves of garlic

3 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons lemon juice

6 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon salt 

1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil 

Start by mincing the garlic in the food processor and then add the tahini and blend until smooth (you will need to constantly scrape down the sides of the processor to make sure nothing gets left behind. You want it to be as smooth as possible). 

Then add the lemon juice, some of the water and salt and blend. Add the cooked edamame and blend until fine. 

Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans (I do it right in the can. No need to dirty a bowl or strainer)

Add the beans, rest of the water and olive olive and blend until you can't blend anymore. If you think you are done blending, you aren't. Keep going. and going. Unless you like it less smooth (which, for the edamame hummus, is actually kinda nice. I did it two ways, smooth and less smooth, and I couldn't decide which I liked best). - for a more hummus-y consistency though - blend until you think your machine is going to break from the bleeding. Then take a break and then turn it back on again. You want it to be as smooth as possible. 

Spoon into a dish and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. The dip is 1000x better when it's cold for some reason....

Drizzle good quality olive oil on top and serve with pita bread. I also LOVE this dip with sliced mini sweet peppers (you can find them in a pastil ziplock-like bag by the regular ones usually) I even tried it with carrots...and I was kinda into it. Which is saying something because I generally hate raw carrots. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

I got this recipe off of a food blog I found on food gawker. The instant I saw those pretzel glamor shots I just KNEW I had to make these. Let me tell you, they are amazing. Equally as addicting as muddy buddies slash puppy chow (whatever you like to call it). It's somewhat labor intensive and a bit messy, but it's totally worth it. I actually think it's less messy than making muddy buddies, but be ready to get your hands dirty (and your kitchen)!


I found this recipe on a blog called 17 and Baking


Ingredients 
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar (plus 2ish tablespoons if it isn't thick enough)
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pretzels
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions: 

Basically all you do is blend the ingredients together in a bowl until smooth and thick. Then scoop out slightly larger than teaspoon sized clumps of the peanut butter mixture and roll them into balls. Sandwich the peanut butter between two pretzels and continue until there is no mixture left. Freeze them for at least and hour so they don't melt when you dip them into the hot chocolate. 

Melt the chocolate chips in either the microwave or a double boiler. Dip the peanut butter sandwiches into the chocolate and place them on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil. Place the dipped pretzel bites in the freezer for at least and hour, then transfer then to the fridge. When the chocolate looks pretty hard, you can take then out and keep them at room temperature from then on. I like to transfer from the freezer to the fridge first because it prevents the chocolate from getting sweaty and it makes them harden faster. 

**The only thing I would add is to not leave the finished pretzels in the fridge for more than a day. Even though they are still delicious, the pretzels lose some of their crunch. I recommend storing them in an airtight container like a tin can. (tin is generally better at keeping things fresh than plastic)