Creamy spinach, feta & roasted garlic dip
This is a real cracker of a recipe (cringeworthy pun intended). Quick to whip up, uses a whole bag of spinach and sing with rich roasted garlic flavour – and a little cream cheese and feta for good measure!
Ingredients
2 whole bulbs NZ garlic
300g baby spinach (or spinach leaves, stalks removed)
1 cup cream cheese
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp finely chopped shallot
Zest of 1 lemon
½ cup pine nuts
100g feta, crumbled
Method
Preheat the oven to 180c. Slice the very top off the garlic bulbs to expose the cloves inside. Place in a roasting dish drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven for 35 minutes. Add the pine nuts to the tray and cook another 4 minutes or until the nuts are golden brown (keep an eye on them so they don’t burn). Remove and cool.
Bring a saucepan with a 1cm of water to a boil. Add the spinach, cover and cook for a couple of minutes, swishing the pot a couple of times to help wilt the spinach. Drain in a colander then immediately plunge into a bowl of iced water to cool it down quickly. Squeeze out as much excess moisture as you can.
Add cream cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, shallot, lemon zest to a food processor along with the roasted garlic squeezed out of the skins. Process until smooth. Add the spinach, pine nuts and feta and process so it’s still slightly chunky. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and extra lemon juice if you like. Refrigerate until needed.
