Skordalia anyone?

It's hard to find good recipes for vegetarians and carnivores/omnivores to enjoy. This is the problem that a student that I tutor has. For many years, she has had to work with being a vegetarian in a meat eating household. As long as I have known her and her family, they would always struggle with what to have for dinner and something that everyone would like to eat.

To answer that issue, I felt that I would show her how to cook, as she will also be leaving to college at the end of this school year. So, we did this recipe for a class project and then we decided to do this again today. Her mom and brother loved it and well I thought why not put this on the blog.

Ingredients:

1 lemon
4 small russet potatoes
1 cup blanched almond slivers
1/2 cup water
2 tsp white vinegar
1 lemon
olive oil
1/2 cup greek yogurt
Kosher salt
2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp tarragon
1 tsp thyme

First, we start with washing the potatoes with the skin on. After they have been cleansed well enough, place the potatoes whole into a pot full of water bring to a boil over high heat. Let these continue to cook for about 30 to 40 minutes until tender. Once they are ready, drain the potatoes and let cool slightly.

While the potatoes are cooking, get a food processor. In the food processor, combine the almonds and oil until it turns into a paste. Notice that if you have to add the oil a little at a time that is okay. It should eventually look like an almond paste.

 After you have worked with the almond paste, place all the spices into the food processor. Pulse a couple of times in order for it to mix appropriately. Mix in the salt, vinegar and water as well into the almond mixture. Now this is actually supposed to have ALOT more garlic than usual. I don't like to put too much of one spice as it would overpower the whole mixture. For this recipe, I opted to only use garlic powder as opposed to fresh garlic.

 

Rub the peel off of the potatoes. Mash them until they are smooth. You could use a ricer or a food mill to achieve that consistency. Once you have mashed them add this to the almond mixture along with the greek yogurt. 

Continue to use the food processor making sure that it is mixed well. It will look look like a thick paste, but it is a really good, thick dip.

As stated earlier, I plan to have some with pita chips. You can use this also as a dip with your lamb, beef or pork chops. Tomorrow, I think I will be using it with some grilled vegetable kabobs and pork chops. Yummy!