Animal Dips (Recipe by Annabel Karmel)
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Tasty dips with raw vegetables, sesame sticks, crackers, crisps or parboiled vegetables make a wonderful snack for children of all ages. It’s simple to decorate the dips to make them look like animal faces – the colour of the dip will get you inspiration: avocado for a frog, peanut for a lion, cream cheese and tomato for a pig. A few minutes spent on presentation will make all the difference! Try your child with some of the following for dipping: scrubbed carrot sticks, strips of red, yellow or green pepper, raw cauliflower florets, cucumber sticks, slices of avocado, sticks of celery, cheery tomatoes or red cabbage.
Try some of the dip recipes below:
Peanut Lion Dip
This works with fruit as well as vegetables.
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons Greek Yoghurt
- 3 tablespoons cream cheese
- 3 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- Matchstick crisps, seasame sticks, cooked spaghetti, strips or yellow pepper or celery
- Carrot sticks
- 1 slice of mushroom
- 2 olives or 2 pieces of shaped cheese
- 2 blueberries
- Red pepper or tomato
Simply mix the yoghurt, cream cheese, peanut butter and syrup together and then decorate: make a mane using the matchstick crisps or one or a combination of the alternatives; whiskers with the carrot sticks; a nose with the mushroom slice, and form eyes with the olives or cheese (using the blueberries for the centre). Finally place a strip of red pepper or tomato to make a mouth. Makes 250ml.
Avocado Frog Dip:
You can use two slices of cucumber with slices of egg and olive on top for the eyes and strips of chives for the mouth.
Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon finely chopped red pepper
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 tablespoon snipped chives
2 tablespoons cream cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and scoop out the flesh. Mash or blend all the ingredients together, seasoning lightly.