Hi there folks. It seems like absolutely ages since I last made a post. Things sure seem to get away from me these days, but I figured I have a bit of time now, and I had a few recipes ready to roll (four in fact), so why not write up a post? I’ll be writing about my artichoke and coriander dip further down, but I’ll tell you first that today’s going to be a fun day! My wife is out all day… it’s me and my son – against the world. Well, we’re actually going to meet up with my wife’s aunt and cousin (so, my son’s, er, great aunt (?) and… “great cousin” (??)). We’ll go out to a giant indoor playground and then round off the afternoon with cake.
Speaking of my son, and following on from my previous post I thought you’d all like to see some proof of just how great Vegemite is. After all – if my son likes it, it has to be awesome, right?
I recently had a dip crisis. “So long had it been”, I thought, “since I’d eaten dips”; and not just one or two dips. No, I wanted five. Over the next three posts I’ll share some of them here. You’ll have to excuse the boring photos. I basically used the same backdrop and swapped out the different bowls for each photo. One of the dips, while great, I didn’t get around to photographing because, well, it just didn’t “look” good. Hopefully I can share it in the future when I’ve figured out how to pretty it up a bit, and lastly the fifth and final dip was an unmitigated disaster.
On another blog I follow I’d recently read about a hummus with thai green curry flavour and coconut milk added in. It wasn’t something they’d made – rather something they’d received as a gift from a company specialising in hummus. I thought it sounded fantastic so set to work trying to reproduce something similar. I have just one word for what I ended up with: “Bleurgh”. Bad, bad, bad. I hope the commercial version was more successful, because my attempt sure wasn’t worth much.
Artichoke and Coriander Dip
Anyway, on to today’s recipe of artichoke and coriander dip. Who could have thought that coriander would pair so perfectly with artichoke? Not me, that’s for sure. I knew I wanted to make something artichoke-based, and I had a couple of spring onions in the refrigerator so those went in too. I would normally add cumin, but there was none in the house so I chose coriander instead and boy am I glad I did. One of the tastiest dips I’ve tried so I’d thoroughly recommend it!
Artichoke and Coriander Dip
Ingredients
- 250 g cooked Artichoke Hearts fresh or canned
- 2 whole Spring Onions
- 4 tbsps Crème Fraîche
- 2 tbsps Olive Oil
- 3 tsps ground Coriander
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Pepper
Instructions
- Trim and wash the spring onions, and cut into small lengths. Place the onions, artichoke hearts, crème fraîche, ground coriander, salt, and pepper into a food processor and blitz until smooth.
- Transfer to a bowl and gently stir in the olive oil. Serve with chips or sliced vegetables, or even as a sandwich filler.
Necessity is the mother if invention, so true! I love anything based with artichokes! You’ve landed on a rather clever combo Charles.
Your day with your son and your wife’s family members sounds like a blast. William is sure looking like a little man (Vegemite or not!). I look forward to you other dip recipes, I’ve got one slated for sometime in the next month or so too.
Hi Eva, we had a great day… not too many tears for being without his mommy! 😀
I definitely recommend this dip… it’s really good! Was one of my favourites out of all the ones I made 🙂
William loves Vegemite! Amazing. Are you sure you’re not bribing him with chocolate to just hold that squeeze tube?
I can see how dips would be hard to photograph. The cutest part is the breads or veggies use to dip into them.
No way! The other day the vegemite wasn’t even on the table and he wouldn’t eat his breakfast toast until I’d spread some on his bread! He pointed wildly at the tube on the sideboard 😀
Looks like you’ve got the little guy brainwashed. 🙂 Evil daddy.
I wouldn’t have thought of coriander with artichoke, but your dip sounds terrific, Charles. And my goodness, William has grown so…and look at that head of hair! All I can say is that it appears the vegemite is good for him. 🙂 Hope you and William have a fun boys’ day out!
Thanks Betsy – he’s not one for language so much yet, but that’ll come. They do say that kids with bilingual parents usually pick it up later. I think he’s mastered “MAMA”, but it would be nice if he could articulate other things 😀
I love how the kitchen drawers are secured so little fingers can’t go exploring. Wee William’s lost his baby looks and is looking much older now. Very happy he’s a ‘happy little vegemite’, (not sure if you know of the ad from years ago for vegemite? Maybe it only played in Oz). Anyway…your dip looks really good and I love how it’s made with creme fraiche. I make an artichoke dip with capers. How’s the snow? Any of it melted yet? xx
Haha, sometimes I forget to put the poles back and Willy grabs them and takes off around the house somewhere! :D. Never saw the vegemite ads (since it’s not really common on this side of the world). I’ve seen a fair few Marmite commercials but not a single Vegemite one in my life I don’t think. Will check it out on YouTube.
Snow’s kinda gone… roads are dry and clear, all we have now is giant piles of snow in the corners of the yards which probably won’t go for a while (another month or more) since the ground is so cold, and the evenings are still below zero.
I love the poles through the drawer handles. Clever parenting!
I’m a dip fiend myself so this artichoke and coriander would make me very happy indeed.
William is too young to know the evils of Vegemite. 🙂 He’s SO cute!
Haha, they’re very simple and effective (except when you forget to put them in and the kid grabs them and hits things!).
It’s such a coincidence… A couple of days ago, while enjoying my beloved jar of artichoke dip (I love it and buy quite often), I was wondering if it was possible to do it with canned artichokes too… Now reading your recipe I am relieved! (I hate cutting and preparing fresh artichokes and I really like some brands of canned ones). Your dip looks lovely, I love the coriander addition too! Your son makes my hungry! (It’s funny how in Western countries most people assume now that children like only bland and sweet food… My cousin’s son has been crazy for vinegared herring since he was four years old, so it proves gourmet children are everywhere when given a chance. In short, thumbs up for your and your wife’s job! I’m sure your introduction to food full of flavours and seasoning makes your son love such strong and complex tastes like Vegemite. Does he like pickled herring too? (I don’t mean the stinking one 😉 ).
Hi Sissi, was my “Email address” field looking weird when you made your comment? I happened to view my site while logged out and it had these big envelopes taking up the whole field. I sprited my social icons recently (top-right of the page) and have no idea how they ended up in the email field of the comment section! So weird.
I don’t think I’d ever make such a dip if I had to cook the artichokes myself. Talk about a hassle. Popping open a can is so much easier and it tastes really good. Of course, I guess it’s not *as* good as fresh, but I have no point of reference so I couldn’t say for sure.
It’s true – have you had rollmop herrings? I used to be obsessed with those when I was a small kid. Something about the fish and onions… I could eat them all day. We haven’t tried giving Willy any herring yet, but I don’t think he’d be a fan. He’s finally eating something other than bread (chicken and lamb) so we don’t want to jinx his dietary expansion with strong fish just yet 😀
Of course! Rollmops are popular in many European countries (I see them also in Switzerland and France), but my favourite are the vinegared ones in creamy sauces (the kind they sell in IKEA minus the sugar: I have never liked sweetish herring). They make excellent ones in Germany and Poland.
Ok, how much do I love the ski pole safety locks on those kitchen drawers? Simply brilliant. Adorable photo of your young Swedish lad too ;-). Well, I’m really sorry to hear that the Thai green curry + coconut milk was a fail… my heart almost stopped with excitement as I was reading about it… are you sure? I mean, is it worth repeating the experiment?? :). Meantime, I love artichoke dip and this one sounds yummy with the refreshing green onion. I don’t use coriander often (I tend to reach for the fresh cilantro) but I suspect the dry seed is more pungent and I’d be interested in experiencing the difference.
Me too, the first time I read about it, but dear Lord it was revolting. I think it has the potential of being good, but alas mine was not. I think with some green curry paste, and not too much coconut milk, liberal amount of tahini, plenty of chickpeas it might be ok (I used some weird curry powder stuff) and I think I added way too much coconut milk (it looked like curdled cake batter when I was done).
I love fresh coriander too, but dried stuff I find very curious because it seems to be so different to the fresh variant. Definitely not something you can replace one with the other, like you could with say fresh and dried mint or thyme. I was never a huge fan of dried coriander because it seemed so bland but my father-in-law has a jar of the most delicious, strong-smelling coriander I ever smelled. It’s insanely aromatic!
Cutie pie Willy!! He’s getting so big, must be the Vegemite 🙂 The dip looks wonderful, Charles. Nice and creamy and I bet it makes a great sandwich spread. I’m a hummus purist and like only harissa or hot sauce in mine, or zaatar. None of this pumpkin hummus stuff, and Thai curry? Can’t imagine that at all.
Love the pole drawer stops, quite clever 🙂
Looking forward to your other concoctions.
Thanks Nazneen – yeah, usually I’m a hummus purist, and from now on I always will be. Screw messing it up with nasty slop inside. I was so disappointed. I’m such a hummus lover and so to completely ruin it this way was a big source of rage and sadness!
I can’t believe how big he is now…and so cute. The eyes….adorable.
What are those rods through the drawers? Are they normally used as a child lock? Look very cute and clver.
As does your dip…coriander and artichoke….mmnnnn…..need to bookmark.
Ski poles with the pointy bit sawed off. We get a lot of comments on it, so I guess it’s maybe not the most common way of securing drawers but it works 😉
I’m so glad Willie made it into your post. He certainly is growing into the cutest little man. I’m going to give you dip a try as I’ve got several cans of artichokes I need to use.
Took a photo of him last night wearing a “huge” t-shirt with the local ice-hockey team’s logo on it to support them in the match. It was the smallest t-shirt we could find, lol! 😀
Oh my, your son is getting so big! And so adorable! So precious!
I love artichoke. We had artichoke plant in my back yard, produced large heads for a few years. Then it suddenly disappeared! What? What happened? Who donnit? Mole? We will plant artichoke again but we will be ready for the mole trap too.
This looks really good to me by the way. I have to get a nice crusty bread for that.
Suddenly disappeared? Oh dear :(. I’ve never seen an artichoke plant before actually… I shall look it up. It must have been lovely to have fresh artichokes from your garden.
wow – he had grown so fast!! It has to be the vegemite. 🙂 Artichoke and coriander – now that’s an interesting combination. I love them both but have never had them together. It sounds wonderful Charles and with the creme fraiche I bet this is hard to stop eating.
You must try it MJ – the flavour was just wonderful… will definitely be making this again.
Charles, your little (?) William is adorable! And I love the way you’ve childproofed the drawers in your kitchen with ski poles! Your dip sounds wonderful. I’ve never tried coriander with artichokes, but it sounds good. I’m a hummus purist–don’t mess with my classic hummus!
Thanks Jean! Yeah, I always was a hummus purist, but decided just this one time to do something different… ok, now I’m right back in the purist camp again! Never again!
Oh your son is so unbelievably cute!! Those cheeks 🙂 and he likes vegemite 😉
I love homemade dip and this combinations sound delicious. I will have to give it a go 🙂
Thanks GG – hope you get a chance to try it!
I could make a meal out of dips, what tasty flavors! William looks simply thrilled over the vegemite ;).
Thanks Laura! The other day, he refused to eat his toast until I’d put vegemite on it, lol!