Basil and Artichoke Dip

Basil and Artichoke Dip made with blended cashews and nutritional yeast instead of mayonnaise and cheese! The perfect appetizer or dip recipe. Plus it’s Dairy-Free!

This is attempt #2 at writing this post. A rarity for my typical train-of-thought posts, but when I originally sat down to write absolutely nothing came out. I’m hoping round #2 goes better…

Admittedly, posts are never hard for me to write. With the exception of the personal ones that can take upwards of 6 months to get down, I’ve had maybe 1 or 2 writer’s block moments.  All in all the writing aspect has never felt particularly difficult to me. That is until I sat down to write this Basil and Artichoke Dip post.

I knew that my struggles in getting the words out had nothing to do with the actual post and more to do with the struggles I was having that day so in a rare moment of insight I actually stepped away from the screen and decided to tackle something else.

What was plan b, you may ask? I stress cleaned.

If you’ve known me for a long time or have lived with me, you know that back in the day I used to be a hardcore proponent of stress cleaning aka “I’m so overwhelmed that the only thing I can think to do in this moment is clean”. If my roommates came home to find me scrubbing the bathtub they knew something was up. Of course, no one ever complained because cleaning instead of discussing your emotions certainly isn’t the worst problem to have but it was somewhat concerning when I found myself colour-coordinating my sweaters.

Over time (and much to C’s dismay) I seemed to have grown out of my stress cleaning ways. I’ve gotten better at talking through my problems and have found relief in other activities, but for whatever reason I found myself giving my apartment one serious scrub-down last Thursday.

Surprisingly, it actually helped. Not only did I end up feeling productive and clean, but it also calmed my nerves about this recipe. I totally love this dip, but anytime I use nutritional yeast I worry that people will be intimated or overwhelmed my such a strange ingredient. While I don’t think nooch is all that weird, I can see how other people might.

Perhaps my fears are warranted, but after cleaning through my cupboards and finding things like goat’s milk whey and dulse flakes I feel like nutritional yeast ain’t so strange after all! It also felt amazing to purge of my 8000 samples of protein powders and stupidly large collection of alternative sweeteners. So much so I was able to sit down and write this post.

Sometimes all it takes is a little winter cleaning to refresh the soul!

Basil and Artichoke Dip {Dairy-Free}

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• Total Time: 5 minutes
• Yield: 1 cup 1x

Ingredients

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• 1/2 cup cashews, soaked in water for 2 hours
• 1 T soaking water
• 6 artichoke hearts, chopped (1 14 oz can)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, unpacked
• 2 T nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• splash of lemon juice
• pinch of chili flakes (optional)

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Instructions

1. Add cashews and 1 T of soaking water to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
2. Add in artichoke hearts and garlic cloves and process until smooth.
3. Add in fresh basil, nutritional yeast, sea salt, and lemon juice and process for 30 more seconds or until basil has been broken up.
4. Top with chili flakes and serve with “dippers” of choice e.g. crackers, vegetables, chips.
5. Will keep for several days in the refrigerator.

Are you a stress-cleaner? What’s the strangest ingredient in your house?