Last week I received a rather large container of fresh basil in my Chow Locally box. Typically I’m super excited to get fresh basil, but this time I was perplexed. Usually the basil comes in bunches which makes it easy to store. Do you know how you are supposed to store fresh basil? It keeps best placed in a vase with water, like you would fresh flowers. I love having my bouquet of fresh basil on my windowsill, so I can pick off a couple of leaves at a time to cook with or put in my water using my ZingAnything Aqua Zinger. Oh yes, I love sipping on cucumber basil infused water. Anyhow, this basil was not in a bunch and there was a lot of just leaves, so there was no way I could put it in a vase. So I just stuck it in the fridge. I started noticing brown spots on the basil the next day. I knew I had to act fast and use it. They say you can freeze basil, but I wasn’t interested in that.

So I made a quick and easy dip, that could easily be turned into a spread for bagels or toast as well.

The secret ingredient to this dip is Tajin Seasoning. I found it at Costco and have been in love ever since. It’s a mixture of chile powder, salt and lime. I have sprinkled it on everything…salad, deviled eggs, popcorn. It’s amazing. It adds just a little kick to everything. I didn’t use enough to make it spicy, just to add flavor. If I wasn’t so lazy, I could probably just mix the salt, chile powder and lime juice together and add it to stuff, but Tajin saves me the work.

Yield: 12 servings

Fresh Basil and Garlic Dip

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

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Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese softened
• 1/2 cup real sour cream
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon Tajin (or use some chile powder, salt and a squeeze of lime juice)
• freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Place the cream cheese in a bowl and set aside to soften.
2. Clean and dry basil leaves and put into a container with sour cream and garlic.
3. Use an immersion blender to blend the basil, sour cream and garlic throughly. Mix in Tajin.
4. Pour blended ingredients on top of softened cream cheese and blend all together with immersion blender.
5. Add freshly ground pepper to taste.
6. Refrigerate covered for at least an hour to let flavors mix.
7. Serve with creudité, chips, or smear on toast or bagel

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

12

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 90Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 25mgSodium: 142mgCarbohydrates: 3gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 2g

Nutritional information provided for recipes is a courtesy to my readers. I do my best to be as accurate as possible, but you should do your own nutrition information calculations. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.

The Mr. wouldn’t even wait for it to chill in the fridge. He had his bagel toasted and ready before I was finished preparing the dip. Oh and he was super annoyed that he had to wait until I took a picture. It must be rough living with a blogger.

 

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