New Recipe – Courgette / Zucchini-Dip King Louis XV

I like to experiment with vegetables. This time I wanted to find out more about the quality of raw courgettes/zucchini as a dip. As there is a lot of water in (water in plants is the healthiest for us!), it became a little bit more liquid than creamy. However, it tastes very good, but it isn´t easy to take a photo from. When things like these happen I always use one the few left beautiful Herend plates from my husbands great-grand-father as “back ground”. In a book* about how many original objects are there in the Palace of Versailles I found plates by Sèvres created for King Louis XV and a similar set for Madame du Barry, all resembling our 19^th century porcelain. Now I know by whom Herend was inspired! – As King Louis XV of France was a descendant of the Medici and loved plants (in summer he liked to take his meals in a pavilion near the vegetable garden), I dedicated this dip to him.

* Un siècle de Mécénat à Versailles. Société des Amis de Versailles. 2007.

• Ingredients (serves 1 – 2 as a dip)

• 1 medium size courgette / zucchino
• ½ of an onion
• 1 garlic clove (or garlic powder)
• 1 – 2 Tbsp (hot) mustard
• 1 – 2 Tbsp tapenade (mashed olives)
• 1 Tbsp almond butter
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• salt, chili flakes

Wash the courgette / zucchino and dice. The smaller the pieces the easier to puree.

Peel and cut onion and garlic.

Put all the ingredients into a blender and mix. I did it with a very powerful hand blender (and pressed the Turbo button).

Serve it as it comes out: more creamy on a plate, more liquid in a bowl. Garnish with slices of onions and red hot chili pepper.

If you serve it as a dip offer it with crackers, starch free bread or with dehydrated crackers. I have no dehydrator and always buy the crackers (on the photo are wild garlic crackers) from an organic producer.

You can also serve it as a side dish with baked vegetables or i.e. with buckwheat “risotto” (= risotto made of buckwheat, same procedure, same quantities of grains and water). On the photo: “beetroot-buckwheat-risotto” out of Deliciously Ella´s cookbook by Ella Woodward. Feel free to use any of your favorite vegetables. I like it with mushrooms, leek and parsley.