Whipped feta with honey and lemon
Salty feta whipped with yogurt and lemon until it’s light as frosting, then swirled with olive oil and honey for dunking crunchy vegetables.
- 20 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 8
- About $2.10 a serving
- 170 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. Whatever’s left keeps for tomorrow.
Ingredients
For 8 servings.
- 8 oz feta cheese, block or crumbled
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbsp honey (optional)
- 2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped (optional)
- 1 lb mini cucumbers
- 8 oz mini sweet peppers
- 10 oz cherry tomatoes
From your pantry
- ¼ cup olive oil, divided
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
Each serving has about 170 calories, 7 g protein, 8 g carbs and 13 g fat, and costs about $2.10 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No feta cheese? Goat cheese works.
- No plain Greek yogurt? Plain yogurt or sour cream works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No honey? Maple syrup works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the feta into a blender or food processor and add the yogurt, lemon , 1 tablespoon lemon juice and the garlic.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Zest. Zest is the thin, colored outer layer of citrus peel, rubbed off on the smallest holes of a grater. It holds the fruit’s fragrant oils, so it adds bright flavor without the sourness of juice.
How you’ll know: You see bright flecks and smell citrus right away; stop when you reach the white layer, which is bitter.
Blend about 1 minute, scraping down the sides once, until mostly smooth.
Timer: 1 min
With the machine running, pour in 3 tablespoons of the oil and blend 1 minute more, until thick, smooth and fluffy.
Timer: 1 min
Dolly’s tip: If it’s too thick to move, add another spoonful of lemon juice or water.Taste it and blend in the pepper, plus more lemon juice if you want it brighter. Feta is salty, so it won’t need salt.
the cucumbers into thick coins, the peppers and pull out the seeds, and pile them on a platter with the tomatoes.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Halve. Halving means cutting something into two equal pieces. Even halves cook at the same speed, so one doesn’t dry out while the other finishes.
How you’ll know: The two pieces look like mirror images of each other.
Spread the dip in a shallow bowl, swirling deep grooves into the top with the back of a spoon.
Dolly’s tip: Make it up to 3 days ahead and keep it covered in the fridge. Add the toppings when you serve.the last tablespoon of oil and the honey into the grooves, then sprinkle with the pepper flakes and mint.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Set it in the middle of the vegetables and serve.
Dolly’s tip: Keep it out no more than 2 hours, then back in the fridge.Food safety: Food with mayonnaise, dairy, eggs, cooked meat or cream, like dips, salads and cream desserts, can sit out for 2 hours at most, or 1 hour above 90°F. Keep cold food in the fridge or on ice until serving, and hot food at 140°F or hotter.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
When you host a dinner, Dollop builds the menu around your guests’ allergies, works out a cooking timeline back from when everyone sits down, and puts it all on one grocery list.
