2/3 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup prepared spicy hot salsa (Mexican tomato-chile type)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
salt to taste
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2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce (see page 344) (optional)
Tabasco or hot pepper sauce to taste (optional)
Mash all of the ingredients together in a bowl, adding the Worcestershire sauce if you like more zing. Taste, and add more lemon juice and/or a few drops of Tabasco to reach the tartness and hotness you like. Stir well.
PER 2-OZ SERVING: 174 CALORIES, 6.8 G PROTEIN, 12.5 G FAT, 13.4 G CARBOHYDRATE, 375 MG SODIUM, 0 MG CHOLESTEROL.
NOTE: This dip keeps very well—about 2 weeks covered and refrigerated—so you may want to double the recipe to make sure there’s always some around for a quick snack or meal.
TOTAL TIME
10 minutes
SERVINGS
11/2 cups
MENU
Use Spicy Peanut Dip to coat linguini, soba, or buckwheat noodles for an Asian-style noodle salad, and serve it with steamed broccoli and/or chunks of cucumber and tofu. Or use it as a sauce for steamed vegetables and rice, Indonesian style. Spicy Peanut Dip combined with puréed pumpkin can also be a flavorful base for a soup.
Everyone likes this versatile dip. Serve it with sticks of raw carrots, celery, peppers, and/or cucumbers, with toasted pita wedges, or with crisp blanched vegetables such as cauliflower florets, zucchini sticks, and chunks of waxy potatoes.