Roasted Red Pepper Dip

I'm currently on a business trip and boy would I love to write about it. Since I've stopped blogging about work, I've had people urge me to start keeping a personal journal just to document the stuff I do on a daily basis because I do not have a normal job and have the beginnings of a great book. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Let's just say that at some point I was IMing with a coworker, had to go running out of the field office and when I returned he asked where I had gone and I responded "sorry, had to run outside, cow drama." And no, cow is not a metaphor or an unkind nickname for a colleague. There was actual drama involving cows.

In any event, got this recipe from Ellie Krieger's cookbook and made it for a dinner party a couple weeks back. It's great served with pita chips or as a condiment for grilled chicken. It seemed like a hit, not so much with Darryl, but I think it's worth a try and Ellie's stuff is always super healthy, love her.

Ingredients
3/4 cup pomegranate juice or 4 teaspoons of pomegranate molasses
1/2 cup walnuts
3 tablespoons unseasoned bread crumbs
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 (16-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus 1 teaspoon for garnish
Salt
Directions
Put the pomegranate juice, into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, until juice is reduced to about 2 tablespoons, about 6 minutes. Set aside to cool and thicken.
Toast the walnuts in a dry skillet over a medium-high heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Put the walnuts and bread crumbs into a food processor and process until finely ground. Add the reduced pomegranate juice or pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, red peppers, cayenne pepper and cumin and process until smooth. With the processor on add the olive oil in a thin stream. Season with salt, to taste. Sprinkle with cumin and olive oil and serve.

Here we are after pureeing everything in the food processor.

Toasting the walnuts

Reducing the pomegranate juice to a syrup

I have a reputation for making great dips, so hopefully this recipe helped me maintain that reputation....enjoy!