A few months back the Sous Chef and his buddies went to Zion, Utah, for a little canyoneering trip. When he came back, he shared that he and his buddies had a bigger adventure than they had planned for. The weather had changed drastically, and way before predicted, in mid afternoon and they had found themselves rushing to higher grounds when all of a sudden there was a flash flood. I will spare you the details that occurred and simply say that they finally made it out of the canyon at 2am.

As he tells me this story I simply look at him completely bewildered and question both his, mine, and his friends’ sanity. All of that followed with “oh my God, what if he died?” throughs. Then, he gives me this big smile and says, “so we went into town the next day after we woke and and walked around. I saw this book and thought of you.”

I uuuuhhh, ooohhh, and aaahhhed at the book because I simply love, love, LOOOOOVE chips and dip. He sure knows how to butter me up, or as we Persians say, saramo shireh bemaleh, but hey, it was such an awesome “I thought of you” souvenir! So I browsed through the book totally salivating over all of the recipes. The very first recipe towards the beginning of the book that captured my interest was a Spinach with Feta Cheese Dip. The original recipe had fennel seeds in it and in my humble opinion it simply didn’t sound too appetizing of a combination.

So I posed the question to MPK’s Facebook Fan Page and Twitter followers about what they thought about the combination of Spinach and Fennel. It seemed that most agreed that it was not an appealing combo. So I substituted the Fennel with Parsley and made the dip and it was certainly a good dip. I ended up making it again and tweaked the recipe a bit and the result was simply YUMMY!

Ingredients

2 cups yogurt or sour cream
1 package (10 1/2 oz) frozen chopped spinach
1/4 lb feta cheese
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, packed
1 pinch nutmeg
salt & pepper
Rose petals for garnish

Cook spinach according the to package’s directions. Drain in a colander and press with a fork to drain all the water completely.

Small chop parsley and mix in a bowl with minced garlic, yogurt (or sour cream), a touch of salt and pepper. Make sure you don’t add too much salt as Feta cheese is salty and you’ll find yourself with an over salted dip!

Add feta cheese and mix well. Check to make sure that your dip is well seasoned. Place in a bowl and garnish with rose petals and a couple of fresh parsley leaves.

I have now made this dip several times and it has been a hit with everyone. I have also made it both with sour cream and yogurt. I have to say that I really love it with yogurt as it is much lighter and less fattening!!! The first picture of the dip in this post was made with yogurt, the one above was made with sour cream and I had doubled the recipe for the party that we were going to.

I highly recommend adding the rose petals on top. For me it initially started simply as a garnish but then once I tasted it, I realized how it totally kicked up the dip a few notches!!! Serve with Pita Chips or regular chips!