Darien Cooks | written by: CAROLYN EDDIE
Can I be totally honest with you? I am not a big fan of crudité platters. All those crunchy, raw vegetables. I much prefer mine cooked, preferably roasted, lots of olive oil, salt and pepper!
However, I would like to introduce you to my latest obsession: Green Goddess Dip and super color-coordinated, artfully displayed and beautifully sliced vegetables—purple and green cauliflower, watermelon radishes, sugar snaps, cut to display the peas hidden inside (could that be the true meaning of inner peas?) …and small seasonal flowers.
The Green Goddess Dip lifts the crudité platter to a whole new level and, even if you still don’t really like raw vegetables, you have to admire the rather gorgeous aesthetic. (I also add a hummus dip which is great for non-dairy guests.)
The recipe is adapted from simplyrecipes.com and the idea for the platter came from Gourmet Sweet Botanicals who got it from …and so it goes. (No such thing as an original idea and many hours lost down the rabbit hole that is Instagram to find this one. You are welcome!)
/ / photo courtesy: Carolyn Eddie
Ingredients
For the Green Goddess Dip
- 2 teaspoons anchovy paste or 2 to 4 canned anchovies
- ³⁄₄ cup mayonnaise
- ³⁄₄ cup sour cream
- ¹⁄₂ cup chopped parsley
- ¹⁄₄ cup chopped tarragon
- 3 Tablespoons chopped chives
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Small ripe avocado
For the Crudité
- Celery, preferably with some leaves still attached
- Multi-colored carrots (I use the yellow and purple ones)
- Watermelon radishe
- Regular radishes
- Sugar snaps
- Purple and green cauliflower florets
- Pansies or chamomile flowers)
Instructions
For the Green Goddess Dip
Throw all ingredients in a blender and blitz. Keeps in the fridge for four/five days. Note: The dip can also be thinned down with buttermilk to make a fabulous dressing for a spring salad.
For the Crudité
- Wash the carrots and celery and cut into thin slices, roughly the same length. Take care to keep the celery leaves for decoration.
- Slice the radishes to reveal the gorgeous colors inside.
- Trim the cauliflower.
- For the sugar snaps, choose fat ones and carefully slice down the rib. Hopefully, you will end up with one half revealing the small peas inside. These are for final decoration only, so you won’t need many.
- To assemble, place pretty bowls with the green Goddess dip and hummus (if adding it) drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice and topped with a sprig of parsley on a large platter.
- Fan out the sliced celery and carrots around the dips.
- Add the cauliflower and watermelon radishes.
- Finish with the celery leaves, sugar snaps and your flower of choice.
- Pour a glass of chilled rosé and declare the warm season officially open!
CAROLYN EDDIE is a Darien Resident & Owner, Carolyn’s Absolutely Fabulous Events. For more of her recipes, check out carolynsabsolutelyfabulousevents.com and please remember to tag her on Instagram @carolynsfabfoods.
