Cucumber Dip with Feta Recipe: Cool, Creamy & Cucumber!

Such a quick and simple recipe, this dip for raw vegetables, just a few often-on-hand pantry ingredients and a few minutes to stir together It's a "veggie evangelist's" secret weapon!

~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

This recipe is so quick and easy
that I'm adding it to a special collection of easy summer recipes
published every summer since 2009.
Watch for new "summer easy" recipes all summer long!
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Sneaking In a Serving of Vegetables

Call me sneaky but come summer, an hour or so before supper, out comes a plate of fresh veggies – who can spell crudités? who can pronounce CROO-dee-tay? But the real secret weapon, the super-secret one, is the creamy vegetable dip alongside.

Within minutes, hungry folk start to snack, a stick of carrot here, a slice of red pepper there. Without ever “serving” a vegetable, I’ve managed to sneak in one of the day’s vegetable servings. At supper, the plate moves to the table, easy reach for post-supper snacking.

Sneaky yes. But successful.

RESOURCES Vegetables 101: What Are Crudites?

What Is This Stuff?

I call it a "cucumber dip" but given the ingredients, it could also be called "tzatziki" or "raita" from Greek and Indian cuisines.

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CUCUMBER DIP with FETA

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 2 – 3 hours
Makes 2 cups

DIP
• 1 cup grated cucumber (seeded if seeds are large), skin and all
• 1 cup low-fat sour cream
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Fresh herbs, chopped, optional (fresh dill, basil, mint or chives, say)

• Fresh vegetables in bite-size pieces – the usual suspects such as carrot sticks, celery sticks, red pepper strips, cucumber spears and zucchini slices but also consider unusual raw vegetables such as fresh jicama or fresh kohlrabi, blanched asparagus, etc.

Stir together the dip ingredients. To meld the flavors, cover and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours, as much as a day. Serve with fresh vegetables.

Use within several days but for any meal, put out only as much as will be eaten, leaving the rest in the fridge. Besides, if there’s just a small amount of dip in the bowl, people will "dip" not "scoop"!

ALANNA's TIPS Hoping for a little color, I’ve stirred in grated carrot too. The white of the sour cream and feta overwhelm the orange, however. Watch for feta cheese sold in heavy white bricks, rather than in packages of crumbles. It will be cheaper and moister, like feta should be. Serve it alongside grilled steaks as well as a dip for vegetables.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per 1 Tablespoon/Quarter Cup: 24/96 Calories; 2/7g Tot Fat; 1/5g Sat Fat; 7/28mg Cholesterol; 55/221mg Sodium; 1/4g Carb; 0g Fiber; 1/2g Sugar; 1/4g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points .5/2 & PointsPlus .5/3 & SmartPoints 1/4 & Freestyle 1/4

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More Healthy Summer Appetizer Recipes

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~ more appetizer recipes ~

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Shop Your Pantry First

(helping home cooks save money on groceries)

~ cucumber recipes ~
~ sour cream recipes ~
~ feta cheese recipes ~

~ All Recipes, By Ingredient ~
~ How to Save Money on Groceries ~

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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