yogurt dip for veggies

I think it's a pretty well established that veggies become more popular when there's dip around. We may never know why the heck kids love dipping so much, but we can exploit it to get extra nutrients into them.

One really easy base for all kinds of dip is yogurt cheese. The idea here is just to drain off some of the whey to create a thicker yogurt.

1. Line a strainer or colander with clean cheese cloth, a thin dish cloth, or a coffee filter. Place it over a bowl.
2. Place about 2 cups of plain yogurt into the center of the cloth. You can use any type of plain yogurt- low fat, no fat, homemade, organic- whatever you like.
3. Place the whole set-up in the fridge and let drain about 12 hours. Truthfully, I usually do this on the countertop overnight. But if it's warm in your kitchen or you're at all concerned about leaving the yogurt out, put it in the fridge.
4. After draining, you'll see several tablespoons of whey in the bowl (how much there is depends on how liquidy the yogurt was to begin with). The whey is packed with calcium and protein; you can use it in place of the liquid in your baking, but that's another post. In the towel, you'll see the yogurt cheese; you should have between 2/3 and 1 cup of yogurt cheese. If the cheese is thinner than you'd like, let it drain for another 8 hours and if it's too thick, just stir a bit of the whey back in.

To make dip, just mix in a bit of salt and the ingredients of your choice, but don't use a food processor or blender because it can liquefy the "cheese". Try fresh or dried herbs (dill, cilantro, thyme, etc), raw or roasted garlic, finely chopped onions, carrots, cucumber or roasted red peppers.