Red Pepper-Cheese Dip

Make this the day before for entertaining ease. It's great with crisp breadsticks and does double duty as a sandwich spread.

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 2 tablespoons)

Ingredients

• 1  large red bell pepper
• 1  small onion, peeled and halved
• Cooking spray
• 1  whole garlic head
• 1  cup  plain fat-free yogurt
• 1/2  cup  (4 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1/8  teaspoon  ground red pepper
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

Cut bell pepper in half lengthwise, and discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. Broil 15 minutes or until blackened. Place in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove peel and discard. Set roasted pepper aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 400°.

Place onion halves, cut sides down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Remove white papery skin from garlic head (do not peel or separate the cloves). Wrap in foil. Place garlic on baking sheet with onion. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes; turn over onion halves. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until onions are soft and begin to brown. Place onion halves on a plate. Return garlic to oven, and bake an additional 15 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Separate the cloves; squeeze to extract garlic pulp. Discard skins.

Place roasted pepper, onion, and garlic pulp in a food processor; process until fairly smooth. Add yogurt, cheese, cumin seed, and ground red pepper; process until smooth. Spoon dip into a bowl, and stir in parsley. Cover and chill.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

20 (9% from fat)

Fat:

0.2g (sat 0.1g,mono 0.0g,poly 0.0g)

Protein:

1.9g

Carbohydrate:

3.1g

Fiber:

0.3g

Cholesterol:

1mg

Iron:

0.2mg

Sodium:

85mg

Calcium:

37mg