Chickpea and Feta Cheese Dip with Athenos Feta Cheese + Giveaway

Feta cheese is a fairly new addition to my home cooking repertoire. After tasting it as an ingredient in several restaurant salads, I decided to start using it at home. And so my first culinary adventure was to make this Chickpea and Feta Cheese Dip.

I recreated the recipe from Yiayia herself, with just a couple of minor changes. She’s a cranky one, but she loves when people use ATHENOS Feta cheese, so I think she’ll smile when she sees I did.

Chickpea and Feta Cheese Dip

Ingredients

2 15-oz cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained and rinsed
2/3 cup ATHENOS traditional crumbled Feta cheese, divided
1/3 cup drained roasted pepper strips, divided + 1 T reserved liquid
1 clove garlic
4 T extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions

1. Place chickpeas, 1/2 cup cheese, 1/4 cup peppers,  1 T of pepper liquid, and next 4 ingredients in food processor; blend until smooth.

2. Spoon into serving bowl. Top with remaining cheese and peppers.

Yield: 8 servings

Note: I made my own pita chips for dipping, but it’s equally delicious on crunchy bread sticks and crackers.

GIVEAWAY!

One lucky reader will win a Greek-inspired bowl by Jonathan Adler (ARV $48)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received product samples to review. All opinions expressed are my own.

RULES: Giveaway ends 11:59 pm ET, July 27, 2012. No purchase necessary. Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia, Eighteen (18) years of age or older. Void where prohibited by law. One lucky winner will be chosen using random.org. One entry per household and IP address. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Cheating will not be tolerated, and entries will be verified for accuracy. I will email the winner and they will have 48 hours to respond to the notification email, or a new winner will be chosen. Entering this giveaway means you are in agreement with this blog’s Terms of Use policy.