From Your Garden: 7 Flavorful Vegetable Spread Recipes

Elevate your sandwiches with delightful spreads!

A spread combines vegetables, roots, oils, herbs, and spices, creating a flavorful blend ready to enhance dishes or serve as a simple appetizer. Its versatility allows for various uses, depending on your culinary creativity.

In this blog, discover five spreads crafted from basic pantry ingredients and staple crops from your garden, such as tomatoes, garlic, eggplant, beets, cilantro, spinach, and carrots.

For those who couldn't grow these crops in their garden this season, here's some good news! Vego Garden has high-quality seedlings ready for transplanting if you missed the planting season or didn't get a good head start on sowing your seeds. They provide seedlings for most of the vegetables mentioned today, available in various varieties. Be sure to check them out!

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato

Ingredients: Homegrown red peppers, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, basil

Flavor profile: Sweet and tangy with a hint of smokiness from roasting

Pairings: Crusty bread, crackers, sandwiches, grilled meats

Notes: Due to the roasting process involved in this spread, you'll need to spend about an hour in preparation. However, most of this time is waiting time since all the ingredients go into the food processor. Once you blend everything, you're ready to go.

bigflavorstinykitchen.com/turkish-roasted-tomato-and-red-pepper-dip/

Garlic and Herb White Bean

Ingredients: Homegrown garlic, white beans (such as cannellini), lemon juice, olive oil, fresh herbs (like rosemary, thyme, or parsley), salt, pepper

Flavor profile: Creamy, savory, and aromatic with a zing of citrus

Pairings: Pita bread, vegetable crudites, grilled vegetables, as a dip for chips

Notes: For this recipe, the author uses canned white beans, but you can substitute with pinto beans if preferred. The recipe is super easy to make, and you spend more time on the prep than the making it, depending on how many toppings you want with your spread. Additionally, the recipe calls for root vegetables and some feta cheese to use as toppings for spreading onto crackers or rice cakes, making them perfect as small appetizers or snacks.

www.loveandlemons.com/garden-crisps-with-herby-white-bean-spread/

Spicy Carrot and Ginger

Ingredients: Homegrown carrots, fresh ginger, chili flakes, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt

Flavor profile: Vibrant and zesty with a kick of heat from chili and warmth from ginger

Pairings: Crackers, toasted baguette slices, as a condiment for grilled fish or chicken

Notes: This is a traditional Moroccan dish typically served with bread and hearty meats. The recipe involves cooking carrots and requires an intriguing condiment called pomegranate molasses, popular in Middle Eastern cuisine. What a fantastic opportunity to explore a new dish and discover a unique condiment!

www.lacrema.com/spiced-carrot-dip/

Roasted Eggplant and Tahini (or Baba Ganoush)

Ingredients: Homegrown eggplant, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, cumin, salt, pepper

Flavor profile: Rich and creamy with a nutty undertone from tahini, balanced with smoky notes from roasted eggplant

Pairings: Pita bread, grilled meats, falafel, as a spread for wraps or sandwiches

Notes: Eggplant is an ingredient that is not commonly used in North America, but other cultures have done a great job incorporating it into their kitchens. In this dish, eggplant takes the spotlight and is surrounded by a myriad of citrusy, nutty, and herbaceous flavors that blend together into an amazing spread. This spread does demand some time and requires attention in the kitchen, but it's all worth it in the end.

www.themediterraneandish.com/baba-ganoush-recipe/

Spinach and Feta

Ingredients: Homegrown spinach, feta cheese, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, nutmeg

Flavor profile: Fresh and tangy with a hint of saltiness from feta and brightness from lemon

Pairings: Toasted baguette slices, crackers, stuffed into mushrooms or cherry tomatoes, as a topping for baked potatoes

Notes: This dish takes only five minutes to make, making it the fastest and creamiest of all the spreads here. You can use homegrown garlic and spinach to whip up this recipe for any last-minute potluck gatherings.

dishedbykate.com/creamy-spinach-and-feta-dip/

Zesty Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese

Ingredients: Roasted beets, goat cheese, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper

Flavor profile: Earthy and tangy with a creamy texture from the goat cheese

Pairings: Toasted baguette slices, crackers, as a topping for grilled chicken or turkey meat

Notes: Once your beets are cooked and peeled, the preparation is straightforward, so the prepping time is short, but the cooking time is a bit longer. Beets and feta cheese are always going to be a good idea, but if you're not convinced, you can skip blending them together and simply add the goat cheese to each bite for an explosion of flavor.

www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2012/10/beet-goat-cheese-spread.html

Creamy Avocado and Lime

Ingredients: Ripe avocados, lime juice, cilantro, garlic, jalapeño (optional for heat), salt, pepper

Flavor profile: Smooth and citrusy with a hint of freshness from the cilantro

Pairings: Tortilla chips, tacos, sandwiches, as a topping for grilled shrimp or steak

Notes: This is a creamier version of Mexican guacamole, since traditional guacamole often leaves chunks of avocado, whereas this recipe calls for a full blend. Now, I don't know if you have an avocado tree in your backyard, but if you're growing cilantro, jalapenos, and garlic, then you're already halfway done with the ingredients needed for this recipe. One thing you need to consider is that because of the nature of the avocado, it will brown if you leave it overnight, so it's best enjoyed fresh.

www.spiritedandthensome.com/creamy-avocado-lime-spread/

Final thoughts

As you harvest your vegetables from your garden, take a moment to make a little inventory of what you have and what you are missing to make the recipes.

I love spreads because they are fresh additions to the table that help elevate and fancy up meals. Take your time to go through all the recipes and find out which one you would like to try. You can choose from diverse to fast-and-easy from these recipes, depending on what you need.