Curried Vegetable Dip —rsquo; The Garden’s First Reward

Spring. Garden. The eleventh planting. I am on my knees in the dirt for the eleventh time, which makes the garden older than some of my great-grandchildren and younger than all of my regrets, and the planting is the same as it always is: hopeful, faithful, dirty. Cherokee Purples in the ground. Sapelo peppers, eighth generation (the line is long now, the seeds carrying eight years of Lowcountry sun). Okra, butter beans, herbs. And the watermelon — third generation, planted in the sunny corner, talked to daily, because the method works and the method doesn't change.

Michael helped. "Helped" is generous. Michael participated. He sat in the dirt — which he loves, dirt being one of his primary interests along with food, the cat next door, and the stove — and he dug holes with his hands and put dirt in his mouth and I removed the dirt from his mouth and he put more dirt in his mouth and this cycle continued for twenty minutes until I accepted that dirt-eating is part of the gardening curriculum for sixteen-month-olds.

I showed him how to put a seedling in the ground. I guided his hands — small, dirt-covered, impossibly soft — around the base of a tomato seedling, and we lowered it into the hole together, and we packed the soil around it together, and I said, "Michael, you just planted a tomato. That tomato will grow from the sun and the water and the soil, and in July you will eat it, and the eating will be your reward for the planting, and the planting is always worth the eating." He looked at me. He looked at the seedling. He said, "Mo." The boy wants more tomatoes before the first one has even grown. Henderson blood.

Kayla is ten weeks now. Not showing. The morning sickness is minimal — less than with Michael, which she attributes to medical knowledge and I attribute to the baby being easier, because every baby is different and some babies are gentle with their mothers and some babies are Michael, who made Kayla nauseous for five months and apologized for none of it.

Made garden vegetable soup tonight. The spring transition soup. The soup of in-between — between winter and summer, between one baby and two, between what is planted and what will grow. The soup is the waiting. The waiting is the faith. The faith is the soup.

Now go on and feed somebody.

The soup simmered its way through the evening, doing its quiet work, and while it fed us well, it’s this Curried Vegetable Dip that I keep coming back to as the real expression of what a spring garden means — raw, honest, nothing hidden, just good vegetables doing what good vegetables do. When Michael starts pulling those Cherokee Purples off the vine in July, I want something waiting that lets the garden speak for itself, something with just enough warmth from the curry to remind you that patience has a flavor. This one is fast, it feeds a crowd, and it is exactly the kind of recipe that tastes like a reward for the planting.

Curried Vegetable Dip

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 10 min (plus 30 min chilling) | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Assorted fresh vegetables for dipping: carrots, cucumber slices, bell pepper strips, celery, cherry tomatoes, broccoli florets

Instructions

1. Soften and combine. In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese with a hand mixer or fork until smooth and lump-free. Add the sour cream and mayonnaise and stir until fully combined.
2. Season. Add the curry powder, garlic powder, onion powder, ground ginger, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Stir well to incorporate all the spices evenly throughout the dip.
3. Taste and adjust. Taste the dip and adjust seasoning as needed — more curry for warmth, more lemon for brightness, more salt to round it out.
4. Chill. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to develop and deepen.
5. Serve. Transfer to a serving dish and arrange fresh garden vegetables alongside for dipping. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 145 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 4g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 195mg