Nature’s Pride bread

It’s almost November and that means it’s almost time for the FOODBUZZ BLOGGER FESTIVAL! Last year I won a spot as a Nature’s Pride Bread Ambassador for my Veggie Hummus Sandwich recipe. This meant that I was sponsored by Nature’s Pride Bread to attend the festival and prepare my sandwich for the entire group of attendees aka over 100 food bloggers!!

I had such an amazing time last year that I knew I wanted to attend the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival 2011. Once I found out that Nature’s Pride was planning to sponsor 6 bloggers again, I decided I must try to be a Bread Ambassador again this year!

To get my creative juices flowing I’ve been eating lots of bread creations over the past couple of days. Friday was deemed Nature’s Pride Day for the amount of bread I ate!

For breakfast: 2 slices of the Healthy Multi-Grain. One with almond butter and banana slices, the other with apple butter and a donut shaped egg white (I’m not quite sure what the microwave did to my egg).

Sweet, savory… delish! There’s something about toast with sweet and savory toppings that I simply love.

Lunch was the only meal that didn’t involve Nature’s Pride – I traded the bread for beans!

The bread was back in full force for dinner though- with two different varieties:

Healthy Multi-Grain (my current fave)

And the country white buns.

I made Black bean and sweet potato burgers with multi-grain bread crumbs and served it on a country white bun. Of course there were also baked sweet potato fries on the side. <– the usual with coconut oil, cumin and sea salt!

I wanted to use the black bean burger mix to make small black bean cakes topped with salsa and guac for my entry but then decided to try another recipe. I’m happy I did because it turned out to be fabulous!

Red Pepper, Onion and Walnut Dip (Muhammara)

Muhammara is a dip recipe originally from Syria that is typically made with walnuts, bread crumbs and olive oil. My variation on the dip was inspired by FOOD & WINE’s Tangy Red Pepper and Nut Dip.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 3/4 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup unsalted roasted cashews
• 4 medium carmen sweet red peppers (or regular red peppers), roughly cut into pieces
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 slice of Nature’s Pride Healthy Multi-Grain bread, to make 1/3 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 5-10 slices of Nature’s Pride Healthy Multi-Grain bread, toasted

Prep:

1. Toast 1 slice of bread, break into pieces and process in a food processor until pieces become small crumbs.

2. In a skillet, heat the canola oil. Add the almonds and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until lightly golden, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the almonds to a plate.

3. Add the walnuts to the skillet and cook, stirring, until toasted, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the walnuts to a food processor and let cool completely. Add the cashews and pulse until the nuts are finely chopped. Transfer the chopped nuts into a medium bowl.

4. Add the carmen peppers, onion and garlic to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Wrap the mixture in paper towels or a hand towel and press to extract as much liquid as possible, then add the mixture to the chopped nuts. Stir in the almonds, bread crumbs and olive oil. Season with sea salt and cayenne pepper.

5. Cut out small toasted squares of bread, top with dip. Serve and enjoy!

It was tough to decide whether to enter the black bean cakes or the muhammara, but the dip is a bit more out of the ordinary and appetizer appropriate – plus the name is fun! I’ve seen some amazingly creative Nature’s Pride Bread Ambassador submissions so I know the competition is stiff this year, however from the feedback I received at Kath’s Housecooling party, I think the Red Pepper, Onion and Walnut Dip is a definite WINNER!

**Both of my Nature’s Pride Bread products were received as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.

—–

As part of my participation in the FOOD & WINE Blogger Correspondent program, FOOD & WINE is giving away a year-long subscription to a lucky reader from Eating Bird Food. Click here to enter and read official rules here.

This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD & WINE archive. As a FOOD & WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD & WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD & WINE for my participation.

{ 6 comments }