Spinach-'Parmesan' Dip

This is a great party appetizer, and can be made in advance. Serve with crudites (celery and carrot sticks are especially good) or with wheat crackers.

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3 chopped garlic cloves and saute for one minute. Add 1/4 tsp. salt and one (10-ounce) package of fresh spinach. Cook until the spinach wilts (the recipe said 3 minutes; it took my spinach 5).

Transfer to a blender or food processor. Add 1/2 cup loosely packed basil leaves, 1/3 cup vegan cream cheese (such as Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese), and 1/8 tsp. black pepper. Process until smooth.

Transfer to a bowl and stir in 1/3 cup plain soy yogurt (such as Whole Soy) and 1/4 cup grated vegan cheese in place of the Parmesan in the title. (I shredded the vegan mozzarella block from Galaxy Foods).

Chill until ready to serve. You'll have about 2 cups, and 1/4 cup has 70 calories.

My goof while making this recipe was to mistakenly only put half as much 'cream cheese' as necessary in the blender. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why my mixture wasn't processing very smoothly. I didn't realize the mistake until I had already added the yogurt and 'parmesan', but luckily it worked just to stir in the remaining 'cream cheese' at the end - whoops!

Cost:
garlic $0.39
spinach $2.49
basil $2.99
plain soy yogurt $0.99
'parmesan' $2.50