Hearts of palm were always one of my favorite salad additions growing up. My mom introduced me to them at a young age and I could often be found snacking on them when most kids would be snacking on potato chips (don’t worry, I also snacked on potato chips). I had never really thought to do much else with them aside from tossing them into a salad. That was until I came across a recipe for a vegan BLT that included a hearts of palm spread.

I started searching the internet for variations on hearts of palm spreads and dips and discovered that all of them contained cheese and mayonnaise (or soy cheese and vegenaise. So, I decided  to make a healthier spin on this and figured that hearts of palm, olive oil, garlic and a little seasoning would make a pretty tasty dip/spread. Then, I started to imagine the flavors of this spread on a vegan BLT and the idea to add some sundried tomatoes to this recipe came to me. So that’s exactly what I did and the dip turned out delicious. I wound up using it on the vegan BLT (post to follow) and it worked perfectly as mayo substitute. Eat this with a spoon on its own, dip some chips or veggies in it, or spread it on a sandwich. It’s versatile, tasty, and simple to make.

1 can hearts of palm (drained)
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1-2 tbs water

In a food processor, combine the hearts of palm, sundried tomatoes, olive oil and garlic and blend until smooth. My food processor had a hard time blending the sundried tomatoes so I recommend cutting them into smaller pieces. I added about 2 tbs of water to help smooth the texture of the dip/spread and this didn’t weaken the flavor at all. I also initially made the mistake of adding salt to this. Because the sundried tomatoes are so salty, I found that even a pinch of added salt was way too much. Once everything is blended together, transfer to bowl and serve as a dip or spread on your favorite sandwich in place of mayonnaise.