Creamy Smoked Salmon Dip

Well it's really only a matter of days that I have left in Perth and apart from that it's been a pretty busy time with the kids' school year coming to a close.  There have been quite a few shared lunches and farewell parties and for one of these, my 4 year old daughter (with very refined taste for a 4 year old I think!) asked me to make some smoked salmon dip with veggie sticks.  I thought that was a fab idea!  So here is my recipe.  Please note that I do my best to avoid using Australian salmon.  The reason being is that salmon is not native to Australia and therefore any Australian salmon tends to be farmed.  In addition, the nutritional value of farmed salmon is lower than that of wild salmon.  So I buy salmon which specifically states on the packet that it has been wild caught and therefore in this rare instance I believe local is not the way to go.

Ingredients (makes about 1.5 cups):

- 1 shallot, trimmed and cut into chunks

- Small handful fresh dill

- 250g block full fat Philly cream cheese

- 150g smoked salmon fillet (wild caught preferably)

- 2 heaped tbsp natural full fat yoghurt

- 2 tsp tomato paste

- 1 tsp onion powder

- Squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice

- Sea salt and pepper 

Method:

Add shallots and dill into Thermomix or food processor and process for a few seconds until chopped finely (2sec/sp7 in Thermomix).  Add remaining ingredients and process until well combined and smooth in consistency (40sec/sp4 in Thermomix), stopping and scraping down the sides halfway through the process.