Sun-dried Tomato BLT Bites

When I was planning our menu of New Year's Eve appetizers I wanted to include a little something green.  But I wasn't sure what.  I had planned to make Ina Garten's sun-dried tomato dip with rosemary crackers.  I was also making a baked sweet onion dip with crackers and rosemary cheese straws.  Too many carbs. 

I opened up the fridge for inspiration. 

Persian cucumbers jumped out.  I knew they would be a good alternative for crackers and serve as a nice canvas for the tangy sun-dried tomato dip. I was going to leave it at that. But then I caught a glimpse of pre-cooked bacon slices that I had bought to use in salad...

Bacon, Cucumber, Tomato...BCT

Cucumber is green, cool and crisp....a lot like lettuce, right? A play on the BLT came together in this little crunchy, creamy, tomatoey bite. It was a refreshing veggie addition to our all appetizer dinner.

These flavorful bites are easy to put together and can be made ahead and stored in the fridge.   I used a decorating tip to pipe on the sun-dried tomato dip.  If you don't have a tip, you can place the dip in a zip top bag and cut the corner off and pipe it on the cucumber slices.  It doesn't need to be perfect because it gets topped with bacon bits and sliced green onions. 

The sundried tomato dip recipe makes a lot of dip.  You can serve it with crackers or cut up veggies.  It would also make a nice spread on a turkey sandwich or really gear up a classic BLT sandwich. 

Enjoy!

Sun-dried Tomato Dip
from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and chopped (about 8 tomatoes)
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
10 dashes hot red pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 scallions, thinly sliced

Add all the ingredients except the scallions to a food processor and puree.  Add scallions and pulse twice.  Serve dip at room temperature

To make sun-dried tomato BLT Bites

Quantities can vary depending on how many you want to make.  I cut up 4 Persian cucumbers and used 2 slices of bacon and 1 scallion for Hubby and me.

Persian cucumbers cut into 1/2 inch rounds
Slices of crisp bacon broken into small pieces
Sun-dried tomato dip
Scallions, thinly sliced

To assemble:

Place sun-dried tomato dip in a pastry bag fitted with a large star attachment.  Pipe a dollop of dip on each cucumber slice.  It doesn't have to be perfect because....the next step is to top each bite with a piece of bacon and sprinkle with scallions to garnish.

These can be assembled ahead and stored in the fridge until you are ready to serve.