Edamame Dip and Carrot Salad

I won't go into the details, but somehow we've ended up with a free subscription to Cooking Light magazine. Not something I can heartily recommend for a vegan, but we do flip through it and get some ideas on occasion - and sometimes we even find a vegan recipe in there. Like this edamame dip. We've had a package of edamame in our freezer for several months and this seemed like something good to do with at least part of that package. The dip was pretty simple - starting with 1 1/2 cups of the edamame, cooked in boiling water for a few minutes then drained and allowed to cool. That went into the food processor with a little water, some red onion, rice vinegar, olive oil, salt, fresh garlic chives, a little Asian chile sauce, and a can of white beans. We also made a simple carrot salad (from the same issue of Cooking Light) with shredded carrots, toasted cumin, raisins, parsley, orange juice, lemon juice, olive oil and salt. (Then Darlene tasted it and decided it needed a little sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce - good additions.) We served these 2 snacks with some good fresh bread that Darlene picked up from a local bakery today and that made for a pretty decent meal.