Fresh raw vegetables served with roasted red pepper dip and cucumber dill dip. Delicious! The dips will make you wonder why you don't enjoy vegetables in the raw more often.

Eating your vegetables does not always mean eating a plate of cooked vegetables, sometimes it means enjoying your veggies raw. It doesn't take much effort to prepare a veggie feast, you can stop by a supermarket that has a salad bar and buy salad-bar-ready vegetables. An assortment of four to six vegetables will do nicely. Of course you can visit the veggie section and buy vegetables to prepare yourself. Which vegetables to buy? You can run the gamut from A to Z. Just choose your favorite few.

• Asparagus - spears
  
• Bell peppers: green, red, yellow and orange - sliced
  
• Broccoli - florets and stems (blanch florets for brighter color) (peel stems, slice into rounds)
  
• Carrots - sticks
  
• Cauliflower - florets
  
• Cherry or grape tomatoes - leave whole
  
• Cucumber - peel, seed and cut into thick slices
  
• Green beans - remove ends, leave whole. (blanch for brighter color)
  
• Green onions - remove roots and green tops (keep tops to decorate platter.
  
• Mushrooms - remove bottoms, leave whole.
  
• Radishes, make 3 or 4 shallow cuts into radish and put in cold water to take away some of the sharpness, the cold water will cause the radish to open like a rose bud.
  
• Yellow squash - sticks and rounds
  
• Zucchini - sticks and rounds
  

Arrange in a large platter. Serve with dip.

Roasted Red Pepper Dip

INGREDIENTS

3 large red bell peppers
1 small white onion
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Preheat broiler.

Place peppers under broiler and cook until charred on all sides, turning frequently, about 10 minutes. Remove from broiler and cool. Peel peppers and remove the seeds and core. Place peppers and remaining ingredients in blender and puree to a rough mix. Taste and add more salt or pepper if necessary.

Makes approximately 1 cup.

Cucumber Dill Dressing

INGREDIENTS

1 medium sized cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1 pint plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon Dill weed
1/4 teaspoon Garlic powder
1-1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Drain and dry cucumber, mix into remaining ingredients. Chill 2 to 3 hours.
Serves 6 to 8.