Looking for springy pantry staple snacks to serve? This yummy white bean dip is healthy, colorful, and dang good. Plus it pairs well with veg or carbs (I won’t say which I’m eating it with) and keeps in the fridge for a whole week for easy picking.
I’ve been working on my bread game lately, especially with all of the time stuck home during quarantine. Before I ran out of yeast, I had made a lovely loaf of rye and had dough left over. With my extra dough, I formed a ball and baked with the intentions of creating a bread bowl. No further intentions though, I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to put in it since fresh produce was running scarce around here with the exception of a few root veggies hanging out in a lonely basket in the depths of my fridge. If you don’t have a beet on hand, you can add in roasted carrots, sweet potato, or just skip that step and enjoy a hearty bean dip warm or cold.
If you’re going the bread bowl route, simply carve a circle in the middle with a knife, lift out, and scoop extra bread out with a spoon if need be. I added 1/4 cup vegan mozzarella to make this dip bread bowl worthy, but it’s great as is served with celery, carrots, cukes, or any other crispy veg you have on hand.
Get that beet roasting before anything since it takes a bit. Chunk into 1” cubes and roast at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. It seems silly to fire up the whole oven for one beet though, so while you’re at it, you can chop up a plethora of good hearty veg like sweet or Russett potatoes, Brussels sprouts, onions, etc and bake the lot of em for the same duration. This makes your week way easier - just grab a few handfuls of roasted veg, pop onto a salad with a carb like rice or quinoa, a protein like tofu or nuts, and you’re good to go.
Okay, so next thing when making this dip, it is important to know your garlic. Raw garlic is super pungent and kind of burny. Is that a word? Think like a raw onion. Caramelized onions are a gift from the heavens, but raw onions are only good in small doses, and mostly to offset heavier flavors and freshen up a meal. I wouldn’t put a whole raw onion into a dip, but I would if the sugars in it start to break down after a long glorious roast. Garlic is much the same. I pop my garlic cloves into the toaster oven on a silicon baking mat, spritz with olive oil, and roast for maybe 20 minutes in my toaster oven at 400 degrees. Whenever I’m doing a sheet pan of roasted root veggies to meal prep for the week, I always always toss a few garlic cloves on there to use in sauces and dips. The flavor is so rich and perfect, that if I have fresh garlic, I try not to miss any opportunity to utilize it. So get that garlic roasting if you have it, and if not, 1 tsp of garlic powder will do the trick just fine.
For this dip, I used my pressure cooker to rehyrdrate dried white beans with several cloves of garlic (I know dude, more garlic - I’m not sorry) and a pinch of salt. If you meal prep, you can make extra white beans earlier in the week and use them for all kinds of dishes. I like them in hearty salads and even in pastas. You can used the canned kind too if that’s easier for you. Look for Great Northern White Beans, Navy Beans, or Canneloni when grocery shopping, any of these will get the job done. When your white beans are done cooking, or you’ve opened the can -yay!- simply puree with some of the water remaining from cooking them (or the can), along with your beets, tahini, roasted garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper. To be cautious, I recommend adding in the bean liquid in small increments, and you can always add more if you think the dip is too thick.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups white beans with liquid or 1/2 cup water if drained
1 cup roasted beets
6 roasted garlic cloves
2 teaspoons tahini
1/2 tsp salt
1 teaspoon rosemary
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