White Bean Dip : 4 Ways

I see White Bean Dip as the empty canvas of dips… if that canvas was also delicious by itself. As a potential vehicle for so many flavor combinations, the sky is truly the limit.

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 Ingredients

  • Dried Beans : I used 1/2 lb of white northern beans but this recipe will work well with any white beans (Fava, Canelini, etc.)!! For the best results, soak these beans overnight. The beans may likely still have a bit of a bite to them, boil them in water with a pinch of salt and couple cloves of garlic! Once the beans are soft (I recommend tasting them incrementally) just strain them with the garlic and let them cool!

  • Salt : to taste

  • 1 Lemon : Zest the skin and keep to the side before juicing, if you decide you want to use the zest to further flavor your dip then nows the time to do it! I mean, you could try to do it after but…..just do it now.

  • Garlic : I recommend poaching these with the beans and/or cooking them whole in a pan before allowing to cool and mincing. I personally prefer the flavor of cooked garlic but if you’re a raw garlic fan, go for it dude!

  • Optional Miso Blend : ½ tsp Miso Paste (I recommend softening the paste by warming if its very cold), Sesame Seeds (garnish), ¼ tsp Sesame Oil, Rice Vinegar (to taste)

  • Optional Herby Blend : 1 tsp Rosemary, 1 tsp Thyme, ¼ Red Onion (I recommend dicing and sautéing with the garlic until they begin to clarify, then letting cool before pureeing), 1 tsp Oregano, ¼ tsp Black Pepper

  • Optional Smoky/Spicy Blend : 1 tsp Smoked Paprika, 1/8 tsp Cayenne, ½ tsp Cumin, ¼ tsp Black Pepper


Preparation

  1. Soak the beans over night

  2. Strain the beans and add with garlic cloves to a pot of boiling water, cook until soft enough to eat

  3. Strain the beans and garlic, and let them cool

  4. Add the beans, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil to food processor and puree until smooth

  5. For the miso blend : Add the listed ingredients (with any accompanying preparations) and continue to puree until the ingredients are well incorporated. Finish with sesame seeds

  6. For the herby blend : Add the listed ingredients (with any accompanying preparations) and continue to puree until the ingredients are well incorporated. Finish with slices of lemon, lemon zest, and black pepper

  7. For smokey/spicy blend : Add the listed ingredients (with any accompanying preparations) and continue to puree until the ingredients are well incorporated. Finish with light dusting of paprika


Best Practices:

As always:

Avoid packaged produce, or really anything packaged for that matter. This is not to say that you’ll always have the option, but when you do, go for it! For example, you may sometimes see lemons in their own plastic containers/bags or garlic in nylon mesh bags. These are all very often available sans any container, so take the opportunity to use your hands, smell the produce, build that relationship with your ingredients! That being said, the spices for example, might be difficult to avoid without packaging. Pick your battles and fight them well!

Try to bring your own bags when you go shopping for these ingredients.

Make sure you’re not buying more than you think you’ll reasonably use! Things like garlic, dried beans, spices, oils, onions, sauces, and the miso paste will all last a while, so with those if you buy a bit more than you needed, you’ll have plenty of time to use them in the future. But with any fresh herbs and the lemons, those will go bad fairly quickly so buy with care!

These ingredients have been chosen with several things in mind:

Most of these ingredients are household staples that are relatively inexpensive and last a long time. If you’re unfamiliar with rice vinegar or miso paste, these are incredible ingredients that I consider cheat-codes to flavor and complexity, so buying them would be amazing additions to your pantry!!

We have chosen dried beans for this recipe for a number of reasons. The most important are that they can be bought in bulk, often reduce significant amount of packaging materials, can be stored for very long periods of time, and are often much cheaper!

It is likely that the most well known producers of the miso paste, rice vinegar, and sesame seed oil are located in Asia. There may be fantastic options that are located more locally and I would encourage you to explore those options! You might be able to save on significant shipping emissions and will be able to support and connect with local businesses!

Did you try this recipe? Tag @groundedgrub on instagram or facebook and hashtag it #groundedgrub!

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