Beetroot Dip and White Bean Dip
As spring emerges we often head out with friends camping and exploring. Now for some the C word (camping that is) can make the toes curl of some travellers who prefer only five stars to sleep under rather than the billions that twinkle and adorn the night skies of open spaces. Fear not though my friends we’re not ones to rough it too much and indeed never want for anything. Travelling with friends, as we do, is as social and abundant as if we’re were dining together around our table at home. As the sun sets on our days, fold up tables heave under the weight of many delicious contributions to pre-dinner drinks and grazing as laughter and the clinking of glasses fills the air. Aside from delicious finds on the journey we also travel with well stocked fridges. In my fridge you’ll usually find easy homemade dips to share with fresh bread and crudites. They’re easy to whip up and keep well for a number of days, though they never last that long.
Requiring only a few ingredients and blender or food processor I thought you might enjoy them too. They’re both handy recipes to have to pull together at short notice when friends drop in or to make ahead to kick off a festive get together.
White Bean and Sesame Dip
Ingredients:
400g of white beans (any variety)
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Juice and rind of a lemon
2 Tb water
1 garlic clove crushed or grated
1 tsp of cumin
¼ tsp of salt flakes
1 tsp sesame seeds lightly toasted
1 tsp tahini
In a hot dry fry pan, lightly toast the sesame seeds swirling them frequently. This should only take a couple minutes. Allow to cool while preparing the remaining ingredients.
Lightly drain beans. Allowing the beans to remain lightly coated in the aquafaba from the can will help the dip whip and thicken.
Combine all ingredients in a high powered blender or food processor. A regular blender will be fine if that’s what you have it just may take a little longer and a few scrapes of the bowl/jug to ensure everything is properly processed and smooth.
Whizz on high until a smooth dip is achieved. Check for taste and adjust as suits. I sometimes increase the lemon a little as, strangely, lemon flavour can vary.
Beetroot Hummus
Ingredients:
400 gm can of Chickpeas lightly drained
100-120gm of Beetroot cooked/prepared beetroot
2 Tb lemon juice
1 tsp cumin
1 garlic clove grated or crushed
1 Tb water
½ tsp salt flakes
1 Tb extra olive oil
As with the White Bean Dip, lightly drain chickpeas.
If preparing your own beetroot as I have here, wrap whole beetroot in foil with a drizzle of olive oil and a slice of citrus of your choic and roast in a moderate oven (180c/350f) for 45-60 mins or until a skewer inserted goes in easily. Allow to cool completely peel and roughly cut into large chunks. Alternatively drain canned beetroot well.
Combine all ingredients in blender/food processor and whizz until smooth.
If using canned beetroot hold back on the water until processing and only use if required as canned is a wetter product than home cooked and may not require extra liuquid.
Notes:
I use a Vitamix blender which has a dip function on it. If you have a blender with such a function use this to process. I don’t have a thermomix or similar though suspect they may be the same.
If using a food processor stop processing once it’s a coarse pasted and scrape down as required and resume mixing.
Smoothie makers are also great for making dips if you don’t have any other mixing appliance.
If you’re pressed for time and or inclination when making the white bean and sesame dip and don’t want to toast the sesame seeds just add them fresh, it’s still declicious.
The white bean dip makes a great sauce too and just needs to be thinned down a little. I just use water for this but add it spoonful at a time slowly so as not to make it too thin.
