Roasted Garlic White Bean Dip

How much do you spend on store bought hummus and other easy-to-grab dips?  When I’m looking for simple, healthy snack ideas I can easily spend $5 every time I walk past that deli cooler.

What is ridiculous is that for less than $2 and about 15 minutes I can make a triple size container of my own at home!

Since I didn’t have tahini in my cupboard and didn’t want to put out the cash for it I decided against hummus and opted for something equally as delicious and creamy…White Bean Dip.  The nice thing about white beans is they generally have a creamier consistency and they don’t have those silly skins that need removing like chick peas do (not that I ever remove them because I’m lazy…but I’m also always disappointed in the smoothness of my hummus).

And since the beans lend themselves to pretty much any added flavour it was a simple decision to forego the plain version and opt for something much more exciting.  We all know I’m recently obsessed with roasted garlic!

Tip: Since this recipe calls for olive oil I decided to use a little extra while roasting my garlic and added some fresh rosemary to the dish too.  When the garlic was ready I simply strained the olive oil and let it cool for use in the dip.

Roasted Garlic White Bean Dip

inspired by Giada De Laurentiis

yields about 2.5 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 can (540ml) white beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 head roasted garlic, cloves squeezed from skins 
• juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 1/8 cup olive oil (use extra to roast garlic, strain and use)
• 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley
• salt and pepper
• water for thinning
• (optional: Greek yogurt)

Directions:

1. In a food processor or good blender puree together beans, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and parmesan. If mixture is too thick for blending add water one tablespoon at a time to loosen it up.
2. When desired consistency is reached add salt, pepper, lemon zest and parsley and pulse a few times just to chop parsley and incorporate. Taste and re-season if desired.
3. If adding Greek yogurt, move dip to a mixing bowl and fold in yogurt using a spatula.

According to MyFitnessPal 8 servings (about 1/3 cup) work out to approximately 115 calories per serving.  yay!

Serve with your favourite crackers, pita crisps, veggie sticks or bread chunks.  I found these hearty sea salt & sesame rice crackers that worked perfectly for scooping and shovelling the dip directly into my face.  Or how genius I am to make yam chips and use those?! 

For something fun and extra tasty try adding additional ingredients.  I oven roasted a tomato to stir into half my batch…

Other Optional Add-ins: wilted spinach, red pepper, caramelized onions, chopped black olives, pesto, chili flakes...and on and on and on.  :)

See how cheap and easy this is?  Now get to it!

How To: Garlic Breath

On New Year’s Eve Michael and I met up with some friends and family for dinner at a downtown restaurant.  It was a good thing we are all close and had carrot cake to cleanse our palates because the veggie sides we all had were absolutely slathered in garlic.  At least I knew my New Year’s kiss partner had suffered the same dilemma!

Not that there’s anything wrong with garlic.  But whoa.

Funny enough though it appears I’ve been stockpiling fresh garlic at Michael’s house.  Every time I buy groceries for a recipe I come home with more garlic “just in case”.  It had produced a surplus and he asked me what I planned to do with it all.

When in doubt, roast it!  Roasted garlic is tres delicious and super versatile.  So much smoother and less vampire-repelling that the raw or sautéed versions.  Our New Year’s restaurant could take a tip here!

Roasted Garlic (it’s so basic it’s not really even a recipe)

Ingredients:

• whole garlic bulbs
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Slice the pointy tops off the garlic…enough that each of the cloves are visible…and place in a baking pan.
2. Drizzle liberally with olive oil.  Tightly cover tray with foil.
3. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or more.  When garlic is golden and easily poked with a fork, it’s ready.

There are soooo many uses for roasted garlic.  We served ours alongside delicious cheeses, pate and crackers as our final long weekend meal.  Tip: the roasted garlic was amazing paired with simple, plain, fresh goat cheese on a crisp cracker.

We found that either a small fondue fork or a rounded knife worked best for getting the caramelized cloves out of their natural paper packaging.  Turning the whole thing upside down and squeezing works too, but I only recommend that if you aren’t sitting around the dinner table.  :)

Other great uses for roasted garlic:

• compound butter (mix roasted garlic with butter and a favourite fresh herb. serve with bread, use to pan cook fish, or serve atop a fresh grilled steak)
• pasta sauce (add to cream sauce with lots of fresh pepper)
• hummus (use instead of raw garlic in a batch of your favourite chick pea or bean dip)
• pizza (the combinations are endless but I like sautéed mushrooms and extra cheese with my roasted garlic)
• roasted garlic olive oil (use lots of extra olive oil in the roasting process.  you can then drain and strain that extra oil for use in other recipes.)

What else do you use your roasted garlic for?  Share with me!