white bean dip

first of all...thank you so so much for all the kind comments, tweets, and posts about tend.  we are so very excited about this project, and i was overjoyed to see that so many others were to. thankyouthankyouthankyou!

now, how about a recipe for your weekend ahead?  this recipe is nothing groundbreaking, in fact it's pretty much just a variation on hummus.  but it's delicious, and it's got a different mood than hummus, which is sometimes just what you need.  jared and i make hummus quite frequently, and while i do love it, i do tend to get tired of it.  

i made up the recipe for this white bean dip a few months ago, during a very off dinner week, and it was the perfect rescue.  we all have those, right?  i've written here before about my attempts to stick to a weekly meal plan, but man sometimes that's pretty damn hard.  i don't always find the time to sit down on saturday morning to plan out our weekly meals, then fight the weekend crowds at our coop, then spend all of sunday making food for the week ahead.  in an ideal world, that would define my weekends.  but it just hasn't lately.  we don't eat out or get take out very often, we don't have a microwave, and since we cook most of our meals from scratch, when we're caught at 7pm with no dinner plan, the options can be limited.  we've eaten popcorn or cereal for dinner recently more times than i'd like to admit, so compared to that, warm white bean dip with homemade toast is a pretty good meal, no?  

i'm sure i'm not the only one with this problem.  i'd love to hear how any of you deal with the dinner dilemma, especially for last minute meals.  in the meantime, i offer you this recipe, for a snack, or maybe a light dinner.  give it a go and let me know what you think. xo

white bean dip

ingredients:
1 cup dried cannelini beans
2 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
1 Tbl. fresh sage, chopped coarsely
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 Tbl. lemon juice
5 Tbl. olive oil


start by cooking the beans.  if you have a preferred method of cooking dried beans, use that.  if not, here's what i do: place beans in a pot and cover with water by 1".  soak overnight.  after 8 hours or so (or more), drain beans and put them back in the pot with fresh water, covered by about 1" or 2".  cook for approximately 30-45 minutes, until beans are soft.  since you'll be pureeing them, it's okay if you overcook them a little.  it's better to have them overcooked than undercooked for this recipe!  drain the beans, but reserve about 1 cup of the cooking water.  


next, combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.  if it's too dry, or doesn't have a creamy texture, add some of the reserved cooking water until you reach the desired consistency.  enjoy with crackers or toast.