Sunday, March 20, 2011

Tortilla chips & white bean dip

As part of my New Year's resolution, and what has now turned into a three month quest, I've been cooking with a lot more dried beans and grains. It's an attempt to to clean out the pantry and rotate all of beans and grains with new ones. It's been a healthy exercise that has inspired me to try out new recipes like this one for white bean dip. It's tasty and nutritious and a nice switch up from some of my other favorites like caramelized onion dip, baba ghanoush and warm artichoke and olive dip.

When I made the resolution back in January, I had no idea it would take so many months. I thought maybe one month, two tops. It's been reassuring to know how long I could last, if I needed to, on all the dried and canned goods in the cupboard.


This recipe caught my eye because it's a healthy dip with white beans, lime, cilantro, tomatoes and green onions. No cheese in sight. The combination of lime and cilantro adds a nice Mexican flavour and distracts from the fact that you're eating a whole lotta beans. And because of the two cups of beans that this recipe calls for, I've now happily used up all the dried white beans in the pantry. Only barley, black-eyes peas, macaroni, orzo and quinoa remain. Getting closer to seeing the light or the back of the cupboard.

In another month or so, I'll be ready to turn my thoughts to re-stocking the pantry. Bill Jones recently wrote this article for stocking an awesome kitchen pantry and I can't wait to start turning my thoughts to restocking. I'd love to hear what dried beans or grains you keep on hand. What's your favorite thing to have in the pantry?


White Bean Dip
From Cooking Light

Ingredients
2 cups (16 ounces) white beans, cannellini or other white beans, rinsed
1/2 cup cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon diced jalapeno pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce (sounds strange but it's a flavour enhancer, like salt)
3 tablespoons olive oil (add more to get the consistency you like)
1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 cup chopped plum tomatoes
1/4 cup diced green onions

Directions
Place the first eight ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. May need to add more olive oil to get the consistency you prefer.

Top with chopped tomatoes and green onions. Serve with tortilla chips and enjoy!

3 comments:

Bridget said...

Perfect! I have a big jar of forgotten dried white beans that I have no idea what to do with. PS. when you want to stock your pantry you should check out Galloways in Vancouver, it's pretty amazing. Bridget

Melody Wey said...

Hey Bridget, thanks for the tip about Galloways. I've never been but will definitely check in out next time I'm in Vancouver.

I always try to stop by Bosa Foods when I go over, and discovered Famous Foods on a recent trip over. Looking forward to stopping by Galloways next time!

Eva said...

The dip looks great, anything with lime and cilantro in it and I'm in.
I usually keep a variety of lentils and beans...lots of pastas/rice’s and whole grains. But I need to use them all more! Thanks for the great recipe :)