It’s party season which, yay!!! So much fun. But also, boo!!! So much work. That’s why it’s great to have a few easy, fast and inexpensive recipes to fall back on when the hungry hordes arrive (auto-correct keeps changing hordes to whores. So if your house is full of hungry holiday whores, all the power to you!). Ahem, *adjusts glasses*.
Dips! Dips are great. Everyone loves dips. They can sometimes be a little boring though, right? I love a good onion or spinach dip, but sometimes I want to shake it up a little bit. This White Bean, Roasted Garlic and Feta Dip is basically like a Hummus but, to me, a whole lot tastier. It’s creamy from the yogurt, tart from the lemon and feta and plain old delicious from the roasted garlic. Awww yeah.
Best part? I bet most of the ingredients are in your pantry and fridge right now. Maybe not the feta cheese, but everything else is probably there. I’m right, aren’t I? Go look!
White Bean, Roasted Garlic and Feta Dip
Ingredients
- 2 15- ounce cans cannellini beans rinsed and drained
- 8 ounces good quality feta cheese
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil + 2 teaspoons
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest about 1 whole lemon
- 1/4 cup lemon juice about 1-1/2 lemons
- 1 head garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons chives finely chopped plus more for garnish (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
For the roasted garlic:
- Peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact.
- Cut off the very top of the head of garlic, exposing the top of the cloves. Place garlic in a sheet of aluminum foil large enough to cover it completely. Drizzle 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil over the top and sprinkle with a bit of salt and freshly cracked pepper. Scrunch up the foil to seal and cook in oven for 30-35 minutes (until the cloves feel soft and smell like heaven).
- Allow garlic to cool for before handling. Squeeze the whole head of garlic into a small bowl (or directly into the food processor) so the cloves separate from the skins. Discard skins. (Roasted Garlic can be made a day or so ahead).
For the dip:
- In a food processor, add the beans, roasted garlic, feta, yogurt, olive oil, lemon zest and juice. Puree until very smooth. Taste it for seasoning.
- The saltiness of different fetas vary greatly so you may not need to add any at all. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the chives.
- Top with chives, crumbled feta and drizzle of olive oil.
- Different fetas vary widely so be careful with the salt. You may not need to add any extra at all.
- Use good extra-virgin olive oil to swirl on top so the flavor really shines.
- Can be made up to 2 days ahead.
- If you don’t feel like roasting garlic, you could use some raw but only use 1 or 2 cloves at the most. Raw garlic is much stronger than roasted.
- The leftovers are great on a sandwich with sliced cucumber, avocado and tomato.
Not sure where I came across your blog but I do love it! I made your turkey gravy and turkey stock for Thanksgiving and it was deeelish! I can’t wait to make the spiced pickled grapes and liver pate too. Since I am expecting many whores this weekend, I am making this bean dip too as I have all of the ingredients already in my pantry including those pita chips! LOL!
Thanks so much Debra! So glad the recipes are working for you. The blog has been a real joy to work on so it’s wonderful to hear that people like it.
Great dip recipe but seeing as it’s garlic scape season I used those instead of chives. It turned out especially fabulous! Thank you! Another nice version would be to skip the feta and add shredded rainbow carrots, curry and thyme & toasted cumin seeds if desired instead of rosemary to the beans for a more Middle Eastern flavour. Serve with sheets of flatbread. 🙂
Fantastic ideas! I’ve actually used scapes too and LOVED it (though they’re not in season here yet this year). I’ve done a curry version with chickpeas but hadn’t thought of using cannellinis for it. Going to try next time!