Healthy Homemade Dips: Five EZ Recipes. Part 2 of 2.

It’s easy and fun to make healthy homemade dips. Five delicious and colorful flavors: Pure Olive, Roasted Red Pepper Salsa, Green Dream Dip, Maple Sweet Potato and Savory Sunny Mushroom Dip. These dips are also delicious spreads for sandwiches – and your grocery bill: $10. Your Super Bowl, Housewarming, Holiday and Birthday parties will never be the same… And that’s a good thing. Get my recipes…

Ingredients List. Get the ingredients list in Part one of this post. Also check out the grocery list bill breakdown ($10 total for ingredients) in part one.

Beans! Beans are really the backbone of these recipes. They provide a hearty texture and a nice dose of nutrients like protein and fiber. The beans act as a delicious canvas for the fresh flavors. This is a great way to sneak beans into your diet – read more healthy bean facts here.

Taste Test. I had my husband taste test all these dips without telling him the ingredients (he hates beans). He loved them all. He had no idea that beans are in every recipe, except the salsa. FYI, his faves were the salsa, shroom (heated) and olive. My faves are the sweet potato and green dream dip. Onto my recipes…

Pure Olive Dip
1/2 cup cannellini beans, drained
1 can black olives, 6 oz.
*I used basic black olives, you can use kalamata or green olives if you choose.
1 Tbsp EVOO
a few grinds of fresh black pepper

Roasted Pepper Salsa
1 large red pepper, roasted over stove
1 cup organic salsa

Maple Sweet Potato Dip
1 cup cooked sweet potato,
*about 1 small potato
1/2 cup cannellini beans, drained
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 small orange, juiced
pinch of sea salt
a few grinds of fresh black pepper

Green Dream Dip
1/2 cup cannellini beans, drained
1/2 small ripe avocado
1 1/2-2 cups raw baby spinach
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 lemon, juiced
pinch of sea salt
a few grinds of fresh black pepper

Savory Sunny Mushroom Dip
1 cup baby bella or white mushrooms, sliced
1 cup garbanzo beans, drained
1 Tbsp EVOO
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 Tbsp sunflower seeds
pinch of sea salt (omit if using salted seeds)
a few grinds of fresh black pepper

Directions:

1. Gather all your ingredients. Set up your serving bowls – five in all. I used my serving bowls to separate the ingredients for each dip.

2. Open your bean cans, and divide the beans as needed for each recipe – into the bowls.

3. Set up your food processor – I use a Mini 2-Speed Food Chopper for these small portion recipes.

4. You can do the dips in any order, but this is how I did it. It allows for optimal speed with less rinsing out the food processor (fp). My Order:
1) Sweet potato Dip. Blend. No need to rinse.
2) Olive Dip. Blend. No Need to Rinse.
3) Mushroom Dip. Blend. Rinse container/blade.
4) Green Dream Dip. Blend. Rinse container/blade.
5) Roasted Red Pepper Salsa.

5. First up, Sweet Potato Dip: Heat a small sweet potato, remove skin, add to fp. Add beans, maple syrup, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of fresh black pepper. Blend, until thick. Then add in the fresh OJ and blend again. Pour into serving bowl. And Yum:

6. Next blend the Pure Olive Dip. Add olives, EVOO, pepper (no salt because the olives are salty enough) and beans to the fp. Blend until chunky-smooth. Pour into serving dish.

7. Next is the Savory Sunny Mushroom dip. Since both the olive and shroom dips are dark colors, it’s OK to blend back to back w/o rinsing. However, you certainly can rinse for the purest flavors or food allergy considerations. Mushroom dip add: mushrooms, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, beans and s&p. If you are using salted sunflower seeds – no added salt is needed – raw sees will require a pinch of salt. Note: You will have about 3/4 cup garbanzo beans leftover from can – you can save in fridge, add extra beans to one of the dips, or make a double portion of the mushroom dip by doubling all the ingredients. Or get creative and make a bonus dip from pantry ingredients you have on hand.

8. Next is the Green Dream Dip. You will need to rinse your fp before blending this dip. You don’t want black ‘green’ dip. Add: 1/2 ripe avocado, baby spinach, s&p, red pepper flakes (more flakes, more heat) and lemon juice. Blend until creamy-chunky. Pour into serving dish. *note: you will have an extra 1/2 avocado – either store it, or slice and serve as a garnish for your dip platter. Splash with lemon juice so it doesn’t brown.

9. Last up is the Roasted Red Pepper Salsa – this is super easy. Stick your red pepper over a gas burner for about 1 minutes, turning every few seconds. Get it nice and roasted on all sides. Roasting a Pepper 101 here. After your pepper is roasted, chop it into rough big chunks (toss the seeds/stem) and place in fp. Add your salsa and blend. You won’t believe how this process turns store bought salsa into something that tastes homemade and super yummy. Pour into serving dish.

10. Garnish your plates with chips, crackers, sticks, bread, pita, veggie sticks, whatever you’d like. Serve and enjoy!

Store dips in the fridge for up to one day. Be sure to cover tightly while in fridge so they don’t oxidize too much.

NOTE: Both the sweet potato and mushroom dips can be served warm or cold. I actually prefer the sweet potato and mushroom dips warm. You can heat in oven for a few minutes, or microwave. Serve the olive, green and salsa’s at room temp to chilled.

SIZE NOTE: Vegan Dip Tasting. Make all 5 at once using the ingredients I have given you – each recipe produces a tasting portion of each dip – about 1 1/2+ cups. For a big party, you’ll need to double the recipes below. Once you are familiar with the recipes, you can choose your faves and adjust the ingredient amounts for larger portions.