Zesty Bean Dip - Vegan Mofo 2013

I've made bean dip before, and this will not be the last time I make bean dip. Hang in there, we are a little over halfway through Vegan Mofo, and I have a busy week.

I made this dip a little different than I've made other dips in the past. I blended up some onion, 3 big garlic cloves, 1-2 Thai Chili peppers, cumin, dried coriander, and water. Then simmered that mix in a pot, added half a veggie bouillon cube, and then added one can vegetarian refried beans. This was really soup-like, and I simmered it down for a while. It thickened even more as it cooled in the fridge. As usual, the flavors become more intense as time goes on, so this would be really great made the day before. I can rarely have it last that long in the house.

Tomatillo Salsa + Refried Bean Dip [Vegan Mofo]

Day 14 of Vegan Month of Food! So far, so good. I have missed one day posting this month so far, and we are nearly halfway through the month. I do not have a set goal in mind, just to do as much as I possibly can.

I have almost reached Day 7 of my green theme and will recap with one more post of green food tomorrow. Today, I present my first tomatillo salsa attempt! I made this in the past week or so with tomatillos from the CSA. I didn't get as nice of a roasty taste to the tomatillos, but I would really like to try this again with a ton more tomatillos. I served this with a refried bean dip that I quickly whipped up.

For the salsa: I sliced tomatillos in half after removing the wrappers and rinsing. I placed on a cookie sheet lined with foil and roasted for 10-15 mins in the oven. Because I had so few tomatillos I was worried and took them out early because their juices were all over the pan and I wanted to be sure to have enough to make salsa. I blended the tomatillos with 2 garlic cloves, 1/4 of a small onion, and some spicy chili peppers.

For the bean dip: I heated up 1 can of black refried beans in a small sauce pan, adding garlic, cumin, salt, and chili peppers. That was it. Cheap and easy. I was feeling lazy. The dip was ok, it could have been better with more effort.

Axel's Bombastic Black Bean Dip

The Saucy Coconut Food Blog is Back in Action! I know, I've said that before only to not post for weeks on end. Hopefully this time I'll stay true to my word and post more often. Well, this is a fantastic post to come back on:

Axel's Bombastic Bean Dip!

This is seriously the best bean dip EVER. I've made endless excuses why not to make my own bean dip: laziness, "too much work," and...laziness. There really isn't a good reason why I haven't been making my own bean dip. Yet it took my fiance, Axel, to have a heavy dose of inspiration in the kitchen to get me on the "make my own bean dip from now on" train.

This is a rough estimate of the creation of the best bean dip ever, but it will be recreated soon with more details and tweaking.

What's in it, roughly:
1 can of black beans, drained
1/2 can of refried black beans
1 can of pinto beans
1 can of Rotel^TM Original Tomatoes and Green Chilies
4 cloves of garlic (or less if you aren't a fan of garlic)
good shake of red pepper flakes for spice
good shake of cumin for flavor

Directions (sort of):

1. In a big bowl, mash almost all the beans up with a potato masher

2. Add the Rotel^TM, mix thoroughly.

3. Either mince the garlic into a paste, or blend it with a hand blender, or the Magic Bullet Blender.

4. Blend the bean mixture, and also place into hot pan and cook mixture. Add some of the whole beans that were set aside before you started mashing. Leave these as whole.

5. Add cumin, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Fresh chilies like jalapenos, habeneros, etc., would be great.

Serve hot OR cold with chips, fresh veggies, crackers, pitas, or anything else you can think of. This dip gets better and more garlicky/spicy with each passing day, so try and save some for tomorrow!