White Bean Dip

After a few months of very high credit card bills (I put all my expenses on my Southwest card for points, but that also makes for 1 big bill at the end of the month), I've decided to try to find alternate sources of protein. Thus beans - and what's cheaper than canned beans? Dried beans. They taste better too.

There is a method for dry beans. They do need to be soaked, and I never think far enough in advance to soak them overnight. So quick soak it is. I have found that you can pour boiling water over rinsed and sorted beans and let them soak until the water is back to room temperature, a few hours or so. Drain soaked beans then put into a pot and cover with lots of water. As a side note, I have started cooking beans and grains like you cook pasta - with lots of boiling water then drain. So I boil the beans with chicken bouillon until tender. What you want to do with the beans determines how much you cook them - about 30 min if you were to put them whole in a salad, about 45 min if you were going to make a dip. Now this is boiling, not simmering. All types and batches of beans are different. In general, larger beans will take longer to cook. I have been using small great northern beans, so that is how long I would cook these type. I would say, test at 30 min, and if they need more time, they need more time. Cooking beans is not a fast process, but it's low maintenance, so you can put a pot on and go do other things - like laundry or watch TV or whatever.

Dip:
1 c white beans, cooked (measurement was made of dry beans)
reserved bean cooking liquid
pepper
Italian Seasoning
olive oil
red wine vinegar
cotjia cheese (Mexican crumbled cheese, like feta)

Place all ingredients in food processor and process until smooth.  Less is more here when it comes to liquid - start with a tablespoon or 2 of the oil, vinegar and bean liquid. If the mix looks dry, add more bean liquid (it depends on what you cook your beans in, I use chicken bouillon to cook my beans, so too much and the dip would be too salty). The cheese was something I added in on a whim, I had just a touch of it left that needed to be used, so if you don't have any, you can omit it. I also made the dip while the beans were still warm - this made the dip come together easier. Oh and I used quite a lot of the Italian Seasoning. Yum!

There are other ways to use this dip other than on top of crackers. A while back, I came across a recipe for hummus crusted chicken and thought the dip would be great on top of fish - yeah, this is how I think.

Before the oven. 450 degrees for 15-20 min, or until the fish is flaky.

And after. I was right - it was good on fish. This is a white fish called Swai, similar to tilapia, that I found at Aldi. Each filet comes individually frozen - great for 1 portion at a time!