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Roasted Garlic White Bean Dip is an easy, healthy snack that uses ingredients straight from your pantry. It’s a three ingredient appetizer with not only roasted garlic, but smoked paprika for a one-two punch of flavor. Serve with chips, crackers and sliced veggies and everyone’s happy!

The Idea:

I’m always in the market for a new, easy, delicious appetizer/snack idea. I was looking around my pantry and discovered I had quite a few cans of beans. Canned beans are something I always have on hand, but when I’m at the grocery store, I can never remember what kind of beans I already have. So I usually keep buying my favorites “just in case”. I thought I could use a few cans of great northern white beans in a hummus type of dip in place of the usual garbanzo beans.

To keep things simple I also wanted this to be a three ingredient appetizer. The first ingredient is obviously beans, and as healthy and good as beans are, they’re pretty basic on their own. I wanted to pick two more ingredients for the dip that would really up the flavor ante. I roasted a head of garlic (so easy! click here for instructions) and also added smoked paprika for a healthy, delicious roasted garlic white bean dip you’ll love.

The Ingredients:

Any kind of white beans you have will work in this recipe. I used great northern beans this time, but garbanzos or white beans would also be good. If you haven’t tried it before, you’re really going to like the smoked paprika in this recipe. It’s a perfect way to introduce smokiness to a recipe without adding spicy heat, or having to use a meat product like bacon. There is a huge difference between regular paprika and smoked paprika, so *Do not be tempted to use regular paprika as a substitute!* That’s right, I put that type in red, that’s how important it is. The flavor difference is like night and day, as in, regular paprika doesn’t have much flavor.

Also, once you have the smoked paprika in your cupboard, you can also make a smoked paprika spice rub and use it on roasted chicken!

As usual for a three ingredient appetizer, I also get the freebie ingredients of olive oil and salt.

The Preparation:

The first thing you’ll do is roast the garlic. You can do this the day before you make the dip, or the same day. It only takes about 45 minutes in the oven, during which time you can catch up on the latest season of the Bachelor. Or the Bachelorette (or Bachelor in Paradise!), depending on the time of year. Time flies when you’re trying to determine who’s there for the “right reasons”. Or you could get your other ingredients ready and prep your sliced veggies for dipping.

When the garlic is done you’ll see that it’s really transformed by roasting. It loses it’s bite and becomes almost sweet. It also get really soft, like butter.

Squeeze that amazing roasted garlic into your food processor or blender with the beans, smoked paprika, olive oil and kosher salt. The garlic peels will magically stay behind and all you’ll be adding is the softened, sweet garlic.

Blend everything together and test the consistency of the dip. If you think it could be smoother, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it’s exactly the way you like it.

The Payoff:

Pour the roasted garlic white bean dip into a serving dish and surround it with a bunch of delicious things to dip. I like tortilla chips, crackers, sliced carrots and cucumbers.

You can also drizzle a little extra extra virgin olive oil on top, and if you’re feeling really crazy, sprinkle a little smoked paprika on there too.

And if no one’s looking, you can sprinkle some chopped Italian parsley or cilantro on top!