Now I will be frank and say I am a little nervous about the title of this – if my children were reading (having not previously tasted and devoured it as they do) I am pretty sure they would move on, pulses not being much to their liking.
For me, I struggle with the word dip, it is just a bit…. you know. Dip covers a multitude and can be a tub of generic supermarket gunk or a red, oniony side dish to uh, dip things in. Rarely have I come across anything with the moniker dip that I have wanted to love or, in many cases, finish. This little beauty will, I hope, shatter all preconceptions.
It came about, as many things do out of my kitchen, from necessity over organisation. I wanted something to offer with drinks but frankly the larder was pretty bare but for a few tins of beans. I always have parsley, lemon and garlic on hand and so it was that these were the volunteers, the ingredients that stepped forward from a skeleton line up.
I actually made this three times over Easter, once to serve with said drinks and twice to put on the table along with a mezze type picnic lunch. With some toasty baked pita my children scoffed this with unseemly speed and didn’t even stop when they discovered the star ingredient. I could not believe my eyes at this nor my ears when they asked me to make it again. Today we are having it with some roast chicken, new potatoes and a big salad. It is really good, beyond easy and properly useful of have up your sleeve, but what are we going to call it?
Cannellini Bean, Parsley and Lemon Dip
Taste this when it is all whizzed together, it should have lots of lemon juice to give it zing and you will need a really good pinch of salt, possible two as pulses seem to lap them up. Serve with chopped carrots, baked pita bread, breadsticks or alongside a roast chicken or with a collection of other mezze type dishes.
1 can of cannellini beans
1 small clove garlic
Half a small packet parsley, approx 20g
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Put all the ingredients into a small blender or a jug if you are using a hand held blender. I find it easiest to put the lemon juice in first then you can pick any rogue seeds out easily, followed by the salt so it can dissolve in the juice. The order doesn’t really matter though. Whizz it all up, taste and check you are happy with it before decanting into a dish. The four of us will polish this off between but that said, my husband and I could probably eat it all too. You can double or treble easily if you have a crowd to feed.