April 23, 2020May 26, 2021

Summer Black Bean Dip is a favourite recipe of the Project CHEF team. Not only is it delicious, but it’s also fun to make. Practice your mashing skills using a fork and your hands. Test your knife skills by precisely cutting onion into super thin slices. Serve it with chips for a snack or with tacos, burritos or quesadillas. We added some feta crumbles to yum it up. See our guacamole and tomato salsa recipes to make this a meal.

Yield: About 1 cup
Preparation Time: About 20 minutes

Digging Around

What food group do black beans belong to?
Name some other types of beans you could mash with a fork.

INGREDIENT LIST

1 14-oz. can black beans, rinsed and
drained
1 clove garlic, minced
½ onion, diced
Pinch salt and freshly cracked pepper
Grated zest of 1 small lime
Juice of 1 lime
¼ cup of fresh cilantro
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
¼ tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. of chili powder
1 Tbsp. water, to thin bean mixture, if
too thick
2 Tbsp. of feta cheese for garnish

EQUIPMENT LIST

can opener
strainer
fork
potato masher
microplane or garlic press
measuring spoons
sharp knife
cutting board
juicer or reamer
rubber spatula
medium-sized

METHOD

Open a 14 oz. can of black beans and pour into a strainer in the sink. Rinse and
drain well. Place in medium-sized bowl.
With the back of a fork, mash the beans. You may also mash the beans with a
potato masher.
Peel the garlic clove and grate into the bowl with a microplane or press through a
garlic press.
Add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of freshly cracked pepper.
Using a microplane or grater, grate the zest of 1 lime into the bean bowl.
Cut the lime in half. Juice the lime into the bean bowl.
Pull the leaves off the cilantro. Rip the leaves into small pieces into the bowl.
Add 2 Tbsp. of olive oil.
Measure the ground cumin and chili powder and add it to the bowl.
Combine the ingredients until well blended and smooth using a rubber spatula.
If the mixture is too thick add another Tbsp. of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of water
and blend together.

Tasty Tip:

May be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days.
This dip is even better the next day once the flavours have blended together.
If you have a food processor, you can add all of the ingredients to the food
processor and puree until smooth. Have an adult help you with the food
processor, as its blade is very sharp blade.
Take for recess or lunch with some veggies.

SKILLS

STEP-BY-STEP – BLACK BEAN DIP!

STEP 1
Gather your ingredients and equipment.

STEP 2
Mash the beans with a fork. It’s good to put your index finger or thumb into the root or base of the fork as shown here.

STEP 3
Grate the garlic. Here we are using a box grater on the microplane side. If it’s a big clove, you may only want to use half because raw garlic can be pretty strong.

STEP 4
Using the claw and saw method, thinly slice the onion. Don’t cut the root end off because it will hold your layers together and make it much easier to cut (the root is tucked under my fingers in this picture.) Again, go easy, you probably don’t need the entire quarter onion, unless it’s quite a small onion.

STEP 5
Lime is the special ingredient that gives this dip its pep and tang. Lime just makes us happy at Project CHEF. Zest the lime peel with a microplane, turning as you go and taking off only the top green layer. The white pith is bitter. After zesting, juice half of it into the bowl. A common mistake with beginner cooks is to juice first and zest later. What might be challenging about doing it in this order?