Gearing up for Christmas Eve, Part Deux... Dip!!

The following is an actual, honest-to-god recipe. I measured things with measuring spoons, and when I didn't measure them with measuring spoons, I took pictures. Now you can see what I mean when I say "a bit." :)

It's like this, in fact. I figure that's about a half teaspoon, though probably a little less?


This here? This strikes me as more of a full teaspoon. See, my hand is a little farther away in this shot.




This is one of the things that I was able to make ahead for our Christmas Eve get together (turns out I’ll be cooking for twelve... gulp!). Stay tuned for photos of the dip all dressed up with a little float of olive oil and some toasted pine nuts. I appreciate that it's not especially attractive hanging out in my food processor. The recipe is as follows:

2 cans of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 white onion, roasted (see below)
2 Tbsp Sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Approx. 2 tsp of salt (you know the above shot of my hand with the salt in it? I did that four times. Just do the salt to your taste.)
Approx. 1 tsp smoked paprika
Approx. 1 tsp garlic powder
Black pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste

For the roasted onion- Chop one large white onion into about 1" pieces. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat with a dash of salt and a few cranks of your pepper grinder. Roast in a baking dish at 400 for about 25-35 minutes. They should be soft and have a little brown around the edges, like so:



For deeper flavor, you could do a long, slow caramelization on the stovetop, maybe even with a couple dashes of balsamic. Just a thought!!

Toss all the ingredients in the food processor (or blender):



...and so on, and so forth...

Except for the liquids- you'll stream those in as your mixing implement does its thing. Next step- mix the bejesus out of it. It takes a while because of the onion to get everything smooth, but smooth is what we're going for here. Smooth like this:




This sort of thing is so much better the next day, so if you can make it the day before, I strongly encourage it. Store in the fridge, and check out my serving suggestion after Christmas Eve!!

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As an aside, my roommate/best friend has been making more sweets than I've ever seen in one place in my life. Last night as I was photographing this recipe, she was doing all my dishes. I thanked her, and she informed me that she was doing them so that she could later make me do some awful chore she didn't want to do. I asked her what it was, and she told me she didn't know yet. I told her to shove her gesture of mock goodwill, but that she could keep doing the dishes.

This morning, I woke up and made an executive decision. The awful chore that she didn't want to do that I did for her was to chisel all the peanut brittle off the stove. You're welcome, dear.