Black bean dip is a simple, hearty, and healthy vegan dip that’s delicious with tortilla chips, pretzels, or fresh vegetables. It’s a great alternative to heavy cheese dips for your next party!

Black Bean Dip served in a bowl and garnished with cilantro. This is a healthy dip for tortilla chips, pretzels, or fresh vegetables.

After a pretty spectacular weekend, I’m just about ready to start the new week. Mondays aren’t usually like this for me but I’m feeling pretty rejuvenated today. 

The weather for the past two days has been completely gorgeous and even though I have to spend this next one (80! Sunny! Dry!) inside at work, I definitely made the best of the weekend while spending both days outside doing spring clean-up on Saturday and a full landscaping overhaul in the front of our house yesterday. 

Actually, I don’t know if you can call it an overhaul since there wasn’t anything there to begin with but after 3 years of living here, we finally committed to a “design” – which only means that we went to a large nursery and picked out a bunch of shrubs and plants we thought would look nice.

In other words, there was no design. 

But, after getting all 10 shrubs and 15 hosta in the ground (with only 1 return trip to the nursery in the afternoon!), we’re smitten with how hard work pays off.

Black Bean Dip served in a bowl and garnished with cilantro. This is a healthy dip for tortilla chips, pretzels, or fresh vegetables.

Our spring clean-up on Saturday wasn’t anything to sniff about either with lots of pruning, hand-picking leaves out of the hydrangea bushes, raking, turning over mulch, fertilizing, etc. By 6pm on Saturday, I was ready for delivery pizza and bed. 

But because we’ve stolidly committed to eating healthier over the past few weeks, I made this black bean dip instead. I whirled it up in the food processor, let the flavors meld for 25 or 30 minutes and then we picked on it like it was our job while prepping and grilling a bunch of veggies for sandwiches. 

Black Bean Dip served in a bowl and garnished with cilantro. This is a healthy dip for tortilla chips, pretzels, or fresh vegetables.

It’s the kind of Tex-Mex snack you can feel good about (although cheesy dips of all kinds have their place in life too). Smoky, thanks to the chipotle chile, fresh, healthy, and delicious…and paired up with some salty tortilla chips, what more could you ask for? 

Except if you spread some of the leftovers in a breakfast burrito the next morning. But who’s complaining?

Hey! If you hadn’t heard, tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo! A whole slew of recipes is awaiting you if you’re looking to indulge…

Black Bean Dip served in a bowl and garnished with cilantro. This is a healthy dip for tortilla chips, pretzels, or fresh vegetables.

Black Bean Dip

Yield: about 1 ½ cups
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Black Bean Dip is a vegan dip for tortilla chips, pretzels, or fresh vegetables. It's an easy and fast recipe to make in a food processor since it contains just a few simple ingredients.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tsp minced fresh or ½ tsp dried oregano
  • 1 (15oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • ½ onion, chopped
  • 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp minced canned chipotle chile in adobo (remove the seeds to reduce the heat)
  • ½ tsp ground cumin
  • Kosher salt
  • 2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

Instructions

  1. Stir the garlic and oregano into the lime juice in a small bowl and let it sit for 15 minutes to allow the garlic flavor to mellow a bit.
  2. Add the black beans, onion, oil, chipotle, cumin, ¼ teaspoon salt, and the garlic-lime juice mixture to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the bean are fully ground. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and let the processor run for about 1 minute until the dip is smooth and almost fluffy. Cover the bowl with foil (or transfer to another bowl and cover) and allow the dip to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
  3. Stir in the cilantro and season to taste with salt. Serve with tortilla chips or fresh veggies.

Notes

adapted from The Best Mexican Recipes by America's Test Kitchen

How much do you love this recipe?

Follow Smells Like Home on Pinterest and click that little Pin button at the top of this recipe card to save this recipe and share with your Pinterest followers!

You Might Also Like:

Leave a Comment

  • May 4, 2015 at 9:39 AM

    That dip looks delicious!!! I love black bean! Have a 2 kg (4 lbs) bag of black bean sitting in the cupboard. Gotta pull it out and make some dips!