Buffalo Bleu White Bean Dip

This white bean dip celebrates the awesomeness that is buffalo sauce and blue cheese! It is super silky, bold in flavor, and easy to whip up. Serve it with some carrots, celery, and something carby like toasted pita, and you have yourself an awesome app or snack ready for all the summer things (even if those things are staying home because quarantine is now life).

You might even have everything you need for this recipe in your fridge/pantry. A can of white beans, olive oil, tahini, some lemon juice, a garlic clove, onion powder, black pepper, salt to taste, and of course the buffalo sauce and blue cheese are all that stands between you and all this goodness! The garlic, onion powder, black pepper, and salt provide a nice backbone of seasoning that underlies the larger flavors going on. The tahini, lemon, and olive oil harken to the classic flavors of hummus. The tahini and olive oil add fat and body and the lemon juice brightens everything up a tad. I like the contrast of the acidity of the buffalo sauce and that of the lemon juice.

Speaking of, if you have ever made hummus you know the struggle that is peeling all the chickpeas. While it is easy enough, it is time-consuming and there is no quick way around it if you want the silkiest, smoothest of hummuses. Enter the humble white bean – these guys can be blended down into a hummus-like dip without any of that peeling effort! The flavor is more neutral so it lets the buffalo and blue cheese take center stage.

Funny story, I hated blue cheese until I was in college and I tried it with steak. I remember the combo of beef and blue cheese was like a revelation for me. Suddenly I understood the blue cheese funk and even, dare I say, appreciated it’s role as a food. After that meal I was able to eat blue cheese with lots of other things and now I can even eat it straight up on an antipasto platter! So funny how out tastes change as we age.

This recipe is made with a quarter cup of the blue stuff, lightly packed. Because the flavors of blue cheese vary widely, this is just a guide based upon the one I use (which is on the sharper side). The blue cheese is added as one of the last steps so you can really add it to taste after your dip base is done. Then it is just a matter of adjusting the seasoning and finito!

Servings: makes about 2.5 cups

Time: less than 10

Ingredients:

One 15.5 ounce can of low-sodium cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
3.5 tbsp. buffalo sauce (such as Frank’s Red Hot)
1/4 cup of tahini
juice of half a lemon (1.5-2 tbsp.)
1 large garlic clove
1 tsp. onion powder
1/4 cup of blue cheese, lightly packed, divided
3 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper, to taste
water to thin, as needed

How-to:

Add beans, buffalo sauce, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and onion powder to food processor and turn on. Drizzle olive oil in the spout at the top while the processor is running. Process until completely smooth.
Add water a tbsp. at a time, if needed, to thin. If you add water, be sure to add more buffalo sauce, blue cheese, and seasoning as needed.
Add roughly 3/4 of the blue cheese to the bean dip and pulse to mix. You want it to be evenly distributed but not blended completely so chunks still remain – these bites with more blue cheese make it exciting to eat!
Taste and adjust seasoning.
Place into the fridge for a few hours to allow flavors to meld and dip to chill.
To serve, top with remaining blue cheese and celery leaves, if desired.

Notes:

Buffalo sauce has a lot of sodium, so you may or may not need to add salt, especially if you use regular [not low-sodium] beans. I ended up adding two pinches of smoked salt to mine. I also like about half a tsp. of black pepper in this recipe for reference.
I find 3.5 tbsp. of Frank’s Red Hot to be perfect – it is bold but not overly so. However, if you use a different buffalo sauce or are unsure how in-your-face you want your dip to be, start with 1 tbsp. and go up from there.
Lime juice also works in place of lemon juice.
Since the blue cheese is added second to last, take the opportunity to really add it to taste. Mine is particularly strong in flavor so a quarter cup, lightly packed, was perfect. If you use gorgonzola or a more mellow blue cheese, you might need 1/3 a cup or even 1/2 a cup to get the flavor you want. This also depends who you are making it for and their tastes – strong blue flavor or nah? That is the question.
I served mine with the traditional wing accompaniments – celery and carrots – as well as some toasty pita bread. Highly recommend!