I have had a can of white cannellini beans in my kitchen cabinet forever. I bought them by mistake (I thought I was reaching for chickpeas in the store) and wasn’t really sure how to use them. As I was whipping up a batch of fava bean falafel for dinner last week, I pulled them out and decided to use them to make a hummus. While my garlic was roasting, I pulled out some sriracha, lemon, salt and spices to use as needed in the hummus—however, after placing the four base ingredients into a food processor, I decided that nothing else was needed, not even a little salt. The roasted garlic and leftover garlic oil melted perfectly into the white beans, giving them a supremely silky and rich flavor. This went perfectly alongside the falafel, but also tasted amazing the next day spread over some crusty bread.
WHITE BEAN AND ROASTED GARLIC SPREAD
Yield 2-4 servings
Ingredients
- 2 whole heads of garlic
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 can (15 oz.) of cannellini beans, rinsed
- 2-3 TB tahini
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350.Separate all of the garlic cloves from the bulbs, but do not peel them. Place the bulbs in a small pyrex glass dish, and pour the oil over the top. Stir to combine. Cover the dish with foil and place in the oven for about 45 minutes, stirring once during this time. Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes. Then, remove from the oven, and allow the garlic to cool completely.
- Remove the garlic from their papery skins by applying a little pressure at the base, and placing them into a food processor. Discard the papery skins on a plate, and reserve the leftover oil in the dish. Once you’ve gotten all of the garlic into to the food processor, pick up all of the skins in your hand and give them a good squeeze into the food processor to release all of the buttery and flavorful garlic oil.
- Place the beans into the food processor with the garlic and pulse a few times. Now add in the tahini and the leftover garlic oil in your pyrex dish. Pulse until smooth, then transfer to a serving dish.
Angie's Recipes says
August 5, 2012 at 4:20 amGorgeous roasted garlic! The spread must be delish.
Get Skinny, Go Vegan. says
August 5, 2012 at 3:27 pmLooks beautiful & simple!!!!! Love the roasted garlic but it does a number on me! Hubby will love this stuff.
Angry Asian says
August 6, 2012 at 3:09 pmi was on a raw food cleanse last week and i had cooked my dried cannellini beans for too long. in order to salvage them i had to process them with the same exact ingredients you have listed, minus the roasting of the garlic. i dipped carrots in them for a lovely afternoon snack.
veggieecolife says
August 6, 2012 at 3:18 pmLovely photo! And I bet that spread will taste delicious, must try this with the beans that are permanently staying on the shelve..
thevegankitchenofdrcaligari says
August 10, 2012 at 8:11 amI am totally addicted to garlic. This recipe is on the top of my to do list!
Anonymous says
February 11, 2014 at 1:58 amI made this on the weekend and I loved it. It was super easy and it tasted like garlic heaven.
erinwyso says
February 11, 2014 at 2:33 amso happy you liked! Garlic heaven is always nice. : )
fittingintovegan says
February 17, 2014 at 2:46 pmI have been wanting to roast garlic for awhile now but it seemed to intimidating – another of those cooking "hmmm's". thanks for the easy how-to. Much easier than I thought!