On as many Friday nights as we can, my family gets together for Shabbat dinner. This tends not to be a traditional dinner; we do light the candles and say the prayers, but rarely to do we sit down to a chicken soup-to-nuts meal. My children tend to have busy schedules, and because we live in a secular world, there are practices, games, and parties on Friday nights. So even though we try to keep the tradition of gathering and welcoming the Sabbath, the “traditional” meal has gone by the wayside. In its place is a buffet of appetizers; crudité and hummus, cheese and crackers, guacamole and chips, nuts and raisins, and sometimes, a rotisserie chicken for tradition’s sake. The noshing goes on for a few hours and is usually satisfying to the group, but for me and my food intolerances, I am limited and not always satisfied. I am a big vegetable eater and I am happy to eat them naked (read: without a dip, not me naked), but recently, I was in the mood to dip into something that would be nutritionally dense (like hummus, but I can’t eat it due to my sesame allergy) and satisfy my hunger. I could have made the white bean dip I had made on a number of occasions, but I had a hankering for something new. And since we were veering from the traditional, I decided to move away from the Middle Eastern flavor of hummus and head to Mexico.

I didn’t have a plan for my dip, but I knew the flavor I was looking for. I peeked into my pantry and found a can of black beans. Black bean dip it would be. I pulled out my food processor and proceeded to make the most yum-worthy black bean dip that ever graced a Shabbat table!

Yum-Worthy Black Bean Dip

Makes 1 1/2 cups

1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (feel free to add more or less depending on your heat preference)

1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, loosely packed

juice from 1/4 lime

In a food processor, blend all ingredients until smooth. That’s it! Really!

I dipped away! Carrots, cucumbers, tortilla chips, and tomatoes. Anything that could be dipped, was dipped. The black bean dip had a little spice to it due to the added Sriracha sauce. Had I been alone and kept the dip to myself, I might have added a bit more heat. And even though I was not alone, there were leftovers, which I spread onto rice cakes the next day while my son dipped sugar snap peas and proceeded to scrape the bowl clean (teenagers!)

Not only was this black bean dip yum-worthy, it was also quick and easy. Friday is coming around again in a few days, and I think this bean dip will become a new staple to our Shabbat “meal.”

Happy Dipping and Shabbat Shalom!

xo

B