*Just looking at the title lets you know that this is going to be pretty flavourful! 🙂

I love to dip. There, I said it. There is something just so fun and carefree about standing around and dipping your vegetables, crackers or pita bread into a communal dip (No double dipping allowed!). Get togethers just wouldn’t be complete without an assortment of dips to share and enjoy.

Jamie and I were recently invited to a summer roof-top patio party at Jeff’s place. My mother must have raised me right, because I find it almost impossible to be invited to a party and not offer to bring some kind of food. Jeff even made a comment on this fact. He mentioned how he loved that he invited a bunch of people together but I felt a need to cook for his guests. Well, I guess that is just how I roll. 🙂

I knew that I wanted to bring dips, and all I had in my current repertoire was Hummus (which did make an appearance), but I wanted to branch out and try something a bit different. I began searching on the internet for make-ahead dips, and those with caramelized onions in the title seemed to appeal to me the most. So, I narrowed my search to “Caramelized Onion Dips” and found a winner.

Now, when I was reading through this recipe, I noticed that it called for a lot of cumin. Now, maybe my taste buds have changed, and I should give it another try, but I used to find the flavour of cumin to be very overpowering. I actually go out of my way to avoid this ingredient. But, I do love the taste of curry (I know what you are thinking – curry power has cumin as one of the key ingredients! I am aware of this, but I still avoid cumin and embrace curry powder. I really am an enigma!)

All of that, just to say that I substituted medium curry power for cumin 😉

I started off by slicing up the onions to caramelize. It really amazes me that a huge bowl of cut up onions only amounts to a little bit of caramelized onions. It is only when you taste their sweet deliciousness that you realize that it is totally worth all the time and effort. If I wasn’t making this dip for a party, there is a good chance that we would have taken these onions and put them on a couple of homemade burgers.

Caramelizing the onions is the hardest part of this recipe. Once that step was completed, it was just a matter of throwing everything in the food processor and blending to a delicious party worthy treat. This was a total hit with everyone and this recipe has now earned a top ranking spot in our recipe collection.

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Adapted from:
Culinary Adventures in the Kitchen – Black Bean & Caramelized Onion Dip

Ingredients:

• 2 large white onions
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• salt to taste
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans – rinsed
• 1/3 cup cream cheese
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp medium curry powder
• 1 tsp siracha sauce – I told you we put this in everything 🙂
• pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In saucepan over medium-low heat, sauté onions in olive oil, butter, brown sugar and salt.  Stir constantly. Once onions start to caramelize, turn down the heat to avoid burning. Onions should fully caramelize in 40 – 50 minutes.   For more steps on caramelizing onions, click here.
2. In food processor, mince garlic.  Add the rinsed beans and process until it becomes a smooth purée.  Add in the cream cheese, curry powder, and sriracha sauce.  Add in a few twists from you pepper mill and pulse to combine.
3. Keeping about a 1/3 cup back for the topping, add the remaining caramelized onions and mix to combine.
4. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with the remaining caramelized onions.
5. Dip in!