Italian White Bean Dip {with Homemade Pita Bread}

I have a treasured folder where I keep paper copies of recipes.  Some jotted down on scratch paper, others torn from magazines, and lots printed from the pages of fellow bloggers I admire.  This morning I found this Italian White Bean Dip recipe that I had torn from a Weight Watchers hand out….months ago.  Time to revisit.

This recipe was also an excuse to break out my Vitamix that has not been used as often as I’d hoped.  Shame on me.  What a dream machine it is.

There are three components to this dip.  The base of white beans infused with fresh lemon flavor.  Next comes the Basil Pesto, which was a wonderful way to use the fresh basil that is thriving in our Aero-Garden right now.  Lastly comes diced ripe tomato rounding out the Italian flavors.

When it came time to serve this dip, there wasn’t a chip or cracker or even a hunk of bread to be found.  I’ve been wanting to try my hand at Homemade Pita Bread.  There was no time like the present to give it a go.

I found this step-by-step recipe over at The Kitchn.  Do you love this site as much as I do?? I feel like I’m getting free cooking lessons every time I log in.  Back to the Pita Bread.  It’s delicious.  However, after my first attempt (and there will be many more) my bread was more like Naan than Pita.  We had no pockets, just some cute air bubbles (see tips from The Kitchn on how to correct this).

Here’s my little step-by-step summary.  Until perfected I’ll have you refer to The Kitchn’s page for the recipe.

A quick & easy 5-ingredient dough comes together with minimal elbow grease (about 5-7 minutes of kneading).

The dough then rises for 1-2 hours.  By this time it was 6:30 pm, the heavenly Italian White Bean Dip was calling me.  I went with an hour, probably should have given it more time.

Lesson #1 ~ Good things come to those who wait.

The dough is then cut into 8 pcs. that get rolled out into thin disks.

Get your cast iron skillet good and hot and coat it with a little oil.  My first two batches were a bit oil sogged. 

Lesson #2 ~ Less is more.

The directions said to cook for 1-2 minutes per side.  That seemed like a long time.

Refer back to Lesson #1.

The end result yielded 6 out of 8…pretty darn good looking Pita Breads.  No we didn’t have “pockets” for stuffing, but these flat breads would be fantastic with our Lamb Gyros or cut up and served with Shelby’s Yummus Hummus or turned into Flat Bread Pizzas.

As for our Italian White Bean Dip, I delivered it to my office today to Share the Love.  They looooved the dip with it’s hummus-like texture and fresh lemony pop.  And they loved the homemade pita bread as well.  A great Healthy Choices recipe weighing in at only 3 WW Pts+ per serving.  I can dig it.

Italian White Bean Dip

Weight Watchers

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• 1 can 13.5-ounce white northern beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 Tbl. fresh lemon juice or less to taste
• 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
• 1 Tbl. water
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 1/4 cup basil pesto see recipe link in post
• 1 plum tomato diced
• Homemade Pita Bread recipe link in post

Instructions

 

• Put beans, lemon juice, lemon zest, water, salt & pepper in a food processor or blender; process until smooth.
• Scrape dip into a serving dish; swirl in basil pesto. Chill 30 minutes then top with diced tomato.
• WW Pts+ per serving.
• Serve with Homemade Pita Bread. WW Pts+ not calculated.

Notes

For gluten-free version serve with corn chips or veggie sticks.

Other recipes you might enjoy:

Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Dip Chopped Mediterranean Salad with Lemon Herb Vinaigrette