Clare's Smokey Tomato Dip

A summery bean dip from Clare Langan's amazing On Cooking newsletter

This recipe photo stopped me in my tracks. Originally served up by the delightful Clare Langan’s On Cooking newsletter earlier this week, this mix of tomato goodness, bulked up and held together by white beans and almond butter and spiced with paprika, espelette pepper, and all kinds of other goodness, is exactly what I want to eat right now, a perfect meal for hot evenings—and the ideal thing to bring to a Fourth of July cookout later this week.

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My new book, SNACKING DINNERS, launched in April! Check out my events page for upcoming talks, signings, and pop-ups in the Bay Area, New York, London, and more!

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Clare based this recipe on the flavors in a Spanish romesco sauce, and it gets its summery flavor (and rich color) from a mix of sundried tomatoes + tomato paste, plenty of garlic, paprika, dried chili, and a bit of almond flour—since almonds are a key element of a romesco. She suggests a variety of ways to eat this dip, including using it to swipe under a platter of grilled or roasted vegetables; slather on a turkey sandwich; spoon onto jammy eggs for a quick snack or breakfast with avocado toast; pair with shrimp, fish, chicken or pork; dollop on to tomatoes and burrata; and as a dressing for pasta salad (if thinned with a bit of water).

All of these options sound amazing, but first I’m going to just take her first suggestion and scoop it up with big pieces of torn bread and crudités.

Clare very kindly offered to let me share her recipe here, in case you don’t already subscribe to On Cooking. (If you don’t, you’re missing out on summery recipes right now—I highly recommend you check them out.) Look out later in the season for her post about one of the recipes in my cookbook!

Clare’s Smoky Tomato Dip

Yield: ~2 cups

½ cup sun-dried tomatoes
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for finishing
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons Spanish smoked paprika
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups (one 15-ounce can) cooked white beans, drained
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons almond butter
1 teaspoon Espelette-style dried chile, plus more for topping
Sea salt, to taste
Cut vegetables, crackers or crusty bread, for serving

For Topping (optional!)
Cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if large
Fresh herbs like basil, chives, cilantro or parsley
Edible flowers! I like marigolds, bachelor buttons and pansy petals

1. Put sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover with very hot water. Set aside for about 5 minutes.

2. Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan or skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Lower heat and add the tomato paste, using a spoon to mash and spread into oil until fragrant, another few minutes. Mixture will look textured; that’s OK.

3. Add smoked paprika, onion powder and garlic powder, cooking for another minute to wake up spices.

4. Remove from heat allow to cool for a few minutes.

5. Drain sun-dried tomatoes, discard soaking liquid. In a food processor or blender, puree the soaked sun-dried tomatoes with tomato paste mixture, white beans, vinegar, almond butter and chile until smooth. Season with salt to taste. (The dip should taste like a balance of savory/sweet/tangy with a good helping of salt to balance out the sweetness of the tomatoes. Add more vinegar, salt, chile and olive oil, blending until it tastes great!)

6. To serve, spoon dip into a shallow bowl, using the back of a spoon to swoosh and swirl the top. Top with cherry tomatoes, herbs, a drizzle of olive, additional chile or any toppings you like.

More Snacks to Dig Into

While we’re on the subject of delicious summery dips you can take to parties this week, you should also check out the Homemade Onion Dip that producer and artist Kato Banks shared with me a couple years ago for The California Table newsletter. It has all the creamy, delicious flavor you get from the old-school packets without the chemical tang. Kato makes huge batches of it for parties and it disappears fast! Recipe here:

Homemade Onion Dip

Other favorite dips from past newsletters include the Seasons of Greens Green Goddess dip and my Creamy White Bean Dip with Pan-Fried Tomato Sauce:

And, of course, no list of dips would be complete without Alyse Whitney’s Red Pepper and Feta Dip:

Photos: Clare Langan, Georgia Freedman, Erin Scott, Georgia Freedman, Andrew Bui