Roasted Carrot Tahini Dip is a vibrant, creamy delicious healthy dip that’s naturally gluten free, grain free and dairy free! Blend white beans or soaked cashews into this dip for a extra creaminess – depending on whether you like legumes or you’d prefer a nutty (paleo) dip.
So a few weeks ago, an incredibly lovely unexpected thing happened. I won a brand new Vitamix! Really. I’m pretty certain I’ve never won a competition like this before in my life.
And the thing is, initially, I didn’t even realise I’d entered the competition. Going back a few months now, I’d posted a picture of my turmeric cauli buddha bowls on Instagram in support of Nutrition Australia’s “Try for 5” campaign, an annual campaign which encourages us to increase our veggie intake to 5 serves per day. (The majority of Australians don’t hit this target – and it would be so awesome for our health if we did). I figured a pretty rainbow buddha bowl offered a little “Try for 5” inspiration!
Little did I know, by posting and mentioning the campaign, I put myself into a draw to win a Vitamix. AMAZING.
And so now here we are, and I’m loving making all sorts of things in my Vitamix, including this roasted carrot tahini dip.
A particular focus of Nutrition Australia’s “Try for 5” campaign at the moment is to get people including vegetables in their snacks. By adding a serve of veggies in between the main meals of the day, we can more easily chip away at our veggie intake target. It’s a gentle approach and can make the target seem less overwhelming, especially if you’re not used to having large portions of vegetables or large main meals in general.
“Carrot sticks with dip” is just about the most basic veggie snack suggestion going around, and can feel a little boring. So I thought – why not MAKE THE CARROTS THE DIP. Much better! This roasted carrot tahini dip makes your carrot snacking a very pleasurable experience, I promise. After roasting up your earthy sweet carrots, you blend with:
- creamy tahini,
- rich extra virgin olive oil, and
- a pinch of cumin and coriander for spice.
And then for even more luscious creaminess you can either blend in some (1) cannellini beans (boom another vegetable!) or (2) soaked cashews if you wanna keep this legume-free. Enjoy this dip with some grainy, seedy crackers (maybe my flaxseed crackers) or use other veggies like cucumber and capsicum as dipping sticks. It’s a veggie bonanza! So much healthy enjoyment going on here.
Roasted Carrot Tahini Dip
Ingredients
- 500 grams carrots about 3 big carrots or 5-6 smaller ones
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil plus a little extra for roasting the carrots
- 1/4 cup tahini (I use hulled tahini in this recipe)
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- salt and pepper to season
- 3/4 cup cooked cannellini beans - LEGUME/NUT FREE OPTION - I usually just used canned cannellini beans, rinsed well
- 1/2 cup cashews - PALEO OPTION
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C. Chop carrots into small chunks and spread out on tray. Drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil and toss to coat. Roast for 40 minutes or until softened and browning at the edges.
- If you are making this dip with cashews, next step is soaking the cashews in hot water for about 20 minutes. Once soaked, simply drain and set aside. If you are using the beans, simply ignore this step.
- Once the carrots are done and cool enough to handle, place them in a blender or food processor. Add 3-4 tbsp water and process until you get a rough puree.
- Add the olive oil, tahini, cumin, coriander, plus the cannellini beans or soaked cashews to the blender/food processor. Process again to form a smooth dip. If the dip is too thick, add a little extra water until the desired consistency is achieved.
- Scoop the dip into an airtight container and place in the fridge to cool. The dip will keep for about five days in the fridge.
Notes
Could this be served warm as a purée?
Yes I definitely think so!
I’m going to try this today, can you tell me what you’ve used for the topping alongside the pomegranate? Thank you!
It was quite good. Next time, I’ll salt carrots during roasting and double – at least – spice amounts. I used can of pinto beans because that was what I had around
Thanks for your feedback Randall 🙂 I definitely think you can bump up the spices in this but try to be conservative when I post recipes because I know that they don’t always appeal to everyone!
This recipe looks amazing – can’t wait to try it!
Congratulations on the Vitamix win (and yes, we don’t eat enough veg,including yours truly : ( ) what a wonderful surprise. I’ve had mine for quite a while now and I just love it.
Thank you for the lovely recipes and Happy Easter! Can you believe that it’s Easter already?
Thank you so much Angela 🙂 Do let me know if you try this recipe! I think it can be hard for anyone to meet their veggie intake; sadly because of the way convenience foods are made and how busy we all are, sometimes it just takes more effort to get those veg in. But yummy dips do help! Hope you had a great Easter!