Cannellini Beans and Artichoke Dip

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Okay, I admit it, the recipe is just fancy beans on toast. But it's still very good and super easy. I whipped this up one night after a long day at work. It takes 10 minutes and requires almost no cooking. VB enjoyed it so much that I made it again a few weeks later. This would be a good recipe to entertain with as an appetizer. It's as simple as Beans. Toast. Done.

You'll need:

• 2 or 3 large marinated artichoke hearts (thawed frozen artichoke hearts will also do), roughly chopped
  
• 1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• juice of a small lemon
• bread, sliced into 6 to 8 1/4-inch slices and toasted
• loose arugula leaves, about 4 or 5 leaves per slice of bread
• extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
• coarse flaky sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Saute garlic in a little bit of olive oil until fragrant, about a minute. Add beans and artichoke hearts. Cook until heated through. If you don't mind cold bean dip and raw garlic, you can even skip this step. I prefer to cook the garlic a little bit to take out the sting of raw garlic.

Put mixture into a food processor and add lemon juice. Pulse. While pulsing, drizzle in about 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Spread dip onto toast, top with arugula leaves. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.


As a side dish, we had a roasted beets and pear arugula salad with orange lemon vinaigrette. Fresh, easy and seasonal. It would be even better with some goat cheese on top.

For fans of the F Word, you can check out this Gordon Ramsay beans on toast with cheese recipe. It's very Michelin star fancy pants.