Smoky Black Bean Dip

I honestly have no idea why it took me this long to come up with a black bean dip.  You'd think it would have been a no brainer since I love black beans and you all know I LOVE me some dips!  Maybe it has to do with the fact that the bean dip that comes in a jar kind of skeeves me out a bit, and the one homemade black bean dip I've had was not all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips.  I did just say that.  

But finally something ended up inspiring me and, voile!  A homemade, smoky and spicy black bean dip I could eat by the spoonful.  Seriously.  I may or may not have done that already.  

Don't you love how I tried to get all fancy and garnish?  Yea I'm pretty sure parsley is the standard garnish and not cilantro.  You make do with what you have.

The best part is, it's super easy.  Even if you cook your black beans from scratch like I do  instead of dumping from a can, the dip is still super easy.

Smoky Black Bean Dip  ~  makes roughly 3 cups

3 cups black beans, cooked fresh or 2 cans worth, drained and rinsed

1 cup salsa of choice

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt  (or less if you can swing it)*

1/4-1 tsp liquid smoke (as desired)*

cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes (optional)*

Dump all ingredients into food processor and process till smooth!  That easy folks.  

*If you use canned beans (which have some salt in them), don't add any salt initially as you might not need it. If you have cooked up your beans from scratch with no salt (like I do) then you may want to use 1/4-1/2 tsp salt.

*The liquid smoke is all about preference here.  How smoky do you want it?  Start small and increase your way up.  While I ADORE smokiness and could put it in just about any food, I have discovered through an unfortunate soup incident that there is such a thing as too much liquid smoke.  

*The red pepper is totally optional.  I'm not a big fan of heat, but I'm sure my husband would love this dip even more if I added some heat.

This dip is totally yummy by itself, with chips, on Roasted Chickpea Tacos, slathered on leaves of lettuce and topped with tomatoes, on burgers and sandwiches as a spread, on your taco salad - you get the idea.  Versatile.

Hubbs declared it really good and Charlie even likes it too, so this is totally a winner in my book.  But then again, I am totally a sucker for bean dips. :)

Also, my husband just told me this morning that if he had the money, he would hire his brother to design me a shirt that said "I love beans" so I could sell it here on my website.  All I could think of was how sweet that was.  It gave me the warm fuzzies on the inside.  And no that wasn't the beans talking.