White Bean and Pea Dip -- #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  We love dips. (I hear you laughing. It’s okay.) I’ve shared recipes for several – last summer's Artichoke Mint Dip here in the Kitchen, Olive Tapenade in Death al Dente, my first Food Lovers' Village mystery, and others along the way. They’re simple, and they feel extravagant – like you’re just snacking, even if you have an assortment of dips with crackers, pita wedges, or baguette slices, a salad, and a glass of wine and call it dinner!

This dip also goes well with cut vegetables, so make it a part of your pre-dinner noshing or the centerpiece in a fun late-summer dinner. 

(The can looks damaged. Don't worry -- it wasn't, and we lived.)  

White Bean and Pea Dip

1 15 ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup frozen peas, thawed

1 clove garlic

1/3 cup fresh mint

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

½ teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste. 

mint for garnish

crackers, pita wedges, or baguette slices, or cut vegetables, for serving

Combine beans, peas, garlic, mint, and lemon juice in a food processor, and process until smooth, with few green chunks, about 2 minutes. Drizzle in the olive oil and season with the salt, processing another minute. Adjust seasonings.

Transfer to serving bowl and garnish with fresh mint. Or a nasturtium, as I did!

Enjoy!

From the cover of BLIND FAITH, written as Alicia Beckman (Crooked Lane Books, October 11, 2022)  

Long-buried secrets come back with a vengeance in a cold case gone red-hot in Agatha Award-winning author Alicia Beckman’s second novel, perfect for fans of Laura Lippman and Greer Hendricks.

Two women whose paths crossed in Montana years ago discover they share keys to a deadly secret that exposes a killer—and changes everything they thought they knew about themselves. 

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries, continuing in July 2022 with Peppermint Barked. She's the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories. Death al Dente, the first Food Lovers' Village Mystery, won Best First Novel in 2013, following her 2011 win in Best Nonfiction. Her first historical short story, "All God's Sparrows," won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story. As Alicia Beckman, she writes standalone suspense, beginning with Bitterroot Lake (2021) and continuing with Blind Faith (October 2022, Crooked Lane Books).

A past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by her website and subscribe to her seasonal newsletter, for a chat about the writing life, what she's working on, and  what she's reading -- and a free short story. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.