Broccoli White Bean Dip

In an effort to get my toddler (and myself) to eat more fruits and vegetables, I've been sneaking them into things lately. I make smoothies, veggie muffins, fruit pancakes, add veggie purees to things (like spaghetti sauce or mac and cheese), etc. Basically, I take food I already eat and find a way to amp up its nutritional value. My latest thing is dip.

I make a variation of hummus (no tahini and I alternate between garbanzo beans and cannellini beans) that is basically just beans, a splash of oil, and spices. I also thought this would be a good snack for my toddler. She doesn't like things dipped in things per se but she does like to be spoon fed (which is especially ironic because we never fed her baby food and try to let her feed herself as much as long as we can tolerate the mess). I thought a dip of some sort would be similar.

Broccoli seemed like an obvious choice to me. I'm not really sure why because as far as I know, the common types of dips don't include broccoli (spinach and artichoke is the one that comes to mind). I did also think of cauliflower because that wouldn't add an unappealing color but Little Girl doesn't care if her food is green. She just hates eating vegetables plain.

Ingredients:

• about 1/3-1/2 bag of frozen broccoli, heated up
• 1 can of cannellini beans, drained
• garlic (I used about a tablespoon because it came out too fast and this is really garlicky but still good. Maybe a half tablespoon would be better?)
• paprika, just a dash
• splash of oil (or water) to get the right consistency
• about 1/3 cup of mozzarella cheese (I don't know if this was necessary but I wanted to mask the broccoli flavor as much as I could without making it too unhealthy. I might just leave it out next time because I'm not sure I even taste it)

Blend it all up in a blender (do your toddlers hate the blender too? Mine is TERRIFIED of the thing. She bursts into tears if I so much as pull it out of the pantry.) Now I served mine with chips but if you want to be extra good, serve with raw veggies. My toddler ate hers with a spoon and couldn't get enough. She even ate some of the raw broccoli while I was prepping everything (which is so rare for her!).

I would definitely make this again. Next time, I might even add the cauliflower in addition to the broccoli to up the veggie intake without altering the flavor much. I would also be tempted to try this with other vegetables (and no broccoli) and change the spices. This is a very versatile recipe. Maybe something with peppers and italian spices? Or carrots and ginger? I'll have to experiment!