Hot Creamy Kale Dip Recipe

Reprinted with permission from Superfood Snacks by Julie Morris (Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.). 

Photograph by Oliver Barth

Hot Creamy Kale Dip
Makes 2 cups/8 servings

It’s a dip … it’s a spread … it’s a bowl of something you desperately try not to devour in a single sitting (alas, I project). This amazing, can’t-stop-eating-it dip is perfect for parties or just a midday munch. You can serve it with small toasts or crudités — or put it in a ceramic serving bowl and keep it warm in a low-temperature oven until you’re ready to serve. Leftovers are also delicious cold, though it’s unlikely there will be any.

½ cup raw cashews
1 tablespoon yellow miso paste
½ cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
½ teaspoon ground cumin
pinch cayenne pepper
6 cups packed curly kale leaves, finely chopped
Sea salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
¼ cup hemp seeds, plus additional for garnish

Place the cashews, miso paste, and water in a blender and blend until the mixture is as smooth as possible.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, or until onions are softened and translucent. Add the cumin, cayenne, kale, and a big pinch of salt and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute or until kale is wilted to about half its original size and bright green. Reduce the heat to medium-low and pour in the cashew mixture (don’t clean the blender — you’ll be adding ingredients back into it shortly). Cook the mixture for 3 to 4 minutes longer, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Remove from heat and spoon the kale back into the blender. Add the lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and hemp seeds, and blend to partially puree while still leaving small textural bits of the vegetables intact. (You will likely need to stop the blender several times and manually stir the ingredients back down toward the blades before blending again.)

Taste the dip, add additional salt as needed, then serve.

Serving suggestions: Use this dip as a spread for toast or crackers, brown rice cakes, or wrapped in a sprouted tortilla.