3 Irresistible Healthy Holiday Dips for Kids of All Ages
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Need a holiday appetizer or everyday snack that everyone will love? These healthy, sweet dips please pretty much anyone who partakes!
The secret? Beans! In these dips, chickpeas provide a subtle nutty flavor and a gorgeous silky texture. And because chickpeas (a.k.a. garbanzos) form the base of the dip, they offer a good amount of protein, vitamins, and minerals, and they're perfect for dipping with apples, bananas, strawberries, or even homemade graham crackers.
Thus, these dips are lovely as an appetizer for holiday get-togethers, an after-school snack, or a healthy school lunch.
And feel free to play around with flavors – perhaps a caramel dulce or peppermint patty or maybe something involving homemade almond paste….. regardless of the flavor, festivity abounds with these dips that seem to disappear at any party.
You can also lacto-ferment any of these by stirring in 2 tablespoons fresh whey from yogurt or milk kefir. Make the good even better! The flavor doesn't change, but you'll increase the gut-healing probiotic goodness.
With that, happy noshing!
(By the way, you may notice below that I've called these dessert-like-dips, “hummus.” I use the word “hummus” loosely, as the only similarity between these versions and original, classic hummus is a chickpea base, so no worries – there's no garlic or tahini in sight here!)
Cookie Dough Hummus Dip
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cooked garbanzo beans
- 3 tablespoons nut or seed butter, such as peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- large pinch sea salt
- ¼ cup chocolate chips, preferably fair-trade and soy-free, [such as these]
Instructions
- Place beans in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until crumbly.
- Add remaining ingredients except chocolate chips and grind until the mixture is smooth. Scrape into a serving bowl.
- When ready to serve, top with chocolate chips. Serve immediately or reserve in the refrigerator for up to three days.
Notes
Pumpkin Pie Hummus Dip
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup cooked garbanzo beans
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- 2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil, soft but still solid
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- large pinch sea salt
- ⅓ cup pecans, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Place beans in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground.
- Add remaining ingredients except for pecans and grind until smooth. Scrape into a bowl and sprinkle with pecans just before serving.
- Serve or reserve in the refrigerator for up to three days.
Notes
Gingerbread Hummus Dip
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cooked garbanzo beans
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
- 3 teaspoons ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves, more to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- large pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Place beans in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until crumbly.
- Add remaining ingredients and grind until the mixture is smooth. Scrape into a serving bowl.
- Serve immediately or reserve in the refrigerator for up to three days.
Notes
I would like to make this for thanksgiving but I have super anti “healthy” food. Do these taste weird or do they have the flavor in the title? I would just hate to make it and everyone name me the “weird one” that’s been me for a long time. 🙁 if I need to bring something I want to be able to eat it but I want others to like it too.
You can’t taste the beans in any of them, but the cookie dough one is the easiest one to share with others. That’s merely because of the texture: “normal” cookie dough has a rough texture and this texture is very similar. However, “normal” pumpkin pie is a silky custard, whereas while this is very smooth, it’s not custard-like, but the flavor is super-yummy. Do you have opportunity to make a batch or two beforehand? They don’t take long and make a yummy snack, so maybe you could try them all out first since you know the people with whom you’ll be sharing the holiday. 🙂
I hope they work for you!
Thank you
These look great! Can you make them ahead and freeze them?
Yes, you can freeze them in portions (however much you’ll want to serve at once) WITHOUT the final toppings (chocolate chips, etc), then thaw them slowly in the refrigerator. They shouldn’t separate, but if they do, just stir them once they’re fully defrosted. Add the final touches just before serving.
I’m basing this recommendation on the fact that I’ve often frozen hummus and other bean dips this way, but I’ve never actually done these particular dips, but I can’t think of any reason why their textures or flavors would change during the freezing process, so I’m fairly confident that it should be just fine.
Good luck and enjoy!
Thanks so much!