Slow Cooker Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Dip with Tahini

Categories : appetizers & savoury snacks, easy peasy, lent, potatoes & vegetables, Recipes, Slow Cooker @en, vegetarian or vegan

A deliciously light and fluffy dip with butternut squash, sweet potato, tahini, lemon, garlic and chilli. The vegetables are cooked in the slow cooker making it a doddle to throw together. Best enjoyed with something a bit salty to complement the slight sweetness of the dip.

This is what I would call a “bonus recipe”. Meaning that I wasn’t planning on posting it as I only made it to use as a prop! Let me explain…

A couple of months ago I organised a little event here at my home, for fellow food photographers to come and enjoy a day of shooting, trying out techniques, chatting about photography and social media, and generally just spending time with like-minded people while doing what they love. Taking pictures of food. It was a really fun day and I will definitely be doing it again at some point, so if you’re interested be on the lookout (I will announce it here as well as Instagram next time).

Anyway, in preparation for this event (I gave it the cheesy name of “food photography FunDay”) I put together some props. I decided we would style a dip scene as I love this sort of image (cheeseboards, grazing boards etc) and I found a pumpkin hummus on Pinterest that looked like it would be a pretty element. So I bought a butternut squash and popped it in the slow cooker, then realized I also had some cooked sweet potato in the fridge. I used Lazy Cat Kitchen’s recipe as a guide and made something similar, using tahini, lemon juice etc. It turned out beautiful to look at (that colour!) but it was also delicious! Of course I hadn’t kept any decent notes so I had to test it again. By the way this is the photo we styled and shot on the day. What do you think? The other two dips are regular hummus and hummus mixed with beetroot powder!

So, let’s get to the recipe. As I mentioned already, cooking the butternut squash and sweet potato is easy as pie (see the steps below) and then all you have to do is blend the ingredients together. The awesome bit is how light and airy the dip becomes. It’s like a mousse, nice and fluffy!

How do I always manage to write so much for recipes that I thought would need maybe one paragraph? Anyway, hope you give this a go, it’s really good.

Happy holidays you guys!

Ingredients

2 ¼ cups cooked butternut squash, mashed (from about 1 medium butternut squash)

2 cups cooked sweet potato, mashed (from about 1 large sweet potato)

90 ml (6 Tbs) tahini

1/4 tsp lemon zest

2 Tbs lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1 Tbs apple vinegar

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white pepper, freshly cracked

1/8 tsp chilli powder

Step 1

Put the whole, unpeeled butternut squash and the whole, unpeeled sweet potato in the slow cooker. Don’t add anything else (no water, nothing). Cook on low for about 6 hours or until a knife glides through the thickest part of both vegetables. Let them cool, slice in half lengthways and scoop out the flesh (discarding the squash seeds). Measure 2 ¼ cups of squash and 2 cups of sweet potato and place them into a large bowl.

Step 2

Add the tahini, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic powder, salt, pepper and chilli powder. Blend with a stick blender until well combined and “fluffy”.

Step 3

Serve with something salty or with fresh vegetables to dip in.

Notes
This makes a pretty big batch. Halve it if you’re making it for yourself or just a few people.

I use garlic powder because it’s mellower and closer to a roasted garlic flavour in my opinion, but of course you can use anything you prefer. Raw garlic, garlic paste, roasted garlic or garlic powder.