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Home > Vegan Recipes

Butter Bean Dip Recipe with Sun-dried Tomatoes

9/8/20 by Nicole | 6 Comments

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4.8 from 4 votes. Leave a review!

This butter bean dip recipe is packed with flavor from sun-dried tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs and other fresh ingredients. It’s vegan and gluten free, making it an ideal appetizer or snack for a wide variety of people!

Butter bean dip in glass bowl topped with two half slices of lemon surrounded by crackers and vegetables

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What are Butter Beans?

Butter beans are a type of legume that are commonly eaten in many parts of the world. There’s sometimes confusion about the difference between butter beans and lima beans but they’re the same bean!

Depending where you live, this delicious bean may either be called a butter bean (sometimes spelled butterbean) or lima bean. Both terms refer to the same legume, but most products don’t list both terms on the package, so be on the lookout for one or the other!

Where I live, these beans are always called lima beans and you wouldn’t find a package of butter beans anywhere.

Glass bowl of butterbean dip topped with single cilantro leaf, set on white marble background

How to Make Vegan Butter Bean Dip

Making butter bean dip is simple. For this recipe, most of the ingredients are cooked together before blending the dip. This allows for plenty of flavor from sautéing onions, garlic and sun dried tomatoes together.

The butter beans and herbs are cooked in next, allowing them to heat through. This provides additional time for the flavors to come together.

Split image with left side showing large pan with onions, garlic and sun dried tomatoes cooking and the right side showing the same pan with added butter beans, tomatoes and spices

You can use a high-speed blender or food processor for this dip. This recipe creates a very thick dip so a high-speed blender is necessary to allow the dip to blend. Even with a high-speed blender, you’ll likely need extra liquid from vegetable broth to get things going.

If you don’t have a blender, a food processor works well; just scrape down the sides of the processor as you go.

In either case, I like to keep some texture in this dip rather than puree it completely smooth. Blend to whatever texture you prefer. If you want a smooth hummus-like texture, you can certainly do so!

Hand dipping round pita bread cracker into butter bean dip in glass bowl topped with two half slices of lemon, surrounded by a few other crackers in bottom right corner; on white marble background

How to Serve Butter Bean Dip

This butter bean dip can be served warm or cold. Both options are tasty, but the temperature makes a difference in how the dip tastes.

When cold, the flavor of the sun dried tomatoes is slightly muted, whereas the other flavors from the butter beans and herbs seems to be more prominent. I also find that each bite tastes different, depending on what you pick up (since I keep the dip chunky, some bites have larger pieces of onion, beans or tomato which changes up the flavor as you go!). To serve cold, the dip needs to be refrigerated for at least 2 hours or overnight.

When this dip is warm, the overall flavor seems to be more uniform but there’s still variation in each bite if you keep some texture in the dip. According to my husband, the warm dip has a rich, somewhat cheesy flavor (despite none of the ingredients directly providing that type of flavor).

Hand holding up pita bread cracker with bean dip on it, background blurred but showing bowl of dip on wooden platter with cracker, baby carrots and cucumber slices

Use crackers, veggies, pita bread or chips to scoop up this tasty dip. You can also spread it into a sandwich or wrap for a boost of flavor and nutrition! I find rosemary crackers to be particularly delicious with this herby butter bean dip.

If you make this recipe, please rate and comment below to help others benefit from your experience!

Close up of butter bean dip (pale brown color) garnished with lemon slices.

Butter Bean Dip with Sun Dried Tomatoes (Vegan)

Enjoy this flavor-packed gluten free vegan butter bean dip recipe that is delicious served hot or cold. It can be blended to your desired texture as well!
4.75 from 4 votes. Leave a review!
Prevent screen going dark
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 10 mins
Total Time 25 mins
Servings 6 Servings
Calories 171 kcal
Cuisine Mediterranean-inspired, Vegan

Equipment

  • Cutting board
  • Knife
  • Large pan
  • High speed blender (or food processor)

Ingredients
  

  • 1 ½ cups butter beans (14 oz/ 398 mL can, drained and rinsed)
  • 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ cup onion , chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic , minced
  • ⅓ cup sun dried tomatoes , sliced
  • ½ cup tomato , diced
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice (juice of about ¼ of a lemon)
  • ½ teaspoon dry basil
  • ½ teaspoon dry oregano
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons tahini
  • 2-3 tablespoons vegetable broth (no salt added/ low sodium)
  • 1 tablespoon agave syrup
Prevent screen going dark

Instructions

  • Drain and rinse a can of butter beans. Prepare the chopped onion, minced garlic, sliced sun-dried tomatoes and diced fresh tomatoes.
    1 ½ cups butter beans, ½ cup onion, 2 cloves garlic, ⅓ cup sun dried tomatoes, ½ cup tomato
  • In a medium pan, over medium heat, add olive oil along with the onions, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. Cook for 4-5 minutes, until the onions start to appear translucent and softened.
    1 ½ tablespoons olive oil, ½ cup onion, 2 cloves garlic, ⅓ cup sun dried tomatoes
  • Add the butter beans, fresh tomato, lemon juice, dry basil, dry oregano, salt and black pepper. Cook until the fresh tomato starts to soften and release some of its juices.
    1 ½ cups butter beans, ½ cup tomato, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ½ teaspoon dry basil, ½ teaspoon dry oregano, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • Remove pan from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring into a high-speed blender or food processor.
  • Add tahini, vegetable broth and agave syrup to the blender or food processor.
    2 tablespoons tahini, 2-3 tablespoons vegetable broth, 1 tablespoon agave syrup
  • Blend until the dip is combined. You can leave a few larger pieces for texture if you like, or blend completely smooth (like hummus). You may need to add vegetable broth to help the dip blend (add 1 tablespoon at a time to get the desired texture).
  • Serve warm or chill to serve cold!

Video

Notes

Accuracy of nutrition information cannot be guaranteed (certain ingredients may not have all nutrients listed in the database); amounts may vary (and will vary depending on brands of ingredients used); all nutrition fact values rounded to the nearest whole number.
Nutrition information references butter bean dip made with low sodium vegetable broth.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 Serving (⅙ of recipe)Calories: 171 kcalCarbohydrates: 24 gProtein: 6 gFat: 6 gSaturated Fat: 1 gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2 gMonounsaturated Fat: 4 gSodium: 222 mgPotassium: 570 mgFiber: 5 gSugar: 6 gVitamin A: 209 IUVitamin C: 13 mgCalcium: 56 mgIron: 3 mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

More Vegan Appetizer Recipes

Like this recipe? You should also try:

  • Close up of plate filled with cucumber rollups filled with pistachio and avocado.
    Vegan Cucumber Roll Ups (Avocado + Pistachio Filling)
  • Close up of a pile of cauliflower wings.
    Vegan Cauliflower Wings (with BBQ Sauce)
  • Close up of a plate of kale salad with tahini dressing, oranges, edamame, almonds and carrots.
    Vegan Kale Salad (with Orange-Tahini Dressing)

About Nicole Stevens

Nicole is a vegan Registered Dietitian (RD) and founder of Lettuce Veg Out.

She helps people thrive on a vegan diet with balanced recipes and easy-to-understand nutrition science.


Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stacy Forget

    December 05, 2020 at 11:30 pm

    This is really tasty and makes plenty of dip to have leftovers. It was also really simple and used some of my favorite ingredients. Next time, I will likely omit or at least significantly decrease the sweetener (I used coconut sugar) as I did not care for the sweetness. Just my personal preference and it was easily balanced by adding a bit more lemon and broth. Thank you so much for sharing!

    Reply
    • Nicole Stevens

      December 06, 2020 at 11:46 am

      Glad you were able to balance out the flavors to your preference 🙂

      Reply
  2. Wendy

    December 03, 2020 at 7:38 am

    I loved this recipe! I made a couple of changes though. I drained the butter beans, but don't rinse them. That removes flavor. Also, reserve the bean liquid and use that instead of broth. That added some more bean flavor.

    Reply
    • Nicole Stevens

      December 06, 2020 at 11:45 am

      Sound like you love that bean flavor and this would be a great way to enhance it!

      Reply
  3. Jeannette Stevens

    October 30, 2020 at 5:45 pm

    Tastes as Amazing as it looks!

    Reply
    • Nicole Stevens

      November 02, 2020 at 3:03 pm

      Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it.

      Reply

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Hi, I'm Nicole! As a vegan Registered Dietitian, I empower vegans to live a balanced life and gain confidence in the kitchen.

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