0/10 for looks, but SHAZAM for flavour

I can just about face beans again. After running down my Brexit no-deal stash (soon to be run up again, obvs) and then noshing through sensible prudent February/March bean purchasing, there's been a distinct gap in my pulse consumption. But I do still have beans. They are still cheap and healthy. And I am still in the mood to experiment with recipes, while not wanting too much heat on in the kitchen. (I mean, it's pouring as I type this, but it's also July, and therefore it is cold food weather. I insist.)

So, let's make a walnut and bean skordalia, kids! Another recipe from Taverna, which doesn't really translate skordalia but as far as I can tell it's "fiery garlic sauce bulked out with random other things". Which is very much my kind of cooking.

I didn't take any process photos as the process is "put this lot in a blender". The lot is:

100g walnut bits (or whole walnuts if you're fancy)

3 cloves garlic

Juice of a whole lemon

Up to 150ml olive oil (not sure I used anything like that)

Tin of cannellini beans, drained but the juice reserved

Seasoning (this does need salt)

Technically I think you do the walnuts and garlic first, then add the wet stuff, then the beans, then balance it out with extra bean juice. But my blender won't do dry nuts (fnar), so I did pretty much everything and then added the beans at the end. I hate bean juice, so I'm glad to say it all seemed very creamy and pleasant without using the evil Aqua Faba at all.

This skordalia is meant to be part of a mezze spread, and tbh it's the kind of thing that would get ignored at a party. It is blobby, it is beige. You could sprinkle some pomegranate seeds and parsley on it, and people might guess it's houmous and take pity. But those hypothetical partygoers are FOOLS, cos it's delicious. Garlicky and sharp, but smoothed out enough not to take your head off.

Respect the beige blob. Is very nice. Punchy. Full of zip. And fibre.

Don't be shallow.

I had it with cheese, watercress, bread and some cooked courgettes in a lemon dressing (because I had spare courgettes that were going weird, and some leftover vinaigrette too). It went with all of that. It is a Good Dip.