Spooky Spicy Graveyard Bean Dip Recipe

If you have a Halloween party coming up that you need a recipe for, dips are an easy and popular choice, being a relatively filling snack that can be nibbled on throughout the night (or maybe even used as a girl dinner). The question is, do you bring your famous taco dip for the eighth year in a row, or risk switching it up? We offer a solution: taco dip, but turned spooky. All it takes is a little imagination.

In this recipe, developer Michelle McGlinn turns a few cans of beans into the landscape of a Halloween graveyard, complete with tiny tortilla gravestones and cherry tomato pumpkins. First, a roasted red pepper pinto bean dip is blended and spread on the bottom, then a chipotle-garlic black bean dip is layered on top. When guests dig into the "graves," they'll be greeted first with the smoky spice of chipotle, then the brighter flavor of roasted red pepper. The toppings can be as imaginative as you want, involving edible garnishes such as cilantro and bell peppers or more playful decor like skulls and skeletons. If the cute stuff isn't your thing (or maybe it's July), give the bean dip a try anyway — it might just replace your taco dip recipe.

For the bean dips, you'll need a couple cans of pinto beans and black beans, garlic, onion, a can of chipotles in adobo, a jar of roasted red peppers, cumin, and salt. For the toppings, we suggest tortilla chips, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, bell pepper, and cotija cheese. To write on the tombstones, you'll want to use something edible and savory like sour cream. To make this look "spooky," look for blue corn tortilla chips, which are closer in color to gravestones than white corn, and use these for serving, as well. Try to find orange cherry tomatoes still on the vine for a closer resemblance to pumpkins (or use black cocktail tomatoes for an extra-spooky look). If you or your guests are cilantro-averse, swap the cilantro for lettuce.

Combine pinto beans, cumin, salt, red peppers, and 1 clove garlic in a blender.

Blend until smooth.

Smooth the pinto bean mixture into a casserole dish.

Combine the black beans, adobo sauce, chipotle, remaining garlic, and onion in a blender.

Blend until smooth.

Smooth the black bean dip over the pinto dip.

To make tombstones, use a squeeze bottle to write epitaphs with sour cream on the tortilla chips. Cut the chips into tombstone shapes, reserving the remaining pieces.

Place tortilla chips throughout the dip. Sprinkle the reserved crushed tortilla chip pieces in front of tombstones, then dig "graves" in front of the chips.

Garnish with cherry tomatoes, cilantro, and bell pepper.

Sprinkle with cotija cheese.

Serve with tortilla chips.

To make the tombstones as pictured, use sharp kitchen shears to cut the triangles into slanted rectangular shapes — this doesn't have to be perfect, and if you don't want to mess with shears, just use the tortilla chips whole. Then, use a writing tip piping bag filled with sour cream to write epitaphs. The most you'll be able to fit is "R.I.P.", so don't worry about writing very much. If you aren't equipped with specialty piping tips, just curl a thin piece of paper into a cone shape and use that as your piping bag.

Of course, you can take a more straightforward approach and use oval-shaped Ritz crackers, tortilla strips, or pita chips instead. If you don't need the tombstones to be edible, you can also order decorative tombstones online.

To garnish otherwise, we recommend following a similar formula to a taco dip, using tomatoes, peppers, cheese, and cilantro or lettuce. You can swap the cotija for finely shredded Pepper Jack, sauté the peppers, and use a variety of tomato colors. You can also consider using sliced black olives and green onions for additional toppings, or add miniature skeletons and spiders from the store — just be sure to warn your guests if something isn't edible.

This bean dip comes together very quickly, but if you're planning to go all-out with the tombstones, you might want to prep some of this ahead. Unfortunately, the tombstones can't be made ahead because the sour cream makes the chips soggy, so the best way to make this ahead is to prepare the dips. Blend the dips, cleaning the blender between each batch, and spread them into the casserole dish. Cover and store the dips for up to 5 days in the refrigerator. 

If you don't have room to store the dips this way, just store them individually in deli cups and assemble them when you're getting ready to serve. Then, sprinkle on the peppers, cilantro, cotija, and tomatoes fresh, so the cilantro isn't wilted and the tomatoes don't make the dip watery. To store leftovers after serving, we recommend removing the tortilla tombstones and any inedible garnishes and transferring the remaining dip to an airtight container.