Cooking With ALDI - Cheesy Pinto Bean Dip

Did you know there's a whole section of ALDI's website filled with recipes? Yeah I know, endless possibilities! So guess what? Welcome to a new blog segment - Cooking With ALDI - where we take a recipe from the ALDI website and make it using ALDI products...or as many ALDI products as we can find. Let's face it, one of the reasons we love ALDI is product turn over, but that's going to make following a recipe an adventure. So on with the first adventure - Cheesy Pinto Bean Dip.

 Let's get this party started!

There's got to be some rules, right?

1. Use the specific ALDI products listed in the recipe whenever available.
2. If the product in the recipe is not available, substitute with a suitable ALDI product.
3. If rules 1 and 2 can not be followed, purchase item from another grocer OR if the item is deemed not integral to the recipe, leave out altogether.

That's it, let's see how we did.
 
I couldn't find Benita Shredded Quesadilla Cheese which is denoted in the recipe as a specialty item that may not be available. Correct! I also didn't find Benita Diced Green Chiles or green onions. I substituted Happy Farms Pepper Jack for the cheese, Casa Mamita Tomatoes and Green Chiles (a Rotel knock-off) for the chiles and left out the green onions altogether. Also, I didn't find Stonemill Essentials Taco Seasoning so I used Casa Mamita Taco Seasoning in it's place, but it's 1 oz instead of the 1.25 oz called for in the recipe. I don't think it made a difference.

So following the recipe, I put half the beans in my food processor with half the taco seasoning and blended. Well sort of. It blended the ones on the bottom, leaving the ones on top whole. I had to repeatedly smoosh them around with a spatula. In the recipes defense, I have a pretty crappy food processor so if you own a real one you may have better results. I assembled the dip as per the layering instructions and popped it into the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Then 5 more. Then 10 more. Then 10 more. So it really took about 40 minutes to heat this through. Again, in defense of the recipe, I used a deeper dish instead of a pie pan so maybe if you spread it thinner it would take less time. Just keep an eye on it - I repeatedly stuck a knife in it to test.

Ole!

When it finally finished heating up it came out looking pretty good. I scooped some onto a Clancey's Big Dipper Corn Chip for tasting and...WOW, it's actually good. Like really good. Like I might just make this again sometime good. It was easy, cheesy, dipped easily and tasted good. If you enjoy cheese, taco seasoning and pinto beans, this dip is for you. Good job ALDI labs!

Here's what we shelled out -

Dakota’s Pride Canned Pinto Beans-- $1.19
Casa Mamita Taco Seasoning Mix -- $.35
Casa Mamita Medium Salsa -- $1.69
Happy Farms Pepper Jack Cheese -- $1.79
Fit & Active Neufchâtel Cheese -- $1.19
Benita Diced Tomatoes and Green Chiles -- $.59
Clancey's Big Dipper Corn Chips -- $1.19 

Total -- $7.99

I've decided that for posterity, I'll post the recipe here in the blog just in case ALDI pulls a Grandessa on us and removes it. So here you go -

Cheesy Pinto Bean Dip

Ingredients:

29-oz. can Dakota’s Pride Canned Pinto Beans
1.25 oz. Stonemill Essentials Taco Seasoning Mix
1/2 cup Casa Mamita Medium Salsa
1 cup Benita Shredded Quesadilla Cheese*
8 oz. Fit & Active Neufchâtel Cheese, softened
4 oz. Benita Diced Green Chiles
3 green onions, sliced thin
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. 
Drain pinto beans and divide in half.
Place 1/2 of beans and 1/2 packet of taco seasoning mix in a food processor and blend to a semi-smooth consistency.
Dry remaining beans on a paper towel. Then toss with remaining taco seasoning. Set aside.
To assemble: Spread Neufchâtel Cheese on 9-in. pie plate.
Layer with mashed pinto beans, then salsa, then whole pinto beans, then green chiles.
Top with cheese and bake for 15 min. or until cheese is melted and golden brown.
Garnish with green onions and serve!

I give this Cheesy Pinto Bean Dip an A. It's pretty good and an easy party dish.