Roasted Pumpkin Dip with Pumpkin Ale

Our easy roasted pumpkin dip is a savory celebration of the fruit’s sweetness. Must make in fall!

• Go directly to the Recipe Card or
• Read on for useful tips, video and step-by-step pictures (2 mins) 

Savory Pumpkin Dip Ingredients

This is our original recipe and I feel obliged to explain why each ingredient is there.

• Sweet pie pumpkin or butternut squash – for their mellow sweet taste which explodes after roasting and results in a beautiful caramelization
• Brown sugar – to aid said caramelization
• Onion and garlic – for their sweet and savory contribution after roasting
• Jalapeno – for the toasty heat it contributes
• Tomato paste – for its deep, concentrated acidity and body
• Salt & pepper – season to taste
• Smoked paprika – for an elegant hint of smokiness to underlay the rest of the flavors
• Pumpkin ale – for its pumpkin & spice malty flavors which beautifully tie together with the other ingredients. When seasonally available try to use a pumpkin ale – it is absolutely worth it. Otherwise substitute with a brown or amber ale, even a red IPA. If you’d like to go alcohol free thin out with a bit of chicken broth but add half a teaspoon of pumpkin spice to the dip as well.

Typically savory pumpkin dips include cheese in some form, most commonly cream cheese. Ours however is a savory pumpkin dip without cream cheese.

NOTE:If you really crave cheese what you could do is mix in a bit of finely grated earthy and salty Parmesan or Pecorino in the end. No more than 2 tablespoons at first, then adjust to taste.

For this post we used New Belgium Brewing Atomic Pumpkin Ale which is actually not your ordinary pumpkin ale. Even though it has the bold pumpkin and malty sweetness the style is known for – it is also spicy! The Atomic Pumpkin is brewed with Habanero peppers, spicy Saigon Cinnamon, Aji and Del Arbol chiles. A real winner for the purposes of this dip. 

How to Make Roasted Pumpkin Dip

Both the step by step picture collage below and the brief instructional video in the recipe card show the simple process of making this pumpkin dip.

• Step 1. Place your cleaned raw pumpkin pieces, onion, jalapeno and unpeeled garlic cloves (you’ll get to peel them later) on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle the pumpkin with brown sugar to accentuate its natural sweetness and help caramelization along while roasting.
• Step 2. Roast at 450 F for about 15-20 minutes, depending on the strength of your oven. You may want to check on the garlic cloves before the time is up, especially if they were smallish, and take them out first so they don’t burn. 
• Step 3. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its peel (it will be mushy and sweet) + remove the top of the jalapeno and de-seed it (scoop the seeds out with a small spoon or the tip of a butter knife). Place all the roasted ingredients in a food processor. Add salt and pepper, smoked paprika, tomato paste and the pumpkin ale. Process until you get to your desired consistency – we like ours pureed but still quite coarse.

>NOTE: Taste the dip and doctor up the seasonings if needed. Sometimes, depending on the brand of tomato paste, we find that a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar makes a good addition if the tomato paste didn’t contribute enough acidity.

Healthy Flavor Punch

This happens to be quite a healthy pumpkin dip. With the exception of some brown sugar sprinkled on the pie pumpkin before roasting and the addition of all natural pumpkin ale everything else can withstand the scrutiny of various diets.

Not that this has anything to do with why we love it. Simply observing. We love to eat it with charcoal grilled wings among other more standard choices. There is so much flavor in the dip that we don’t bother tossing the wings in much more than a bit of sage brown butter.

Tortilla chips are an obvious one here, but cheese crackers can be even better depending on the kind you choose. Also seed crackers or savory shortbread. Then of course you can dip with veggies or sweet potato fries.

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