Slow Cooker Vegan Chili Cheese Lentil Dip Recipe (2024)

The American Pulses Association paid for my travel toa Pulses Immersion Event inNapa, CA but I was not compensated for this post in any way. Just speaking from my lentil-loving heart! All opinions are my own.

The perfect plant-based snack forSuper Bowl Sunday – this Slow CookerVegan Chili Cheese Lentil Dip isfull of spicy chili flavor and a delicious and satisfyingmeaty texture.I feel like I don’t need to bore you with my whole Super Bowl spielagain. You heard that last week with my Vegan Loaded Sweet Potato Nachos recipe.

I will share with you a different story though, one called #RealLifeImAFoodBlogger. It goes something like this…testa vegan cashew cheese dip for the blog on a time crunch…looks and tastes like soup…debates for 60 seconds whether or not to try again…worries about the sun going down for shooting…stares at sink overflowing with dirty dishes…decides to go for it…in a hurry, drops the food processor blade covered in cashew cheese on the kitchen rug…cashew cheese everywhere…cleans up cashew cheese…pulls off second recipe attempt…no longer looks like soup…tastes great…shoots just as the sun is setting…and wipes sweat off of face.

It’s funny I went out to dinner earlier this week with some clinical dietitian friends of mine who I know from my dietetic internship (which is theclinical training to become a RD) and they looked at me in awe when I spoke about what I do on a daily basis and said wow, that sounds amazing. And it IS. I wouldn’t deny that for a second. But it’s far from glamorous. Exhibit A above.

But it is pretty cool what opportunities have come about from blogging. Like just two weekends ago, I was invited to join theAmerican Pulse Association and the USDA Dry Pea and Lentil Council for a blogger/media pulses immersion at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, CA to celebrate the International Year of Pulses! Yes, 2016 is the year ofpulses!

I’m not going to lie I had no idea what pulses even were until a year ago. In case you’re in the same boat, let me fill you in. Pulses include dry peas, lentils, chickpeas and beans and only the dry version. So, fresh peas are actually legumes, not pulses.

Anywho the pulses event at the CIA totally inspired me to start doing more with pulses. I cook with pulses all the time but I never bake with them! And we spent hours in the CIA kitchen exploring with different baking and cooking applications. I can’t wait tostart experimenting more with baked goods made with pulse flours and purees for the blog!

But for now, I make delicious vegan snacks with them like this slow cookervegan chili cheese lentil dip. Throw ingredients for the lentil chili in the slow cooker, run Super Bowl errands,come back, throw your cashew cheese ingredients in the food processor and pour the cashew cheese into the slow cookerand you’re done! Easy. Peasy.

Plus, the chili cheese flavor is so onpoint that you wouldn’t believe it was meat and dairy-free. Plus, thelentils add a savory, meaty texture that’s totally satisfying. Not to mention, added protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. And then there’s the extra nutrition boost from the cashews, too.

And most importantly, this does not taste like soup. 🙂

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Tell me, did you know what pulses were? Have you ever used them in the kitchen before?

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