The Creamy, Spiced Dip I Make for All My Fall Parties

Every October, people spend way too much time trying to make food look scary instead of making it actually taste good. There are dirt cups with gummy worms, Jell-O “brains,” and enough black food dye to stain your teeth until Thanksgiving. But you know what your Halloween spread really needs? A dip people genuinly love eating—with a little wink of orange that says “festive,” but in a grown-up, delicious way.

This smoky roasted sweet potato and pepitas dip is that “just fun enough” dish that’s perfect for all fall festivities (and even beyond). Developed by our colleague Jasmine Smith in our Birmingham, Alabama, test kitchen, this dip nails texture and flavor. It’s as thick and creamy as hummus, with an earthy, nutty depth from pepitas (a variety of hulless pumpkin seeds) and a chile oil that brings gentle, lingering heat, which will keep you coming back for more.

The backbone of the flavor is, of course, the sweet potatoes. And as former Serious Eats editor Kenji has written about in his mashed sweet potatoes recipe, there’s a whole world of beneficial chemistry happening when you roast them properly. Sweet potatoes are rich in starches that, when cooked at the right temperature—between 135°F and 170°F—convert into maltose, a sugar composed of two glucose molecules bonded together. That means they get sweeter and more complex in flavor without added sugar. Roasting them low and slow lets that enzyme party do its thing before the heat gets too high and shuts it down. The result is sweet potatoes that taste like they’ve been drizzled with caramel, even though no sweetener was added.

Could you save time by nuking or boiling them until soft enough to blend for this recipe? Sure, but you’d be robbing yourself of all that roasted complexity. Microwaving is fine for weeknight sides, but this is your party dip era. Roasting the potatoes in a foil pouch, a method borrowed from Kenji’s mashed sweet potato recipe, traps steam for even cooking while preventing the exterior from toughening. And that deep roasted flavor gives the sweet potatoes in the dip enough oomph to stand up to all the smoky, spicy, nutty ingredients they’re paired with.

Once the sweet potatoes are roasted and mashed into a creamy base, toasted pepitas are ground and folded in. Jasmine learned in testing that a food processor doesn’t love dense seeds like pepitas. You’ll have better results if you take the old-school route and use a mortar and pestle. (Alternatively, you can use a spice grinder for this task.) The texture comes out better, too, with just enough grit to feel rustic and not gummy.

The major flavor addition here is the chile oil. You bloom garlic, cumin, and a mild ancho chile powder in hot oil until everything smells like you’ve just stepped into your favorite taquería. Half of that oil is blended into the dip for warmth and savoriness; the rest is drizzled over the top with crispy garlic bits and additional chopped pepitas for added crunch. It’s rich and layered and just a little dramatic, like any good October dish should be.

It’s not cutesy, not served in a carved pumpkin, and not pretending to be a spider web. But it is precisely the kind of thing people will hover around at your next party, saying, “Wait, what is this?”—right before they go in for another bite.

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