The Jewel-Osco taco dip. It’s niche, it’s nostalgia-fueled and it’s midwest royalty. Show up with one of these dips from the jewels and you are champion of the soirée. But because you’re social distancing, you have to eat it all by yourself.

As always, if you dig this recipe, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram and we can talk about other dips too.

The Vegan Jewel-Osco Taco Dip. Nostalgia comes in many forms. And in this case, it’s dip.

THE VEGAN JEWEL-OSCO TACO DIP

prep time: 20 minutes
cook time: 10 minutes

Layers upon layers of midwest royalty.

This recipe requires you to whip up less than seven layers and stick it all in the fridge to set.

To start, you’re going to cook the “beef crumble.”

What you’ll need:

plant based beef crumble
vegan cream cheese
vegan sour cream
olive oil
salt
pepper
cumin
smoked paprika
garlic powder
onion powder
tomato paste

Check it out:

I have no affiliate with any of these companies but this is what I used for this recipe.

Throw some olive oil in a pan and crank it up to medium-low heat. Once your pan is up to temp, add all of the crumble. Add two tablespoons of cumin. Add one tablespoon of paprika, garlic powder and onion powder. Add salt and pepper to your liking. If the crumble starts to dry up a little, add a splash of olive oil.

Once it looks cooked, add a tablespoon of tomato paste and stir it up. Then throw a quarter cup of water into the pan and stir that up too.

Here is a blurry photo of tomato paste in the crumble for reference.

When it’s all cooked, remove it from the pan and stick all of the crumble into a bowl. Put the bowl in the fridge for now and you can get the rest of the dish going because that was the only real cooking required in this recipe.

Now you’re going to set the bottom layer of the dip. It’s beans. You’re going to add beans.

What you’ll need:

two cans vegan refried beans (check for lard)

Open the beans. In a casserole dish or something, add the beans. Spread them across the bottom of the dish to build the first layer. If you need to add a splash of water, go ahead.

Next, you are going to come back to the crumble stuff you left in the fridge.

Take the bowl out of the fridge and add 3/4 a cup of vegan cream cheese. Add the same amount of sour cream. You can use a full cup of each if you have it, I ran low and forgot to buy more. Stir it all up until it looks like more beans.

Now take the contents of your bowl here and add it directly to the top of the beans in the casserole dish. Spread evenly and you will likely use all of it.

This just gets more and more appetizing.

Now that you’ve layered those two things, the rest is easy. You’re going to add an entire bag of vegan cheddar shreds. Then top with tomatoes, green onions and black olives.

What you’ll need:

vegan cheddar shreds
one roma tomato
green onion
sliced black olives

Add the entire bag of vegan cheddar to the casserole dish. Cube a tomato cut up a green onion and throw a bunch of those on there too. Add your black olives. Once you’re done, throw the whole thing in the fridge for a few to set. And then eat all of it in one sitting with the tortilla chips of your choice.

I’m not affiliated with either El Milagro or Old Style but it’d be a lot cooler if I was.