If this is the kind of thing you really love to eat at the local sports bar, but never thought about making at home, then I hope you find this video recipe very motivational. Not only is this baked spinach artichoke dip easy and delicious, but it's also a first in culinary history.For the first time ever, sour cream and mayonnaise have been removed from a dip recipe…and it got better. I've always enjoyed hot spinach artichoke dip, but it always struck me as a little oily. Almost all recipes call for some amount of mayo, which I really see no reason to include. It adds fat with no significant flavor payoff.
I decided to try a mayo-less version, and then raised the stakes even higher by excluding the sour cream as well. To counter this, a bit more cheese was added, and the results were amazing. A rich, creamy, cheesy, not greasy dip.
While I loved this recipe, I may try it with just a touch of sour cream next time, and that could be named the official final foodwishes formula. I figure I have until football season to work it out.By the way, I took a quick surf around the web and came up with zero info on the origins of hot spinach artichoke dip. I find this unusual for a dip of such widespread popularity. You would think someone would have claimed credit by now.
Having said that, I only search for about five minutes, so I could have totally missed it! If you actually have any info, even if you have to embellish it to make it more interesting, please share with the rest of us. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped green onion, white and light green parts only
2 cloves garlic, very finely minced
1 package (10 ounce) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, squeezed dry
1 can (14 ounce) artichoke hearts, drained, roughly chopped
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
very small pinch of nutmeg
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated gruyere cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, preferably Parmigiano Reggiano
1/4 cup mozzarella, shredded
52 comments:
This is a very educational website. I totally forgot about that old saying about artichoke spinach dip!
;)
This is such a great idea! I have made this type of dip before at home, but the concept of putting them into smaller dishes and baking is so clever. I have been watching your videos for a while and enjoy them very much. Thank you for the hard work and for sharing your recipes.
Can you use fresh spinach instead of frozen? If so, is there anything extra that needs to be done to it? Your recipes are fan-TAST-tic, by the way. I've tried several of them (I've even unleashed them on some unsuspecting friends) with resounding success. Thanks for posting them!
It is my belief that spinach artichoke dip was created by post-WWII food manufacturers. It's a bit long, but bear with me. Dig this, kids:
After World War II, American servicemen returned home from Europe with memories of the foods they ate there. Among these foods were French or Italian crudités, raw seasonal vegetables served with dipping sauces such as pistou or bagna cauda. The wives of these servicemen strove to re-create those dishes with ingredients on hand. Luckily, they had help.
Novel advances in wartime American food processing created excess capacity, a surplus of new products, and marketing opportunities for companies during the postwar boom. All the food processors needed to do was create a need for these products among the rapidly-growing populace.
Through erudite publications as Ladies' Home Journal, Family Circle, and Good Housekeeping, food companies like Bird's Eye, Kraft, Campell's, and Betty Crocker began pushing their new wares as time-saving helpers in the kitchen. In this way canned, frozen, and processed food stuffs became staples in the American pantry.
But perhaps the heaviest hitter of all was Betty Crocker. In 1945, Fortune magazine named Betty Crocker the second most popular American woman (Eleanor Roosevelt was named first).
Through her cookbook, Betty Crocker instructed housewives how to include these new, time-saving products in their cooking. And thus - along with the casserole (a result of wartime rationing, BTW) the party dip was codified in American cuisine.
If you read any party dip recipe from the early 1950s, chances are it consists of some combination of frozen vegetables, margarine, mayonnaise, sour cream, cream cheese, and maybe Spam.
So while Chef John's recipe improves on the formula by using fresh ingredients, it still retains the soul of the original. Which isn't a bad thing. I like to think of it as a respectful nod to food history in the making.
Or maybe I'm just totally full of it.
I love your site! and artichoke spinach dip is one of my favorites!
btw, was that sriracha I saw for the hot sauce? my fiancé is obsessed with it he makes pizza replacing tomato sauce with sriracha.
On a totally unrelated note, could you please do Beef Wellington at some point? I'd love to have a tried and true recipe ready to impress family with. Thanks for all the great videos and tips!
yes! sriracha rules
Another great recipe chef. A lot of recipes for this dip certainly do include mayo or sour cream or both. While this yummy concoction is hardly low fat this lower fat version is interesting and is on my must try list. I did see one recipe that used a small amount of alfredo sauce instead of the sour cream and mayo for a little extra creaminess.
While struggling to come up with supper ideas it occurred to me that this recipe or a lightly modified version would also make an interesting and tasty filling for large pasta shells, topped with a nice spicy sauce - it's gonna be good.
great idea!
What has happened to your video embeds? The controls on videos don't work: clicking a 'go', 'pause', whatever (after starting the video) sends the reader (me) off to a youtube page, -- which takes me away f rom the recipe page, or sends me to a Chase credit card page, or some other commercial page. What's up with this?
Dave W in PS
no idea what you are referring to , I just checked and it's playing fine and the controls are working.
Hey Chef John, any reason for actual cream cheese over Neufchatel cheese? Tastes exactly the same to me, but 1/3 the fat. Thoughts?
no, no reason. if u like it use it for sure.
This is perfect! I've been looking for a recipe that doesn't use mayo or sour cream because they've never been on my list of favorite foods. Thank you so much!
Your sheet pan is amazingly clean.
Congratulations.
Oh, I'm so looking forward to trying your recipe. I've thought the same as you when I see pools of fat in typical hot cheesy dips.
Why add nutmeg? What's it do for the dish?
Hi Chef John,
Tried this and it is fantastic. One change, I used a stand mixer (I’m lazy) for mixing all the ingredients and it did a great job. The dish turned out wonderfully. And, “as always,” thanks for your blog.
Dumb question(?) Do you cook the spinach, or is frozen spinach pre-cooked? I've never used it.
Thanks Chef.
not a dumb question! frozen spinach is ready to use :-)
I was wondering if you would know if this would freeze well if I prepared the recipe, but stopped right before topping it with Mozzarella and putting it in the oven.
My teenage daughter and her friends have been coming over to sit in the yard and have a fire in the firepit. I really am not one to serve chips and such, but finding decent appetizers that can be pre-made and that teens would like is not really an easy chore.
I love this recipe because I normally have 90% of the ingredients on hand anyway. Right now, I have them all and was hoping to make this tonight or tomorrow for this coming weekend.
yes, you can freeze!
Great blog! This is actually one of my favorite dips and I'm excited to try your recipe. Thanks much for sharing. Cheers!
Hey, at what temperature is this to be cooked?
it's 25 min at 400 degrees (see slide at 2:05 in vid)
I have made this recipe before and I absolutely LOVE it. I'm going to give it another go again, but I noticed you said that you would add a touch of sour cream for it to be the final food wishes recipe. I have some sour cream lying around and I wanna try it out and see how it is. Rough estimate on how much I should put in?
Thanks!
just a couple tablespoons or so
This was a big hit at my party last night! And yes, thy did scrape the sides of the bowl!
So delicious...Everyone completely fell in love with this dip. It will be a favorite of mind from now on...
http://richstillwell.com/images/xmasdip.jpg
http://richstillwell.com/images/xmasdip2.jpg
I even reheated it a couple days later and it was great.
Thanks Chef!
PERFECT! I was looking for a vegetarian-friendly appetizer for my mother in law and found it! I rarely bring something to a party that I have never made or tried before, but I was low on time and wanted to give this a try. It was amazing and so easy! Thank you, Chef John for another great recipe. :)
i'm trying this recipe for the first time tomorrow, and i can't get my hands on gruyere cheese. what should i use as a substitute, or should i just leave it out and double the amount of parmesan cheese? will it make a difference? also, i can't find grated parmesan cheese that isn't in the powdery form. will that be bad? thanks!
use what u can get! it will be fine. Use 1/2 white cheddar and 1/2 regular swiss cheese instead of gruyere
i dont have much cheese either like the other person. i have the grated parmesan in powdery form and mozzarella and sharp cheddar.. will that taste bad? could i use the mozzarella into the mix instead of just placing it on top? thanks
I made this last night and it was incredibly delicious...it's very rich and full of flavor...I had to substitute regular swiss cheese for the gruyere...I also used a bag of fresh baby spinach instead of frozen...I just sauteed it in the onion mixture...the result was truly decadent!! :-)
Smoked on the BBQ. Mmmmmmmm
Hey Chef John Love your videos!! You've helped me improve my culinary skill thank you so much...
How would the recipe Differ if this had that of a Regular High fat Dip?
The high fat is just richer and has more cheese and mayonnaise.
This is the recipe I've been looking for! Never got the mayo inclusion either (and I love mayo). Thank you, Chef John! "You have to suffer for your art..ichoke-spinach dip." Ha!
This looks delicious!
I have one question:
approx. how many ounces does this make?
I'm curious as to how many 6oz. ramekins this would fill
maybe 28 oz?
I can't wait to try this recipe out! I absolutely love spinach artichoke dip, but would always buy the frozen, already made kinds. I think it would be nice to make it myself next time. :)
Love your videos! Cooking is slowly becoming my passion, but I'm still not too good yet. But practice makes perfect.
Wait a sec, the spinach has to be cooked first??!
Or can I just chop up my gigantic bag of baby spinach leaves and throw them in?
That was a funny video!!!
have to cook to squeeze out the extra water.
Chef John, Just wanted to let you know that i made the dip this weekend for a bbq i had and everybody loved it. I made 2 recipes of it and had no leftovers. Thank You, Vinny
I just made creme fraiche, can I use it to make it more creamy? when do I mix it in?
This is probably a dumb question .... I would like to use fresh spinach. I thought I could stema it in my dbl boiler.
How much fresh would I need to make this? Should I just use the same amount?
Yes, you still need 10 ounces of prepared spinach.
I absolutely adore spinach and artichoke dip and I can't wait to try it out this weekend. Question though -- for the butter, is this salted butter or unsalted?
I only buy unsalted butter. Thanks !
A restaurant near me stuffs a grilled portabella with this dip and tops it with a slice of provolone and serves it a good grilled bun. Its great!
When I price gruyere in the fancy cheese case I find it to be very expensive but have found if I go to the deli section of my grocery store and ask them to cut me a chunk oh, about 2 inches or so thick - it only costs me a couple of bucks versus the $8.00 or so for the fancy gruyere. Just a tip for the nifty thrify folks like me. Excellent recipe by the way. This is my 4th time to make it - to watch the Giants kick butt at the Superbowl!Should been a Texas team, but hey...
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