(as an Amazon affiliate, I receive a small commission at no cost to you if you choose to purchase through one of my links. Thank you for your support!)
Lightened Up Spinach Artichoke Dip
Ingredients
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- ½ cup plain yogurt
- 5 ounces frozen chopped spinach thawed
- 2 ounces canned artichokes (in water, not marinated) about ¼ cup
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 Tablespoons parmesan cheese
- ½ cup shredded Monterey jack or mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Put the thawed spinach into a clean tea towel and squeeze as much of the water out as you possibly can.
- Drain the artichokes and chop into small pieces.
- Put the cream cheese into a bowl and whip with an electric mixer until fluffy.
- Add in remaining ingredients and mix well.
- Serve hot or cold with tortilla or pita chips.
Notes
Making this for a party? Check out Buffalo Chicken Meatballs for another appetizer with a kick!
Obligatory Fictional Backstory
From the dawn of time, scientists have been discovering the amazing benefits that eating various plants can provide. For example, spinach is full of Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Folate (a B vitamin), magnesium and iron. Unfortunately, also since the dawn of time, man has been saying “Ew, I don’t want to eat that, it tastes weird/gross/slimy and I don’t like it!” about almost every vegetable that science has shown to be beneficial. Fortunately, gastronomists have stumbled upon a way to get almost any person to eat almost any vegetable:
Cover it in cheese.
Seriously, show me a vegetable that someone won’t eat if it has enough cheese on it. Heck, show me anything that a person won’t eat if it has enough cheese on it. Even lactose intolerance isn’t enough to stop people from eating cheese-smothered foods.
Therefore, I determined a way to make a dip that is both healthy and cheesy (much like myself!).
Real Talk
As I may have mentioned before, I like my dip. Traditional recipes for spinach artichoke dip use mayonnaise and some use more cream cheese than I do. So while this isn’t *completely* healthy, it’s a little bit lighter than most of the other options you find on game day. Also my buffalo chicken meatballs are pretty light as far as Super Bowl party food goes. This is good as a vegetable dip, too. Speaking of game day….
GO CHIEFS!!!!!!
I generally don’t follow football but when your home team is in the Super Bowl for the second year in a row (after winning last year, hey-oh!) even someone like me gets excited. My dog, not as much. I found out that the Chiefs won the playoffs when thousands of fireworks started going off around our neighborhood (which was still about a third of what happens on the Fourth of July).
You may have seen me mention tea towels before – if you don’t recognize the term they’re thin cloth towels (not terry cloth) kind of like flour sack towels. That may be another term for them actually. I use them for covering yeast dough while it’s rising, squeezing out spinach or cucumbers (when making tzatziki), and even (gasp) drying dishes! If you’re in the market, would you consider using my link to order? These are what I’m talking about, plus they come in a ton of different designs if birds aren’t your thing:
If you prefer a bit of a plainer (and cheaper) option, check these out! Not quite as cute but more affordable plus it’s not as big a deal if they stain.
