I’m pretty sure I have printed off or pinned a few recipes for Spinach/Artichoke dip or variations thereof but I have never actually made it. I order it at restaurants. I eat it whenever and wherever it is available. I do, in fact, love it. Which is why when I discovered a box of frozen spinach in the New Year Purge of my freezer, I had an epiphany. After all, it was New Year’s Day and holidays induce a certain desire for scrumptious appetizers – or for me more of an impending need. So, I dug into my Pinterest pins and found this one from Martha Stewart and decided to use it as my guideline.

After evaluating the required ingredients, I discovered that I had no bacon in the house so I was forced to forgo that savory addition. {insert sad face} I was also too lazy to cut up onion {it was, after all, a holiday!} and used some minced onion I had in my pantry instead. I also didn’t have regular cream cheese but a lovely brick of Neufchatel Cream Cheese, which I no-doubt purchased because it touted a “less fat” option.  {oh, the tricks I have to play with my mind to consider naughty things “healthy”!} I think this may have worked in my favor because the Neufchatel gave it a really lovely creamy texture. I also had these delicious flatbread crackers to accompany the dip. They joyfully deepened the flavor, which is always a good thing.  Martha’s Version looked a bit spinach heavy so I cut the spinach in half but kept about the same cream cheese/sour cream amounts.

Spinach Dip

Ingredients:

8 oz Neufchatel
¾ cup sour cream
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1-2 Tbsp minced onion
8 oz Parmesan
Splash of milk

Directions:

Melt the Neufchatel in a saucepan over low/medium heat with the sour cream and add milk to obtain a nice cream texture. Add about ½ the grated parmesan and the spinach.  Season with a bit of salt and pepper too. Transfer to a glass pie plate (or other small baking dish) and top with remaining parmesan. Bake for 14 minutes at 375 degrees and then broil it for 3 minutes.

Voila!

This with the flatbread crackers and a glass of vino? Perfection.

Happy New Year!