Spinach Dip Recipe Makeover

Super Bowl is coming up and is notorious for big parties with lots of terrible for you appetizers. Wings, pizza, mayo based dips, etc. When I go to a party like this I usually try and bring something that I can snack on that’s relatively healthy. Therefore if there are no other healthy options I am not stuck eating velvetta cheese dip and wings for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, I will still eat some of that stuff, but if I ate an entire dinner out of it, I’m pretty sure my stomach would revolt against me. I made a great secretly healthy spinach dip for company this weekend and it went over quite well.

You know the kind that’s usually served in a bread bowl and you dip the extra bread and veggies into it? Its usually made with lots of mayo and sour cream. People usually see it and think “oh it has spinach in it, its healthy”. When in reality you’d probably be better off eating the wings than huge glops of mayonnaise. I switched out the mayo for pureed cottage cheese and swapped in Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I swear, you’ll never know the difference!

It takes about 5 minutes to prepare and its even better when it sits in the refrigerator for a day or two, so its perfect to make in advance. I have a feeling this will be one of my new go to appetizers to bring places.

Healthy Party Spinach Dip Recipe

             Makes 24 servings (2 Tbs each)

2 cups reduced sodium 2% cottage cheese

1 cup plain non fat greek yogurt

1 envelope Liptons vegetable soup and dip mix

1 tsp sugar

10 oz package spinach.

Puree cottage cheese in blender or food processor until smooth. I used my magic bullet.

Defrost the frozen spinach and wring out as much excess water as possible.

Stir together cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, soup mix, sugar, and spinach.

Chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Serve in a loaf of bread that is scooped out. Use the innards for dipping. Or serve in a bowl with cut up vegetables like carrots, celery, or sliced cucumber.

The single teaspoon of sugar helped to cut the tartness of the plain greek yogurt.

And if there’s nothing else at the party that’s remotely appealing, make an entire meal out of the dip. I mean look at the nutritional information, its low in calorie and high in protein. Say you have like 8 servings (like I may have had as part of my lunch today). That’s only 240 calories but 32 g protein! Its health food disguised as a dip.

Nutritional stats:

Calories: 29

Fat: 0.5 g

Sodium: 153 mg (6%)

Carbohydrates: 2.5 g

Protein: 4 g

Compared to the normal mayo and sour cream version, also 2 tbs serving size, of 100 calories, 8 g fat, 9% daily value sodium, and only 1 g of protein.

Talk about a recipe makeover!