This cheesy, gooey spinach dip is perfect for all your favorite dippers. As a bonus – this easy spinach dip recipe also doubles as a fantastic filling for stombolis, burgers, grilled cheeses and more!
Many years ago, I threw together a spinach dip for a family gathering. Typically, I am a spinach plus artichoke girl, but knowing my family audience, I ditched the artichokes for just this once and stuck with strictly spinach. I didn’t follow a recipe – I didn’t plan to replicate it ever again (please, just spinach? never again). Except, my cousin loved it. And asked for the recipe. So I replicated it and wrote up the recipe. And now I make strictly spinach dip more often than spinach and artichoke. Never saw that coming…
our ingredients
the base:
Let’s start with the spinach (this is spinach dip, after all). For our dip, we need a bag of frozen spinach. What size bag? Well, I am a little non-committal on that. Somewhere between 12 and 16 ounces. I have found that package sizing for frozen spinach varies by brand and store – I grab whatever size is there and rather than be left with a random ounce or two of frozen spinach to get lost in my freezer, I just toss it all in. Those couple ounces don’t have a significant impact on the final dip. For assembly purposes, thaw your spinach and squeeze over a colander to drain most of the excess water.
The rest of what I consider to be the “base” of the dip is cream cheese and plain Greek yogurt. It is important to bring these to room temperature before assembling so we get a nicely homogeneous base. I typically use Neufchatel instead of true cream cheese. Be sure to use plain Greek yogurt. The milkfat percentage does not matter here – I often use 5% to 10% milkfat because that is what I am likely to have on-hand.
the seasoning:
Now for the seasoning: garlic, salt, parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, onion powder, chili powder, and cayenne, black and/or red peppers. Yes, this makes the ingredient list long and maybe a bit daunting but I promise its really not. If you are not the type to have a whole drawer and cabinet full of dried spices, the basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme can easily be replaced all together with a pre-blended dried Italian seasoning. Its best to base your pepper choice on your audience – I love to use all three but most of the time I stick to the cayenne with a couple grinds of black pepper since the gatherings that I am usually bringing this to are not so into the spiciness. Do I add red pepper flakes to my leftovers for myself? You betcha.
the cheese:
And finally, the CHEESES. Yup, plural. We are going to use cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan. Why? Why not? Get some sharpness from the cheddar, stringiness from the mozzarella, and salty nuttiness from the parmesan.
Assembly
Nothing out of the ordinary in our dip assembly today. Start by preheating the oven to 350°F and digging out an oven safe dish that is somewhere between 1 and 1.5 quart in size.
Stir together the base: spinach, cream cheese and yogurt (room temp!), garlic and salt. Using a spatula is great here because you can press any lumps of cream cheese or yogurt against the sides of your mixing bowl. Add in your dried seasonings and give it another good mix together – we are aiming to get as even as a distribution as possible of all our ingredients even though it will be thick and viscous while at room temperature still. Finally, add in your cheeses and stir to combine.
Spread in your dish and pop it in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. To help ensure we are getting an even gooeyness, stir the dip a couple of times while it is baking. When the spinach dip reaches your desired level of warm and gooey, remove from the oven and serve immediately with your favorite dippers!
preparing ahead, leftovers, and fillings
You will be happy to hear that this dip can be made up to two days in advance. I recommend preparing the dip up to the point of baking. Cover and refrigerate until ready to bake. Let the dip come closer to room temperature while you preheat the oven (more out of my paranoia of breaking the dish due to drastic temp changes than for the integrity of the dip itself). Your baking time will likely increase to 45 minutes to 1 hour.
So yes, this recipe makes a large amount of dip. But, it has such a versatile flavor profile and texture so it is so easy to repurpose leftovers! Sometimes I make this spinach dip with zero intention to serve it as a dip at all and go straight to using it as a filling for strombolis (another great party food). Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for a number of days (use your judgement if its been left out for a while when originally served) and used in omelets, grilled cheeses, stuffed burgers, white pizza, pasta sauce (loosen with some milk or cream) – the possibilities are practically endless!
If you know ahead of time that you’ll have leftovers, I suggest only baking a portion and immediately refrigerating the extra. Leftovers could also be frozen for up to a month.
If you give this Spinach Dip a try, share it with us over on Instagram @theveryhungrycrafter. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Spinach Dip
Equipment
- 1 to 1.5 quart oven-safe dish
Ingredients
- 14 to 16 oz frozen spinach, thawed depending on size of your bag
- 8 oz cream cheese or Neufchatel softened
- 1½ cups plain Greek yogurt room temperature
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp dried parsley
- ¼ tsp dried basil**
- ¼ tsp dried oregano**
- ¼ tsp dried rosemary**
- ¼ tsp dried thyme**
- ¾ tsp onion powder
- ¾ tsp chili powder
- ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
- black and/or crushed pepper to taste
- ¾ cup sharp cheddar cheese grated
- ¾ cup mozzarella cheese grated
- ½ cup parmesan cheese grated
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Squeeze excess liquid from your thawed spinach and place the spinach in a large mixing bowl. Add softened cream cheese, plain yogurt, minced garlic, and salt to the bowl. Stir to combine.
- Add your dried spices: parsley, basil**, oregano**, rosemary**, thyme**, onion powder, chili powder, cayenne pepper, and black and/or red pepper. Stir well to combine.
- Add your shredded cheeses: cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesan. Stir well to combine.
- Spread dip in an oven safe, 1 to 1.5 quart dish. Place in heated oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until heated through and gooey, stirring once or twice during baking. If you do not plan to serve the dip immediately, cover well and refrigerate for up to two days. Bake straight from the fridge, however you will likely need to increase baking time to 45 minutes to one hour.
- Serve immediately with your favorite dippers! We love carrots, pretzels and pita.
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