Caramelized Onion and Spinach Dip
Have I told you about my thing for white, caloric dips? Give me a tub of spinach dip from your average supermarket deli and don't expect to hear from me for an hour. Weight Watchers calls these "red light" foods, apparently. Meaning, stop and think before you eat them. One bite can send you over the edge. My other red light foods include buttered white popcorn, nachos, triple cream cheeses, and almost any french fry. With tartar sauce. Oh yes. Please tell me you have your own red light foods.
I had three potlucks in 24 hours this weekend. Frittata for my Lenten breakfast this morning, wild rice salad and blondie bars for the party tonight, and this dip for book club. We read Push this month. You know, the uber-depressing, throw-yourself-off-a-cliff novel? We all cried and ate our weight in spinach dip. If those kinds of realities inhabit our world (and hell--even our little book club!), there's got to be spinach dip to balance them out. Amen?
Caramelized Onion and Spinach Dip
Frozen spinach would be just fine in this, as would subbing mayo for the sour cream. This really and truly was "refrigerator dip," meaning, "%$*!! I have to take something to book club!" And I used reduced dairy here because that's what I generally buy, not because I was trying to make a lowfat version of this dip.
6 cups fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
olive oil
one large yellow or sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 c. reduced fat sour cream
8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
1/4 c. finely grated Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Add spinach and saute until wilted, about 4 minutes. Scrape into a bowl. When it cools, squeeze the moisture out of it.
In same skillet, heat more olive oil over medium high heat. Add sliced onions and saute until golden and caramelized, about 20 minutes. Add a bit of salt halfway through. Remove from pan and let cool.
In a food processor, combine sour cream, cream cheese, garlic, and 1/2 the caramelized onions. Scrape into a bowl, and add spinach, remaining onions, parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with fried bread, tortilla chips, fresh bread, or good crackers.
March 20, 2010
Reader Comments (15)
There's something so comforting about the word 'potluck'! I'm a Midwest transplant in Seattle and haven't heard about one of those in a while.
Thanks for bringing me back!
THANK YOU!!
i go to the fancy grocery store for their spinach dip and end up also buying many things that blow the budget....including my "red light item" chocolate covered almonds.
I'm sure i can avoid all of that now... (everything i've made from your blog has turned out brilliantly (not perfectly, but i will settle for brilliant given my limited abilities!!) so i'm absolutely confident ... not even going to do a tester before bringing it to my brother's today!.
thanks again!
ab
I have the same weekness towards dips, corn chip and anything thing 'deep fried' and so glad that I am not the only one...
Red lights: cookies and chocolate - so there is no hope when chocolate cookies are around. Lovely dip! This could easily be a red light as well, I can see...
Pizza. I don't eat pizza until I'm full, I eat it until it's gone. Maybe this dip will become one, too....
Love the dip. Didn't so much care for the book. Or maybe it's that the book was too tramautizing for me. Don't want to be hit over the head with a hammer. Thank you very much. Am hoping next month's book is easy.
Dip looks amazing! I may bring this to my book group this month... what is it about dips that make women go crazy?! :)
i can feel saliva filling my mouth as i even THINK about this dip. i have enjoyed it countless times with you and have always been impressed when you bring it homemade. YUM! i want to dip my cracker right into my computer screen. :)
I can't wait to try this! My fireman and I like to open a bottle of wine in the summer and sit in the back yard with a bowl of veggies and some dip...any dip, homemade, store bought, it doesn't matter. It becomes a meal and a good time. This will become dinner one summer night definitely!
Sarah and PDS---
Any chance your book club would want to read Sonya's book, Long for this World, for your next read? She is reading at Street Bean on April 2 (Good Friday, I know) and at Elliot Bay the week of April 5th. (I wish I could get you free books, but they won't even give the author free books to give out.)It is a lush, globe-spanning novel about a Korean-American war journalist and her estranged family in the U.S. and Korea. It is bittersweet and moving, but not blow-your-brains-out depressing, and written by one of our homies, formerly of New Horizons and ECBF. Let me know, I might be able to get you a discount if you order five or more. And Sarah, there is all sorts of yummy foodie parts, they make abalone stew in the novel that makes your mouth water.
Big Fan of Book Clubs and Dip!
(my red-light foods...pistachios, cashews, almonds...and Chrissie's artichoke dip...and chocolate cake...and warm German potato salad (bacon, vinegar, pepper flakes)...and PDS's stuffed mushrooms...and those Theo chocolate bars with ginger...and Fran's Coconut Gold bars...pretty much everything in the PCC check-out line
I was totally going to choose it when it is my turn, but I steer away from choosing books that we can't buy for cheap as a used copy or in paperback. Maybe in a year? I'll be at Street Bean to hear her read! Maybe we can carpool?
Oh, and I haven't made stuffed mushrooms in ages. I should bring some for you sometime.
Would it be ridiculous for me to try this with goat cheese, yogurt, and no parmesan cheese?
I would love to try this dip!
This looks so good and I think I could have the munchkin try it as well.