Spinach Dip 2.0 – Half the Calories, but All the Deliciousness
Spinach dip is probably one of my favorite appetizers.
However, despite the spinach –giving it a healthy sounding name– it is loaded with saturated fat and calories.
Spinach is one of my top ways to add more vegetables to the diet, but most recipes contain either a lot of cheese or sour cream and mayo, which when coupled with bread, crackers, or flatbread make this appetizer a day’s worth of calories all by itself.
Fact:
Chili’s Spinach and Artichoke Dip w/tortilla chips clocks in at 1440 calories and 92 grams of fat in just about a 1 cup serving!
I present to you my much healthier goto spinach dip recipe for when I need a healthy appetizer to take to a party or when I’m entertaining guests.
Heck, sometimes I make a batch and eat it as a meal. It’s so good that you’ll want to!
(This is my adaptation of Knorr spinach dip, but tweaked to be much healthier.)
Spinach Dip 2.0
Ingredients
- 1 packet of Knorr Vegetable Recipe Mix (If you can’t find Knorr where you live, any 40g vegetable dry soup packet will work.)
- 16 oz (454g) non-fat Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup reduced fat real mayo
- 10 oz (283g) fresh or frozen spinach chopped
- 8 oz (227g) can of water chestnuts drained and chopped
- 4 green onions chopped
Instructions
- Combine Greek yogurt, mayo, and Knorr soup packet.
- Cook, cool, and drain the spinach. (I stick mine in the freezer for a few minutes.) Squeeze of excess water. I usually put it in a strainer and press it down with my fingers until little water remains. Cheese cloth works too.
- Add water chestnuts, green onions, and spinach. Stir until the spinach is uniform throughout.
- Refrigerate for 2 hours. (The hard part.)
- Serve.
Nutrition
See Also: My 10 Easy Hacks for Healthier Cooking (this recipe happens to use some of them).
Less Than Half the Calories!
The original recipe, which calls for a cup of regular mayo and sour cream, has about 1,609 calories per 4 cup batch! More than double my modified recipe that has just 715 calories per 4 cup batch.
The best part? You won’t even notice that the 894 calories are missing! Seriously, this spinach dip is always a huge hit when I take it to parties and everyone always asks me for the recipe.
For those who are vegan or who don’t eat dairy, try it with Vegenaise and coconut yogurt.