Baked Spinach Artichoke Dip with Greek Yogurt (Skinny Dip)

This Baked Spinach Artichoke Dip made with Greek Yogurt is a high-protein skinny dip that you can enjoy guilt-free! Use mini cucumbers, bell peppers or pita chips for dipping.

Ingredients

• Greek Yogurt: Use a nonfat variety of greek yogurt. Generally, in most dips you’d be using a mayo or cream cheese for a thick, rich dip. This can easily be replaced with greek yogurt as a high protein substitute!
• Cottage Cheese: It might seem crazy to put cottage cheese into a spinach artichoke dip, but you won’t even notice it’s there. Use a low-salt, small curd cottage cheese and add it to a food processor if you think seeing the curds will be bothersome.
• Artichoke hearts: You can’t have a spinach artichoke dip without artichokes! As much as I love making steamed artichokes, this is a recipe that is better with canned artichokes instead. Drain them and dice them up before mixing the rest of the ingredients together.
• Spinach: Fresh or frozen spinach is fine for this dip. I made it with fresh and cooked it down with a bit of oil, but you can heat up and drain frozen spinach instead if that’s all you have on hand.
• Cheese: Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese are the best choices for dips, but you’ll need a strong chip to stand up to it. Use a full-fat cheese and shred them yourself if time allows. Pre-shredded cheese has a non-clumping agent on it that will also keep it from melting as easily.
• Seasoning: Deciding what kind of seasoning to add is always the best part! Start with garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper to taste. If you want to add a spicy kick, add in red pepper flakes or cayenne.
• Salt: While salt is really part of seasoning, taste your dip before it goes into the oven and see if it needs a touch more salt. These ingredients are all very low salt so a little more seasoning might be needed.

How to Make this Skinny Dip

Making this protein-packed dip is super easy and comes together quickly.

Take your teaspoon of neutral cooking oil and add to a frying pan over medium heat. Add the fresh spinach and allow it to cook down. This should take about 5 minutes. Make sure to use a spatula to stir the cooked spinach at the bottom of the pan with the uncooked spinach on top. Spinach will cook up very quickly.

While you’re cooking the spinach, drain the artichoke hearts and roughly chop them. This will make the artichoke pieces easier to eat.

When the spinach is cooked and cooled slightly, add it to a large mixing bowl. Add in all of the other ingredients as well.

Serve hot out of the oven with celery sticks, mini bell peppers and pita chips.

Make your Spinach Artichoke Dip Ahead of Time

If you’re preparing for a party and don’t want to mess around with the oven timer and remembering to take your dip out of the oven when guests are arriving, you can make this dip ahead of time.

Simply prepare the ingredients and mix together. Add to your casserole or serving dish and add the extra cheese if you so choose.

Then, cover with foil and place in the fridge. Your dip will be ready to bake whenever you feel like it. Since you’re just heating the dip through and until the cheese is melty, it shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes in the oven.

How to Make any Dip “Skinny”

This recipe is already created so it is low-fat and low carb, but doesn’t lack on the flavor or creaminess!

If you have a favorite dip that you’d like to make into a skinny dip, you’ll only need to tweak it a bit to make it healthier.

First, look for the fattiest ingredients. If you are looking at a creamy dip, generally the highest fat ingredients that will be the mayonnaise, sour cream and cream cheese. Replace these ingredients with greek yogurt, low-fat sour cream and cottage cheese.

If you think you might miss the full-fat flavor of the mayo or cream cheese too much, opt for a full-fat greek yogurt. Or simply replace half the mayo with greek yogurt or low-fat sour cream to start. You’ll be amazed at how little of a difference there is.

Other Appetizers to Serve with your Dip

Looking for other apps to fill up your appetizer table with other delicious skinny ideas? Check out the recipes below for more ideas for your next event.

• Green Olive Tapenade
• Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce
• Elote in a Cup
• Frozen Wings
• Orange Cauliflower
• Healthy Chicken Salad for Weight Loss
• Deviled Eggs