Santa Fe Spinach Dip
Recently Ben asked me to make his favorite hot spinach dip for his birthday dinner. It’s a recipe I give out a lot because it’s pretty much a bowl full of comfort food.
We usually eat it with chips or pita chips, but lately, we’ve been spreading it on toast as well. Any way you eat it, it is a happy cheesy mess of yum.
Santa Fe Spinach Dip
Ingredients:
2-3 onions, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 jalepeno pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 can of chopped tomatoes, drained
500 grams chopped or 16-18 ounces, frozen spinach
8 ounces or 280 grams cream cheese at room temperature
4-6 tablespoons buttermilk
3 cups of grated cheese (I used 130 grams Parmesan and 220 grams Edam cheese, but also you could use Monterey Jack)
A few shakes of salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and paprika.
Directions:
Sauté onions in a bit of oil for five to ten minutes. Add peppers and garlic. Cook a few more minutes. Add tomatoes and spinach.
Let mixture cool for a minute. Mix cream cheese and buttermilk in a bowl. Stir in vegetables and seasonings. Mix in the cheese, reserving a 1/2 cup to sprinkle on top.
Spread in a baking dish and sprinkle on the remaining cheese.
Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C or gas mark 4.
Serve with tortilla chips or pita wedges or even on toast.
Here’s a photo of it in the baking dish…not super pretty, but you can see how it’s meant to look after you bake it. 🙂
I also make it often in a cast iron skillet. The above photo is pre-cooked, but below you can see the cooked dip on this table full of happy birthday food!
Ben is pretty great at choosing a party menu, so we should probably let him do it more often than just on his birthday!
