Sunday, September 11, 2011

No Mayo Hot (or Cold) Spinach Artichoke Dip

Nearly all the recipes for hot artichoke dip have the same components of mayonnaise and cream cheese. Take those ingredients and the cheese into account, and no amount of but-it-has-green-vegetables justification can spin artichoke dip as anything but a high-fat treat. The only thing wrong with a high-fat food is that you may not want to eat much of it for health reasons, but you do want to eat lots of it because it's so very nom-worthy.

Replacing the cream cheese with neufchatel or using sour cream (lowfat or regular, but never, ever non-fat if you still want your dip to taste like something you want to eat) is one way to dial down the fat and calories. That still leaves the mayo. I have the kind of relationship with mayo that I've had with an ex-fiance: I quit it, then came back to it, decided that it was still good for something, then packed all my belongings and moved to another state. No, really. I stopped eating mayonnaise all together when I lived in California, and it wasn't until I moved to Washington that I started eating it again. I've had good mayonnaise and bad. The reason why I have a jar of store-brand mayo in my refrigerator is an effort to quit mayonnaise again. (If I buy the good stuff, the aioli or lemonaise or organic all-natural mayo, I may never quit.) The reason I didn't want to make my artichoke dip tonight with mayo is because I the mayo that I have in my refrigerator is terrible. It makes me think of glue or play-dough. Because I can't throw away food, there it stays.

What is mayonnaise anyway in its purest state, except 1)oil, 2)egg, 3)vinegar, and 4)salt. My mother used to make aioli to go with a particular dinner that she would make. I have watched the magic first hand: a slow, thin, steady stream of virgin olive oil falling into the beating blades of a hand mixer, creating the thick, glossy condiment. I'll tell the truth; I didn't like my mom's aioli either. It was too rich with egg yolk and heavy oil. Until I discovered fresh-within-a-day eggs from Bett's farm -- a story for another day -- I never knew there were real eggs that I liked.

I made my dip instead with regular olive oil, a splash of cider vinegar, and quark. This was only my second time trying quark. Although it had not made a strongly positive first impression, I purchased it because it was on sale for half the usual price. I'm not sure if its less-than-delicious, slightly metallic, bland flavor by itself is because it's short dated. I sort of remember that I didn't love it the first time for a similar assessment of its flavor. However, quark seems to do fine when stronger flavors are mixed in to it.

I mixed everything into the food processor. Then I scooped it out into a saucepan to make it into hot dip. Since there was nothing in it that needed to be cooked to prevent food-born illness, I'm sure this would also be fine as a cold dip. The flavor was bright and fresh. The following ingredients are what I happened to have on hand.

No Mayo Hot (or Cold) Spinach Artichoke Dip

1 Cup washed baby spinach leaves
1 can (13 oz) whole artichoke hearts (not seasoned or marinated, and quarters would work fine)
1/4 C olive oil
2 tsp apple cider vinegar (the good kind, Bragg's, that has mother-of-vinegar)
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2/3 C shredded parmesian cheese (I used 1/3 mystery hard leftover-from-party parmesian-like cheese and 1/3 C actual parmesian)
1/4 C quark

Assemble everything in the order listed into a food processor set up with the chopping blade. Pulse until you have small pieces but still a chunky consistency. Move to a saucepan and heat 3 to 5 minutes on low flame, stirring constantly. It will boil, so really, keep stirring until you turn off the heat. Serve with pita chips or bread item of choice.




I don't see any reason why you can't do this in a bowl, but if you don't have a mezzaluna to do the chopping, you may want to cut the artichoke hearts and spinach into small pieces before mixing everything up. The key to a really tasty artichoke dip is vegetable pieces that are confetti sized, to get an orchestra of flavor.

I served this accompanied by smoked salmon, sliced tomato, rosemary bread, and iced black tea. It was fantastic with the smoked salmon. I do not advise heating this in the oven as is. For a bubbly, goopy oven dip I think it needs at least 4 oz of cream cheese (or neufchatel) and a soft, rich cheese such as gouda.

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