I should be studying for my Italian midterm right now but instead of doing that I’m typing up this blog. Guess everyone has their priorities…
I actually made something without a carefully planned recipe to hold my hand. Yep, this one’s all me! I’ve been randomly looking at vegan spin dip recipes for about the last year or so but haven’t ever attempted one as most seem to call for vegan mayo and/or sour cream and for some reason that just doesn’t float my boat. A month or so ago I made vegan pizza dip from Tofutti and tofu so I thought I’d give it a go with some leafy greens and prickly hearts – I decided to get a fresh artichoke versus a can of them, funky little suckers they are.
I know I haven’t had spinach dip in well over a year but this stuff was damn tasty! I was actually impressed with the way it turned out, which doesn’t typically happen – usually I find something to pick at in my cooking (a trait I inherited from my Grumps). And yes, that’s just plain ole toasted bread on the plate. We already ate the mini Italian bread loaves I made earlier this week and I haven’t the time yet to make more.
So here is my recipe for vegan spinach & artichoke dip. If anyone out there decides to make this, play around with it and let me know how it turns out for you.
- About 6oz (half a block) of firm or extra firm silken tofu (Mori-Nu) pressed
- 8oz (whole tub) vegan cream cheese like Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
- 10 – 12oz package of frozen chopped spinach (or fresh if you prefer)
- the heart from a whole artichoke (or canned will do, drained and rinsed)
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/4 1/3 cup whole almonds
- 1/4 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 & 1/2 T lemon juice
- 1 2 T olive oil
- About 1/2 tsp pepper (or to taste)
- 1/2 to 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
- basil & oregano, or other seasonings, to taste
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 375.
If you’re going the fresh route on the artichoke hearts, watch this first or something similar if you’ve never dissected this hairy hearted vegetable before. Once I got the artichoke heart to my liking I decided to saute it and the spinach for a bit in a few speckles of oil on low heat while I prepared the rest of the dip (this is also how I thawed the spinach as I forgot to take it out of the freezer soon enough).
While that’s going, grind the almonds up in a food processor or blender until they are almost as fine as powder. Place the almonds, tofu, and Tofutti in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the spin and artichokes, and blend again until smooth. Add the tofu mixture to the pan of veggies and mix everything together. Transfer the dip to an over safe dish and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a little browned on top and bubbly. Serve with chips or some homemade bread, or pizza dough.
You could probably add some more ground up almonds on top, or whatever you use for “parmigiano” to make it more cheesey. You may want to also try upping the ante on the nutritional yeast to bring out the “cheese” flavor a little bit more. I would also experiment with different nuts, like cashews, and perhaps even some tahini and see what happens. And if you don’t care about the fat content, add some more almonds and olive oil as I bet it will taste even better with more of these things.
