Love Knorr’s spinach dip? Great news! You can still indulge while skipping the MSG, dextrose and salt-laden packaged version. Try this simple, healthy snack makeover:
Ingredients
1 cup frozen spinach, thawed, chopped and with water strained out.
1 cup low fat Greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dill
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
Salt and pepper to taste
How to Make It
To thaw the spinach, place it in a strainer and run cool water over it. Set the strainer of spinach over a bowl for about a half-hour or so. Every so often, press the spinach into the strainer to remove liquid. Once thawed, squeeze spinach against the strainer a few more times. Then place in a bowl and mix with other ingredients.
Tips for prepping, serving and eating:
- Make your own spice mix to replace the packaged version. Add onion and garlic powders, salt and pepper, paprika for color and maybe a bit of yellow curry. Place in a jar, cap and store in the fridget, for easy use in recipes like this one.
- Cut up whole grain bread and only eat a small portion. If you’d normally eat two slices, have one. Keep your bread serving to a cup or less of bread cubes.
- Use low fat yogurt in place of sour cream. The traditional spinach dip recipe calls for sour cream. Low fat Greek yogurt works just as great because it’s thick. You’ll need less to feel full and satisfied.
- Add a Tablespoon of healthy olive oil to replace the missing saturated fat in the low fat yogurt. It’s okay, and encouraged, to trade a bad fat for a good fat.
- Add healthy, crunchy bits to your dip. Spinach dip tastes great, and even better when you blend in some chopped water chestnuts, diced celery, fresh scallion pieces or minced onion.
- Sub out veggie dunkers for the bread. Have your whole grain bread but limit your portion. Scoop up the rest of your tasty spinach dip with carrot, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and celery sticks instead of more bread.
- Enjoy your homemade spinach dip as a meal instead of an appetizer. Don’t let preconceived notions of how you should eat limit your weight loss progress. We think of dip as a meal starter, but who says you can’t have healthy spinach dip as THE main course? Lasting change begins in the mind.
