Using fresh spinach in your recipes will increase a little bit the preparation time, but the food will taste slightly better than if you used frozen or canned spinach. Fresh spinach can be cooked in many ways, but for making a dip, the best are steaming or microwaving.

This is a dip recipe based on fresh baby spinach and canned artichoke hearts:

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1 can artichoke hearts, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1 average onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Worcester sauce
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream (low-fat is also fine, if you’re concerned about your heart health)
• 1/4 cup flour Cayenne pepper and salt according to taste

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 6

Cooking procedure:

Wash the spinach very well, then steam it or microwave it for maximum 2 minutes. Dry it very well and chop it. In a skillet, put the olive oil, add the onion and the garlic, sauté for 2-3 minutes, then add the flour. Cook it for one more minute stirring continuously. Let it stand for a few minutes, then add the Worcester sauce, the sour cream, the cottage cheese, the spinach and the artichokes. Cook it on low temperature, stirring gently, until the cheese melts completely into the mix. This will take about 8-10 minutes or maybe less, so don’t leave the pan unattended. Add salt and pepper, pour everything in a bowl and serve the dip hot with toast bread or tortilla chips and with salsa.

Crockpot appetizers like this warm artichoke spinach dip can be successfully used for festive dinners and parties, because they are very tasty and easy to prepare. Serving dips at parties is also easy, because all you need to do is provide your guests some nice dipping "materials" such as tortilla chips or raw veggies sticks and you're done.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces frozen spinach, thawed, drained and cut small
• 8 ounces artichoke hearts (preferably canned; marinated or not, at your choice), chopped small
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (many thanks to Ryan for noticing I missed this from the list)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 small onion, grated
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and grated or minced very small
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper as needed

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 2.5 - 3 hours

Serves: 10

Cooking procedure:

Put the cream cheese together with the cream in the slow cooker, set it on low and let the cheese slowly melt. This would probably take between one and two hours. Cut the cream cheese in cubes before putting it into the slow cooker, so you can speed up the melting a little bit. After the cheese has melted, add the other ingredients, stir gently, then cover the food and let it cook for one more hour, with the slow cooker set on low. When finished, pour it into a nice bowl, spread some grated Parmesan cheese or breadcrumbs on top of it and serve it hot.

Use raw vegetables, toast bread, sliced and toasted pita bread or salty crackers for dipping. Optionally, you can serve the dip with diced tomatoes or with fresh parsley leaves cut very small. If yuo want, you can replace the parsley with minced dill, but make sure not to use too much, because dill has a very strong taste which can cover other tastes, so the food won't be what you expected anymore.

Going vegan is probably a tough decision for some people. This can be noticed in the way they always seem to miss the tastes they knew from before, thus trying to re-create them in many vegan dishes they cook. This artichoke spinach dip recipe tastes like the normal ones which include at least one kind of cheese, thanks to the smart mix of ingredients and flavors.

Ingredients:

• 16 ounce frozen spinach, thawed, drained and chopped
• 1 jar of marinated artichoke hearts (in normal dips, canned artichokes will do, but in this case, the marinated ones are better because they already come with the flavors of the oils and spices in the marinade)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 small red onion, diced small
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (can be replaced with garlic powder, but freshly minced garlic is always better)
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Dip preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 6-8

How To Cook It:

Saute the onion and the garlic in olive oil for 2-3 minutes, at low heat, stirring continuously. You can add a little liquid from the marinated artichokes. Then add the artichoke hearts cut in average pieces, together with the lemon juice, salt and pepper and let them cook for 2-3 more minutes, stirring gently. Start adding the spinach little by little, and when you’re done, cover the saucepan and let it cook for 5 more minutes, then add the basil and the oregano.

Serving tips: serve the dip hot, with dippings of your choice such as toasted bread or celery sticks. For festive occasions, you can top the bowl with breadcrumbs or with vegan Parmesan and with cherry tomatoes and black olives cut in halves or in quarters.

Ingredients:

• 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed, drained and cut small
• 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 garlic clove, peeled, minced (if you want to go to a date after eating this dip, you can skip the garlic)
• 1 small onion, chopped (to be skipped as well if you intend to kiss somebody that night)
• 2 cups cottage cheese
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise (light)
• 3-4 bacon slices (smoked bacon is nice; if it’s not smoked, it’s better if you pre-cook it a bit)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 8

How to cook it:

Mix together the cottage cheese, the garlic, the onion, the salt and the pepper, half of the Parmesan cheese quantity and the mayonnaise. Stir them well, or use a food blender if you want to be faster (although if we think how much time it takes you to wash the blender afterwards, you could use a fork as well). Add the bacon, the artichokes and the spinach and stir gently, until everything blends well. Oil a baking dish and pour the dip inside, then put it in the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. After that, remove it, top it with the rest of Parmesan cheese and put in back in the oven for ten more minutes.

Serve the spinach artichoke dip hot with toasted pita bread cut in four or with French baguettes. Raw vegetable sticks can also be a tasty dipping. Try carrots or celery.