St. Patricks Day is upon us and I love a holiday with a theme and a color! I wanted to make something green but also include a nod to Chicago….afterall, we are known to have some of the best St. Patrick’s Day celebrations around (I mean, we dye our entire river green).

One of the most quintessential foods of Chicago is giardinara. The pickled vegetable mixture that goes on an Italian beef or a Chicago hot dog is so full of flavor I figured it would be perfect for a dip. Lately I’ve been sautéing spinach, pureeing it and adding it to everything from pasta to soups to banana muffins so I figured why not do the same method here to set the base color as green?

Perfecto! A light saute of the spinach and then you toss everything in a food processor…it really is a fast dip to assemble and because the giardinara has so much flavor you don’t need to add a ton of additional ingredients. Greek yogurt adds a nice hit of creamy protein, cream cheese lends thick tangy yumminess, spinach, giardinara, dried onion and garlic powder. Whir that up until creamy and all set! While I haven’t made this using allergy subs for the dairy I would expect you could easily sub plain dairy free yogurt and a good vegan cream cheese and it would be equally delicious!

This dip would be great served with sliced pretzel bread, your favorite crackers, cucumbers, jicama slices, red bell peppers, tortilla chips really anything you love to use as a scoop! I also thought it would make for a delicious smear on some grilled chicken and then lightly broil it or even a plop into a roasted sweet potato. So many options!

In the meantime, be sure to whip up a quick batch of this for your St. Patricks’ Day celebration or any get together. You don’t even need luck to ensure everyone will love this!

xo,

Kendra

High Protein Spinach Giardinera Dip

Gluten Free, Adaptable to be Free From Top-9

Serves: 8 

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. butter or olive oil
• 3 c. baby spinach
• 3/4 c. full fat or 2% unsweetened, unflavored Greek yogurt*
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened*
• 1 tsp. minced, dried onion
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 4 Tbsp. River Vally Ranch Papa Rocco’s Hot Giardinera, divided
• chips, crackers, baguette or veggies for serving

Directions

1. Heat the butter or olive oil in a large pan and cook the spinach just until it begins to wilt. Remove from the heat and add to the base of a food processor.
2. Add the remaining ingredients keeping 2 Tbsp. of the giardinera on the side to use for the top. Blend until super creamy and green.
3. Pour into a bowl and top with the reserved 2 Tbsp. giardinera.
4. Serve with your favorite chips and veggies to scoop up!

*to make dairy free sub with your favorite dairy free greek style yogurt and dairy free cream cheese.

happy foods are the best foods!