Spinach Dip 2.0 – Half the Calories, but All the Deliciousness

By Ted KallmyerUpdated August 21, 2022

Spinach dip is probably one of my favorite appetizers.

However, despite the spinach –giving it a healthy sounding name– it is loaded with saturated fat and calories.

Spinach is one of my top ways to add more vegetables to the diet, but most recipes contain either a lot of cheese or sour cream and mayo, which when coupled with bread, crackers, or flatbread make this appetizer a day’s worth of calories all by itself.

Fact:

Chili’s Spinach and Artichoke Dip w/tortilla chips clocks in at 1440 calories and 92 grams of fat in just about a 1 cup serving!

I present to you my much healthier goto spinach dip recipe for when I need a healthy appetizer to take to a party or when I’m entertaining guests.

Heck, sometimes I make a batch and eat it as a meal. It’s so good that you’ll want to!

(This is my adaptation of Knorr spinach dip, but tweaked to be much healthier.)

Spinach Dip 2.0

Print Recipe

I present to you my much healthier goto spinach dip recipe for when I need a healthy appetizer to take to a party or when I’m entertaining guests.

Servings cups

Calories 179

Ingredients

1 packet of Knorr Vegetable Recipe Mix (If you can’t find Knorr where you live, any 40g vegetable dry soup packet will work.)
16 oz (454g) non-fat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup reduced fat real mayo
10 oz (283g) fresh or frozen spinach chopped
8 oz (227g) can of water chestnuts drained and chopped
4 green onions chopped

Instructions

Combine Greek yogurt, mayo, and Knorr soup packet.
Cook, cool, and drain the spinach. (I stick mine in the freezer for a few minutes.) Squeeze of excess water. I usually put it in a strainer and press it down with my fingers until little water remains. Cheese cloth works too.
Add water chestnuts, green onions, and spinach. Stir until the spinach is uniform throughout.
Refrigerate for 2 hours. (The hard part.)
Serve.

Nutrition

See Also: My 10 Easy Hacks for Healthier Cooking (this recipe happens to use some of them).

Less Than Half the Calories!

The original recipe, which calls for a cup of regular mayo and sour cream, has about 1,609 calories per 4 cup batch! More than double my modified recipe that has just 715 calories per 4 cup batch.

The best part? You won’t even notice that the 894 calories are missing! Seriously, this spinach dip is always a huge hit when I take it to parties and everyone always asks me for the recipe.

For those who are vegan or who don’t eat dairy, try it with Vegenaise and coconut yogurt.

See all my delicious yet time saving healthy recipes here.