Healthy Spicy Spinach Dip with Pine Nuts

Feeling a little guilty after the holiday indulgences? Well, here's a delicious little treat that you can enjoy with a clear conscience ~ A perfect little nibble with your favorite beverage, and it would make a great choice for a Superbowl party, too.




First a small amount of finely minced onion is sauteed with 1/4 cup pine nuts, when the onion and nuts are a deep golden color a little ground cumin, ground coriander, pure chili powder and a pinch of ground cayenne is stirred into the mix just in until fragrant. (I used chipotle chili for it's slightly smoky flavor).  While that mixture is allowed to cool you can combine the base of the dip/spread.
 Rather than sour cream or cream cheese, the base is nonfat, thick Greek-style yogurt (no guilt there!) I used Fage brand with 0 fat ~ I really like it's creamy, thick consistency.  For the spinach ~ you can use frozen, thawed chopped spinach but I just gently steamed 10-ounces of fresh baby spinach, squeezed out as much liquid as possible then finely chopped it up. I like the texture of the freshly steamed much better than the frozen spinach in this particular recipe.
To finish the recipe just combine the cooled onion-spice mixture with the yogurt-spinach mixture, stir until thoroughly mixed together, add salt to taste and stir again. I also stirred in a couple of drops of lemon juice, and garnished with additional pine nuts. You can make this up to 24 hours ahead, covered and refrigerated. You can stir in a little milk if you would like a thinner dip.
Serve with thin slices of toasted baguette, tortilla chips, toasted pita crisps, crudites.



This also makes a nice condiment for grilled chicken, fish, or beef. If you try it I hope you like it as much as I do!
Click here for a printable copy of the recipe.
Thanks for stopping by friends!