French Onion Dip
December 10, 2018 by Nicole Collins
It's Day 10. It's dip day. And, that means it's gonna be a good day!
Even if it is a Monday.
If you're entertaining this holiday season, or ever really, an absolute must for the menu is some kind of dip. It can be a hot dip, a cold dip, a trio of dips...there just HAS to be dip!
You guys know I love to turn appetizers in to meals, and I can't tell you how often I center meals around any kind of dip. And, I love how many options of dippers I have when it comes to dip. Veggies (when I'm being good). Carbs...breads, crackers, chips, pretzel (when I'm being naughty which is 99% of the time). Throw some lunch meat or rotisserie chicken on the side, and I'm cool with calling that a meal!
And then sometimes, I can turn leftover dip in to a sandwich spread. I totally did that with today's recipe too. How can you not love when you get a 2 for 1 situation?!?
So what kind of amazing dip are we making today? Today, we're making French Onion Dip!
This dip has all of the elements of one of my favorite soups, French Onion Soup, wrapped up in a cool, creamy dippable treat.
A lot of French Onion Dips start with a store bought seasoning packet. You guys know I don't mind taking some help from the grocery store, but I don't want that for this dip. There's way too much sodium in those packets, and we can get just as much flavor on our own.
We start with some caramelized onions. When you cook onions low and slow, they get the most amazing deep brown color with a sweet flavor. But to really enhance the richness, we're going to finish the onions with some worcestershire sauce before we chop them up and add them to our dip mix. The worcestershire almost mimics the beefy elements of french onion soup.
This is a cold dip; so it's got a base of cream cheese, sour cream, and mayo. Plus, we add some shredded swiss cheese in to the mix, because what's french onion soup without the cheese!
Once everything gets mixed together, we top it with some french fried onions to add a little crunch to the party; and we're ready to get dipping!
I chose to use potato chips and crackers to dip in this batch of dip, but I also love it with some cubed bread or some celery sticks. You could dip cardboard in this dip and it would taste good, if we're being honest here. This dip is that good! The rich, sweet, and creamy flavors of this dip just can't be beat when paired with a salty dipper!
We're nearing the end of the road of this challenge, but let's take a look at some of the other things we've made so far.
Day 1: Holiday Charcuterie Boxes
Day 2: Honey Goat Cheese Tartlettes
Day 3: Chicken and Donut Bites
Day 4: Sweet Chili Meatballs
Day 8: Hawaiian Pizza Sliders
Day 9: Old Bay Popcorn
Ok, guys. We're breaking out some southern charm tomorrow, so be sure to check in!
'Til tomorrow, let's eat!
French Onion Dip
Serves: about 2 ½ - 3 cups Print
Ingredients:
For the Caramelized Onions:
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large onion, halved and sliced
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 sprig thyme
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
For the Dip:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonaisse
1 cup swiss cheese, shredded
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
french fried onions, for garnish
chopped green onions, for garnish
Directions:
Caramelize the onions: In a non stick skillet, melt butter over medium low heat. Add onions, thyme, ½ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper. Cook for 20-25 mins, stirring every 5-7 mins, until the onions are softened, caramelized, and brown in color. Add worcestershire sauce, stir, and cook for about 30 seconds longer. Discard the thyme sprig. Remove from heat, and set aside to cool.
When the onions are cool enough to handle, chop them in to small pieces. In a mixing bowl, add cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, and shredded swiss cheese. Use a hand mixer to beat the mix until smooth. Add the chopped onions, ¼ tsp salt, and ½ tsp pepper. Beat until onions are incorporated. Transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with french fried onions and green onions, if desired. Store leftovers in the fridge up to 5 days.
Recipe notes:
*Your dipper possibilities for this dip are endless! Chips, crackers, bread, veggies...everything tastes good with this dip!
*You could use lowfat cream cheese and lowfat mayo for this dip, if you prefer. There's not much difference.
*I usually advocate for shredding your own cheese. That's what I did for this recipe, but pre-shredded chesse would also work just fine in this recipe since we don't need it to melt.
