Mini Baked Spinach Dip Cups

• Sometimes Homemade
• April 1, 2013
• 6 Comments

I seem to always be in charge of appetizers or snacks for family gatherings. I’m not ashamed to admit that main dishes are not my specialty. If you need appetizers, sides or desserts, I’m your girl! I went through my appetizers Pinterest board before deciding what to take to my mom’s for Easter and I found a recipe from Picky Palate for spinach cheese bread bowls. I modified them slightly to make these mini baked spinach dip cups.

These are pretty easy. You can see step-by-step photos on the Picky Palate site. I modified the recipe below and made them into mini cups in a mini muffin tin instead of regular sized cups. I also used frozen spinach.

Mini Baked Spinach Dip Cups

Ingredients:

• 1 Refrigerated French bread loaf
• 1-1.5 cups frozen spinach
• 1 tablespoon olive oil.
• 1 clove garlic – pressed or minced
• 3 oz softened cream cheese
• 1/2 cup light sour cream
• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup shredded asiago cheese
• 1/8 tsp Chili Powder
• 1/8 tsp garlic salt
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
• 1/8 tsp ground pepper
• 1/3 cup mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Microwave frozen spinach with 2 tbsp of water in a covered dish for 2 minutes. Heat olive oil in a sautee pan and add fresh garlic. Add spinach. Sautee for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
3. In a medium size bowl combine spinach, cream cheese, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, asiago cheese, Chili powder, garlic salt, sea salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
4. Cut French loaf into one-inch slices. Cut each slice in half and then roll into a ball and flatten into a thin circle. Place each into a greased mini muffin tin covering the bottom of each cup and going about halfway up the sides.
5. Scoop a small ball of the spinach mix into each cup. I used a melon baller as my scoop. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top.
6. Bake for about 15 minutes until the bottom of the bread bowls are lightly browned.

Take them out and let them cool for a few minutes before serving.

These were SO good and adorable! I can’t wait to make these for our next get together. I didn’t end up making them for Easter dinner though since I wasn’t sure how they’d transport. I made a spicy Mexican dip with chips and fruit dip with fresh fruit.

On a side note, I had a little bit of the spinach mixture left, so we decided to just bake it at 350 degrees for about 7 minutes and used it as a dip. This may be my new go-to recipe for spinach cheese dip!

What do you normally take for family gatherings? Do you have a signature recipe or do you bring something new each time? I do a little of both.