Just Eat It: Sweet Pepper and Spinach Dip

By Stiff
My inspiration for cooking can come from a variety of things. Sometimes I get inspired by having a dish from a restaurant that I’ve never had before and try to replicate it at home. Sometimes inspiration comes from recipes I may see on television. I mostly get inspired by the certain items I see in the grocery store or farmer’s market.

Sometimes I fail at the outcome of what I’m making and sometimes I succeed. I just like to try new things and expand my horizons when it comes to testing new ingredients or cooking methods. James, my fiancé is a great guinea pig. He will generally eat whatever I make and is honest about how the food tastes. Unlike James, I myself am much more critical about how my food turns out.

Sweet Pepper and Spinach Dip

16 oz. Cream cheese

1/4 c. Grated Romano/Parmesan

2 c. Mini sweet peppers

1 c. Sautéed spinach

1 c. Plain Greek yogurt

4 Cloves of garlic

1/2 t. Garlic powder

1/2 t. Onion powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook Time: 1.5 hours

Preheat oven to 375*.

Unpackage room temperature cream cheese into a large mixing bowl and set aside. Cut spinach into small ribbons. Mince 4 cloves of garlic. Thinly slice sweet peppers, about 6-8. Discard seeds from the peppers.

In a sauté pan, sauté spinach in olive oil until wilted and then add garlic and sauté until garlic aroma has been released from cooking. Add a pinch of salt and fresh cracked pepper to spinach and set aside.

Add yogurt, cheese, garlic powder and onion powder to the cream cheese mixing bowl. Mix until all of the ingredients have integrated with each other. Then add spinach and peppers and mix until well integrated into the cheese mixture.

Transfer to a small casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes before eating.

(Stiff is an amateur home cook and food blogger. Stiff can be found at a grocery store, Instagram @stifferoni and Tumblr: http://stiffers.tumblr.com/.)