Creamy Spinach Artichoke Dip
This hot and creamy spinach artichoke dip is the ULTIMATE comfort food! This super delicious recipe is easy to make with basic ingredients.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
This hot spinach artichoke dip is pure comfort food. Sign me up. This dip recipe comes together in under 20 minutes with basic ingredients: spinach, artichoke, cream cheese, sour cream, plus green onions and poblano pepper or bell pepper.
We’ll cook the green onions until they’re a little golden and frazzled around the edges, which is an easy way to yield tons of flavor. I’m obsessed with using lightly spicy, tender poblanos in this recipe (a great twist on standard spinach artichoke dip) but you can use a red bell pepper for a mild dip (also delicious!).
The end result is not the most beautiful dip in the world, but it’s definitely amongst the most tasty. It’s creamy and indulgent, yet tastes fresh and full of flavor. This dip is fully loaded with veggies and greens, so it’s actually more redeeming than you might think.
I hope you’ll whip together this spinach artichoke dip on the holidays, or for movie nights, or just any time you get a hankering for it. I’m daydreaming about serving this dip at parties next year!
How to Make Spinach Artichoke Dip
This easy dip recipe comes together quickly on the stovetop. You’ll find the full recipe below, but here’s the gist:
1) Thaw frozen spinach.
I recommend using frozen spinach, rather than fresh, because it’s less expensive, easier to work with and honestly, it even tastes better in the end. We’ll use half of a 16-ounce bag for this recipe, so you can just save the rest for a future dip. To thaw the spinach, just place it in a fine mesh sieve or colander and run cool water over it until all of the ice is gone. Then, squeeze all of the excess water out of the spinach (this is key!) and set it aside.
2) Cook green onions and poblano (or bell pepper).
Next, we’ll sauté green onions and chopped pepper in olive oil with some salt and red pepper flakes (optional, for some heat). We’ll cook them longer than you think is necessary, until the green onions are golden and extra delicious.
3) Add cream cheese, sour cream and chopped artichoke.
You can use canned artichoke in water or jarred marinated artichoke. Whether the artichokes are halved or quartered, just chop them into smaller pieces and drain them well before using.
Simply stir the cream cheese, sour cream and artichoke into the skillet. Cook until the mixture is warmed through and steaming, which will only take a few minutes. Lastly, season with salt and pepper so the flavors really speak to you.
4) Serve warm.
You’ll find dipping vehicles below. Enjoy!
Spinach Artichoke Dip Serving Suggestions
This dip isn’t complete without one or more of the following:
- Tortilla chips
- Toasted pita wedges or pita chips
- Crostini
- Fresh bell pepper strips
- Carrot sticks
- Celery sticks
More Party Dips to Enjoy
- Baked Goat Cheese with Tomato Sauce
- The Best Hummus
- Guacamole
- Pimento Cheese
- Spicy Red Pepper & Feta Dip
For a baked version of this creamy dip, make my Baked Spinach Artichoke Dip. It features irresistible, golden cheese on top!
Please let me know how this recipe turns out for you. I love hearing from you.
Creamy Spinach Artichoke Dip
This hot and creamy spinach artichoke dip is the ULTIMATE comfort food! This super delicious recipe is easy to make with basic ingredients. Recipe as written yields 2 cups (enough for 4 to 6 snack servings). This recipe is easily doubled for a crowd (cook it in a medium skillet).
Ingredients
- 8 ounces (about 1 cup) frozen spinach
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup chopped green onions (3 to 4 green onions), both green and white parts
- 1 chopped poblano pepper (for some spice) or red bell pepper (for mild flavor)
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (scale down or omit for mild flavor)
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt, to taste
- 8 ounces cream cheese, sliced into 4 even pieces
- ½ cup (4 ounces) sour cream
- ½ cup (4 ounces) chopped artichoke, canned or marinated
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Serving suggestions: Tortilla chips, toasted pita wedges or pita chips, crostini, strips of bell pepper, carrot or celery sticks…
Instructions
- To thaw the frozen spinach, place it in a fine mesh sieve and run cool water over it until the ice is all gone. Squeeze out all of the excess moisture in a tea towel or in fistfuls over the sink. Set aside.
- In a small-to-medium skillet over medium heat, warm the olive oil until shimmering. Add the green onions, poblano pepper, red pepper flakes (if using) and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring often, until the green onions are frazzled and lightly golden around the edges and the peppers are tender, about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Add the drained spinach, cream cheese, sour cream, drained artichoke, and several twists of black pepper. While stirring constantly, cook until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed together, warmed through and lightly steaming, about 2 to 4 minutes. Season with additional salt and pepper, to taste (careful, the dip is hot!).
- Serve warm with any desired accompaniments. Leftover dip will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 4 days. Gently reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop before serving.
Notes
Make it dairy free/vegan: Use 1 ½ cups vegan sour cream in place of the cream cheese and regular sour cream combo (my vegan sour cream recipe as written yields just 1 cup, so double it and save the leftovers for garnishing your upcoming meals).
Slow cooker option: This dip is so good because the green onions are cooked until frazzled, so you really want to cook through step 2 on the stovetop as written. Then, however, you can stir in the ingredients as written in step 3. Once warmed through, transfer the mixture to a small slow cooker to keep the mixture warm (use the low or keep warm setting, as needed).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Would this recipe also work with vegan cream cheese and vegan sour cream?
Hi! Yes, see my vegan note below the instructions.
This looks so fantastic — especially on a snow day. Can’t wait to make it!
I hope you love it! be sure to report back.
This dip is one of the only ways to get my toddler to eat something with veggies in it. It’s part of our regular rotation!
Hooray! I’m glad your toddler enjoys it, Laura.
I have made this recipe but instead of the poblanos I used chili garlic sauce also 1/2 the cream cheese and monterey Jack cheese, OMG it soooo goooda!!!!
thanks for the share
Marie
Thank you for sharing! I’m delighted you loved it, Marie.
Do you think this would be good if you substituted vegan cream cheese?
Hi Marta! Yes, see my notes about a vegan alternative below the instructions.
I made something like this for (small bubble) Friendsgiving, as a friendly appetizer. Puff pastry in muffin tin, spinach dip in each one, that way everyone gets their own.
I’m glad you loved it! Thank you for taking the time to review.
This is so delicious! Served it with fresh lightly toasted Turkish bread. It is a wonderful starter with a glass of wine. My partner who is normally no fan of artichoke could not stop dipping. Will repeat for sure. Might be also a very tasteful topping for baked oven potato. Thank you for your recipe and happy holiday greetings from Amsterdam
Thank you so much, Claudia! Love your potato topping idea—that sounds fantastic!
Could this be made in a regular pan instead of a skillet then just transferred to a bowl for serving? Or is the skillet imperative?
PS- Thank you for your amazing recipes. Everything I have tried including chickpea noodle soup, pumpkin muffins, maple banana muffins, pasta fagioli, minestrone, mashed sweet potatoes and mashed regular potatoes have been exceptional! I find myself always searching for something new as I know it will be beautiful and delicious. Happy holidays!
Hey Aly! You could cook this in a saucepan, yes! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed that long list of recipes. Thank you very much for letting me know!
BEST ARTICHOKE DIP EVER! I absolutely love the addition of bell peppers and red chili flakes. It sets it off! Thank you for this incredible recipe. It barely lasted the first day of having it.
I’m glad you think so, Gabby! I appreciate you taking the time to review.
This looks delicious! Do you think adding chopped water chestnuts would be doable for this recipe?
I guess you could try it!
Sounds amazing. I have all of the ingredients on hand except sour cream. Do you think I could sub greek yogurt for sour cream?
Hi! You could try it. Let me know.
This turned out great! Used a Jalepeño instead of a poblano.
Sounds delicious, Kathleen!
SO GOOD and EASY! Made this for me and my husband for a Christmas appetizer lunch. Used a 10 oz brick of spinach, a red bell pepper, 1/4 tsp pep flakes and stirred in about 1 tsp of Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch when the dip was finished. Served with fresh bread and tortilla chips. Reminds me a lot of the spin art dips you’ll get at American-style chain restaurants (TGIFriday’s, Applebee’s, etc.) only much tastier and less greasy!
Thanks Kate — your site is one of the very few I turn to for consistent results.
Wonderful to hear! Thank you for sharing how you made it, Katie.
Kate, we love all your recipes and you are our go to for anything we make now. We made this and loved how creamy it was. We added more artichoke (used frozen) and love garlic so we added this. Served with crusty bread, yummy!
Thank you for sharing how you made this dip, Beth! I appreciate your review.
Made this for Christmas day snacks and it was great! I also enjoyed the leftovers cold.
I’m definitely going to make this! Thank you for sharing your yummy recipes.
I am in love with this dip. I needed something fun to make for new year’s eve so naturally I came to Cookie & Kate for ideas. Can I just say this dip was A HUGE HIT! Making it was super simple as well; it is deliciously creamy and absolutely divine spread on a fresh piece of french baguette.
Will be adding this to my lists of make-again recipes!
Wonderful! Thank you, Marda, and so happy to hear that Cookie and Kate is your go-to. Happy New Year!
Hi Kate – just wondering for the vegan version why you recommend subbing the cream cheese and sour cream for just vegan sour cream? If i can find vegan cream cheese can i sub that instead?
Thanks! Love you blog!
Hi Kate! See my vegan/dairy free option in the notes. Let me know what you think.
Hi Kate. I made this for a Thanksgiving appetizer and then again tonight for, gasp, dinner! It is very good. I leave out the poblano. Also, I used 12 ounces of marinated artichokes. So good! I’ll definitely make this for a Christmas appetizer. Thanks for sharing!
I love that! Thank you for sharing, Dana.
I made this with vegan sour cream and vegan cream cheese. It’s divine. It almost didn’t make it to the dining room table, we kept going back to it while it was still in the pan.
I made this just for NYE this evening and we’ve been inhaling it…with cucumbers, carrots, celery, tortilla chips. It’s SO good. Thank you, Kate, for all of your wonderful recipes, and wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year!
You’re welcome, Prema!
Saw this today, made it immediately. So delicious, will be my standard spinach artichoke dip now. Thank you for this recipe!
You’re welcome, Margaret! Thank you for your review.
Hi Kate I have everything in the fridge to give this recipe a go! Can I use fresh spinach instead of frozen? Happy Holidays! Thanks so much!
Hi Pal, recommend using frozen spinach, rather than fresh, because it’s less expensive, easier to work with and honestly, it even tastes better in the end. You can use fresh, just need to make sure you get all the moisture out of it.
Would this recipe work without green onions?
You can omit it if you prefer.
Just made this for the Super Bowl it is delicious! I did add the whole can of artichokes though. Didn’t know what else to do with them and we like them. Would recommend doing that!
Thank you for your review, Kristine!
GENIUS recipe! Made this while hosting game night yesterday and it was a huge success amongst our guests, we finished it immediately! Served on roasted baguette as well as some crisps for dipping. Will definitely make again and again! Thanks for a wonderful recipe Kate – brilliant as always :)
Yum! I’ve made several times, including serving at my daughter’s birthday party. I removed the seeds from the poblano pepper and found no heat/spicy kick from using the de-seeded pepper. So don’t be afraid to use the pepper. Although, the red bell pepper provides a lovely pop of colour.
I’m glad you loved it, Brooke! Thank you for your review.
The dip sounds amazing and I have almost everything to make it for a party tomorrow! Do you saute the peppers until pretty soft or keep them crunchy? Happy Holidays! So curious how old your little one is these days. I’m sure she’ll be a wizardess in the kitchen like her mother some day.
When you say green onions, is this the same as scallions?
Yes!
I made this for a new year’s eve party and it was a hit. It was easy to obtain the ingredients with the exception of the poblano pepper. It was also easy to follow the directions and make the recipe. I ended up adding more salt to otherwise it was kind of bland. I would have liked to see an option to make the artichoke (marinate it and all) instead of just the canned/bottled version. Overall, would make again and adding this to my recipe vault.
Thank you for sharing!
OMG – this was fantastic! I never had spinach and artichoke dip warmed before. I didn’t have artichoke on hand, so I used some canned hearts of palm from the pantry instead. They are much easier to chop than artichokes. I used the poblano pepper as well, so it had a little kick. This is my new favorite dip!
That’s great to hear, Julie! Thank you for your review.
I did make this recipe. It was really good but I wanted a little more zip so I added some pepperjack cheese.Nice little bite.
Can this be made the night before, how would you suggest to warm up the next day? Also, can this be served at room temp?
You can warm it up in the oven.
Would you add some shredded mozzarella shredded or Parmesan cheese to this? I’d do, how much would you suggest? Thanks! Looking to make this tomorrow when we have friends over for a little Christmas shindig.
Great game day dip! Absolutely yummy!
I agree..BEST artichoke dip I have ever tasted…and anyone who I have made it for agrees!! Thank you from Vancouver! LOVE so many of your recipes!
I avhe a question; Do yiou mean scallions for green onion?
Hi Corliss, they are the same thing, just refer to different harvest times. You can use them interchangeably in this recipe.
Could you substitute plain yogurt for the sour cream?
Hi Ruth, yes that will work.
Thank you it was delicious. I love your recipes!
Amazing