Here’s one of my favorite dips besides pico de gallo and guacamole. I get it all the time at Applebees in their 2 for $20 menu and I think it’s about time I take a stab at making it at home. And it turned out great! So so very yummy. It was one of the few times I was shooting pics while snacking cause I just couldn’t resist!
The great thing about cooking it in the slow cooker is you can serve it at potlucks and keep it on the warm setting. Just make sure to get the small portable-type slow cookers and not the big honking 6 quart ones.
It’s super rich and creamy and full of cheeses to compliment the spinach and artichoke. Serve them with bread, chips or crackers and everyone will love you at that potluck! And it really doesn’t take a lot of prep time. So let’s get started.
I used a standard 3 quart crock pot and it was just the right size. This should serve about 8-10 people depending on how many ambitious dippers you have in your crowd.
You’ll want to spray your slow cooker with non-stick spray before starting just in case. I was a little apprehensive about slow cooking cheese on a high setting since I’ve had stuff curdle before but it worked out okay. I guess I can attribute that to the short cooking time.
You can use fresh or frozen chopped spinach. I chose to go with frozen to minimize the bulk that comes with fresh spinach leaves. If you do use frozen, make sure to squeeze out any excess water in a colander so the dip isn’t watered down. You can sub Asiago cheese for mozzarella if you want. I’ve also seen recipes that use feta cheese instead of mozzarella so pick your favorites.
There’s a little bit of dicing needed for the artichoke hearts, onion and garlic, but that’s about it. The last thing you’ll need your knife for is cubing the cream cheese and then it’s onto the mixing. Mix everything in a large bowl. Everything! Take everything and just mix, mix, mix! This is about as easy as it gets for instructions for a recipe. Just make sure you mix well so everyone gets a fair share of the full flavor.
Then you transfer all of it to the slow cooker and start cooking it on high for 2 hours. At this point, you can go watch tv, clean up the kitchen, cook something else…just don’t peek! I read somewhere that each time you lift the lid you lose about 20 minutes cooking time! So just let it be and around the 1 hour mark, the kitchen will start smelling really good.
If the dip is too thick for your liking, add some warm milk or heavy cream in small increments and stir until it’s the way you like it. And that’s all there is to it!
Slice up your baguettes, prep your appetizer platter and you’re ready to serve!
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Slow Cooker Spinach and Artichoke Dip
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Prep Time: 15 mins -
Cook Time: 2 hours
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Total Time: 2 hours 15 mins
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Yield: 10
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained/fresh baby spinach, chopped
- 14 oz. artichoke hearts, diced
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
- 1 cup mozzarella/Asiago cheese, shredded
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
- 8 oz. cream cheese, cubed
- 8 oz. sour cream
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup milk/heavy cream (optional)
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir to mix well
- Spray the slow cooker with non-stick spray
- Cook on high for 2 hours or until cheese has melted
- If the dip is too thick, stir in milk/heavy cream little by little until it’s the way you like it
- Keep warm for serving with chips, bread or crackers
7 Comments
Dorothy Dunton
August 31, 2015 at 12:18 PMHi Farah! This and hot crab dip are my favorites! This would also make killer quesadillas! Have you seen the smaller crock pots that link together – they would be ideal for entertaining.
The Cooking Jar
September 3, 2015 at 12:27 PMHeya Dorothy! I’ve never tried a hot crab dip but it sounds delicious. Did you know crab is one of my top favorite meats? You wouldn’t have guessed from the stuff on my blog! That and lamb. I could sit at a table for hours eating crab….aaaand now I’m hungry. Great idea on pairing it with quesadillas! And no I didn’t know about those crock pots but I Googled it. Is it called the crock pot hook up? They look neat!
Dorothy Dunton
September 7, 2015 at 11:42 AMHi Farah! Those are the ones! Check out Spiced food blog – David just did a hot crab dip! And I LOVE lamb! 🙂
Susan
September 1, 2015 at 3:09 PMI love this dip but I never thought of doing it in the crockpot. Awesome idea Farah! I will be trying this recipe over the long weekend. Thanks for sharing.
The Cooking Jar
September 3, 2015 at 12:33 PMI usually don’t do stuff like this in slow cookers either but the hubs once told me about his co-workers bringing dips to work for some dip competition they had going and he specifically mentioned all the tiny crock-pots they used. It seemed like a good idea to keep things warm. So I gave it a try! I wish I had a smaller crock-pot like some of them he mentioned, I think they were about 1 quart. They sound so cute!
star326
November 8, 2016 at 11:49 PMI’d like to make this for an event I have this week where about 25-30 people will show up! How would I double or triple this recipe?
The Cooking Jar
November 10, 2016 at 2:10 PMWow, that’s a lot of people! What a lot of hungry mouths to feed 🙂 I just took a look at the ingredients and I think you can safely double all the ingredients as is as long as you use a bigger slow cooker. I would keep the cooking time the same. Try it out for 2 hours like the original recipe and see if the cheese has melted. If not, add 30 mins cooking time in increments. Good luck!