Recipe – Vegan Artichoke/Spinach Dip

Prep Time

15 minutes (plus time for soaking cashews)

Cooking Time

10 minutes

Yields

5 cups

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup raw cashew nuts soaked overnight* and drained of water
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 2 large shallots, chopped
  • 1 3/4 – 2 cups almond milk, plain, unsweetened
  • 6 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 4 3/4 cups loosely packed, chopped, fresh spinach (about 1 bag, or 5 ounces)
  • 1 16 oz bag of frozen artichoke hearts,** thawed, water squeezed out, roughly chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Soak cashews overnight in room temp water OR boil cashews for 10 minutes and let sit for at least 1 hour.
  2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
  3. Saute oil, garlic and shallot for about 2 minutes. Lower the heat and continue to saute another 3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from heat, set aside and let cool.
  4. When cool, add together, in a blender, 1/2 of the garlic and shallot mixture, the soaked, rinsed and drained cashews, 1 3/4 cups almond milk, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Blend or process until completely smooth (the process should take about 1-4 minutes depending on the strength of your blender.
  6. Drizzle in extra almond milk if needed to reach a creamy, smooth consistency.
  7. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary, you want it to taste cheesy and salty, so add more nutritional yeast and/or salt, as needed.
  8. In the skillet that has the other half of shallot and garlic, add the chopped spinach and drained, squeezed and chopped artichokes. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and saute for 4-5 minutes, just long enough to wilt and soften the spinach.
  9. Turn off the heat and mix in the creamy sauce. If your skillet is oven-proof, you can leave it right in there, but if not, transfer to a casserole dish.
  10. Bake for about 5 minutes, uncovered. If bubbly and delicious looking, it’s done. You can bake longer, but be careful not to overbake or it may dry out.
  11. Store leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Notes

*Soak nuts overnight in at least twice as much water as nuts. When ready to use, rinse and drain.

** You can use a can of artichoke hearts, usually sold in about 14 oz. I like frozen better but canned will work too. Be careful not to get marinated artichoke hearts. They should just be in water.

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