Frozen Spinach Is The Perfect Choice For Cold Dips This Summer

Every summer gathering benefits from a refreshing dip to enjoy with crisp crudités (hello picnics). It's hard to think of a major nutritional advantage that spinach is lacking, so why not infuse some of this superfood into your next summer snack? Not only is the leafy green bursting with bone-boosting vitamin K and calcium, but it's also high-fiber, low-carb, and virtually fat-free.

In many ways, frozen spinach is superior to fresh, and for your cold summer dips, that's especially true. Not only does frozen spinach tend to be cheaper than its fresh equivalent, but also it lasts exponentially longer. That means less food (and grocery budget) wasted, as well as one less item on your shopping list to rewrite again. After all, that 10-ounce package of frozen spinach is roughly equivalent to 1 ½ pounds of fresh after cooking; that's a lot of bang for your buck (and freezer shelf).

So be sure to add some cold dips to your list of favorite spinach recipes to share this summer. Your guests will thank you.

Although it's not necessary to defrost frozen spinach for some recipes, a cold dip absolutely requires it. For the ideal dip consistency to be scoopably thick, thawing the spinach is a must to remove the excess water and avoid drippy dip. After all, spinach is about 92% water by weight, and freezing bursts the plant's cell walls to allow the water to seep out.

To remove as much water as possible, place your block of frozen spinach into a fine colander or mesh strainer, positioned over a bowl to catch the meltwater. After it's sufficiently softened, squeeze the stuff with clean hands until you can't wring any more out. (Unless you've been lifting forearm weights at the gym lately, you might be surprised at how sore these spinach sets make you.) To skip the workout, you can also use a potato ricer or lemon squeezer here, although that would take several batches. Finally, spread the green goodness over a dishtowel or paper towel to dry up the last drops of moisture. 

It's worth mentioning that, since spinach is so water-dominant, the volume of your final squeezed product will be substantially smaller than your starting point. Therefore, you might want thaw out a larger block than you think you'll need, based on your recipe's called-for volume. 

Now that you have the technique down, your next step involves selecting the ideal ingredients to combine for your dip (besides spinach, of course). You can't go wrong with classic spinach dip, which typically uses cream cheese and sour cream as the base. You can also use the vibrant green vegetable to take your hummus up a notch, or try it in a spicy seven-layer dip where you can swap in spinach for the tomatoes or stir it into the sour cream layer.

If you're looking outside the (frozen spinach) box, let the thawed greens lend a healthy twist to a rich dip. For example, you could up the nutritional value of chilled crab dip by adding a few spoonfuls of drained spinach. Although avocado already boasts a myriad of health benefits, guacamole isn't above a nutritional renovation with a hit of spinach.

Bonus tip: You may want to experiment with diced versus pureed versions of frozen spinach in these dips. Recipes that are intended to be more rustic will probably do well with diced, whereas smoother dips like hummus or creamy onion would likely mesh best with pureed spinach.