Here's one...I know I've made one..but I don't recall with what. LOL This looks pretty similar to what I remember doing.

Spinach Dip from Scratch

As you know, I never use canned soup or dry soup mixes.
But I also never use tofu...I don't like the soy taste.
I have made spinach dip...but I use cream cheese. You could try it with no fat cream cheese....
No recipe, just a package of frozen chopped spinach, drained, squeezed dry in a piece of cheese cloth and chopped again with a chef's knife.
Mix the spinach, 8 oz cream cheese, 1/2 cup mayo ( again I suppose you could use fat free) some very finely chopped sweet onion couple of table spoons, goodly dash of garlic powder, some chopped red pepper for color, couple of good dashes of w'shire, ground red chilis to taste and if I want to stretch it a bit, I add a small can of chopped water chesnuts, or maybe a few slivered almonds. Sometimes I'll skip the garlic and onions, add more almonds and add some cream sherry. Sometimes I'll skip the mayo, use sour cream and the juice of 1/2 a lemon and grated peel and a couple of tablespoons of grated Parm.
It's all good....but if you are used to the salty taste of the soup mix, you may need to add some salt.
Linda C

I'd also use fat-free sour cream (the Truly yours brand is the best, IMHO), FF mayo and/or cream cheese. All those will substitute well. Tofu doesn't do anything for me in a dish like this.

Linda, that's about the recipe that I use, too. Also good with some canned and flaked salmon.

Well, tofu works perfectly for me in this application. With all the other spices and veggie flavors you don't notice the soy taste, it is creamy, low fat and has plenty of protein to boot and the phytoestrogen benefits of soy plus it is relatively inexpensive. I add 1/4 cup light mayo and low fat sour cream for taste too. But just not cups and cups of the stuff. What I need is suggestions for the seasonings. I saved the ingredients from the box of Lipton's vegetable soup mix, I guess I'll have to experiment. I have dried peppers, dried chives and onions, garlic, and dried celery and dried parsley. I could even make a paste in the food processor and freeze it up in little portions for making the dip. I like it a lot with soups and for parties. No one ever notices it is made with tofu when I serve it.

I'd probably either just throw in some garlic salt or saute onions and garlic and put them through the food processor.

But for the record, let me say that I think the anti-sodium movement is a conspiracy designed to rob us of one of the only non-fattening food pleasures. And I'm against it.

LOL Jessica! It's really more the MSG that bothers me. If it was just salt I think I would just use less of the soup mix. Next time I make it I'm going to experiment with vegetable bouillon and some dried herbs and vegetables. Hopefully I'll come up with a good recipe, the world could sure use one! :)

Here's a blog with one cooks recipe for spinach dip w/o using dried soup. I would probably add in some dried herbs and seasonings like celery salt, basil, oregano, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: spinach dip from scratch

Teresa....it's the MSG that gives the dip the flavor you love....that and the salt.
The dip that Teresa nc linked sounds good, but it will be very thin and get thinner upon standing as the moisture is drawn out of the veggies in it.

I loathe the taste of MSG and it gives me a stomache ache and/or a headache if I eat too much of it. I was at the health food store today and I got both powdered vegetable bouillon and spinach dip mix, both without MSG. That should tide me over while I do some experimenting for the mix of spices and dried veggies to add.

You can probably find dried vegetables for soup, Pinkie! Surely the Amish stores around you will have them? Fresh basil and parsley would be good with some garlic and perhaps finely chopped green onions.

Linda is probably right about the fresh veggies making the dip watery. That's probably the reason for the dried soup mix. Years ago I analyzed a dried soup mix that I used in a really good curried chicken noodle soup - separating the veggies, weighing them, weighing the noodles, yada yada.... But I didn't have a good source of the dried soup vegetables so it all came to naught.

Teresa

Lindac - you must have been addressing someone else. Until now, I have not commented on this thread. You referenced teresa-NC and another teresa.

"Teresa....it's the MSG that gives the dip the flavor you love....that and the salt.
The dip that Teresa nc linked sounds good, but it will be very thin and get thinner upon standing as the moisture is drawn out of the veggies in it."

Sometimes it is hard to keep posters straight when reading rapidly thru threads.

Lpink - I buy an organic dehydrated veggie mix from The Wedge Coop - my favorite place to shop. It would work well for what you are looking to make. I have attached a link to Frontier Herbs. Contact them to see if they distribute in your area.

Teresa in Minnesota

Here is a link that might be useful: Frontier

My editing skills are a bit rusty, but I interpreted LindaC's quote as first addressing Teresa (nc) in an informal, but direct approach. The second mention of "teresa" included the "NC" for the edification of the rest of us.

No harm, no foul.

Jo

I was addressing the Teresa who posted immediatly before my post. I was answering her. She is the one I am accustomed to thinking of when I post "Teresa"...or even "Theresa"...not sure why you would think I was addressing you. She has been here for a lot of years and posted all sorts of bread advice and recipes, ran a panay camp, posts about her farmer's market adventures and generally has been a fixture here for a long time. Actually I misspoke and was addressing LPink, also a very familiar poster who I would recognize in an airport and referencing Teresa's link.

lindac wrote - "Actually I misspoke and was addressing LPink."

That's what I thought.... as clearly stated in my post. :-)

Hvae made onion dip from scratch. Finely diced/minced onions, a little butter and olive oil in pan, and slowly cook down till little brown bits. Then cooled and into straight sour cream.

On recent stop at farmer's market, the spice guy had containers of straight dried veggies?? Was intrigued... onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, peppers... NO salt or anything else. I'm thinking a few spoonfuls of that into onion or spinach dip would work well.

The dried veggies klseiverd mentioned is what I'm talking about. Be warned, they may be rather pricey, but you only need maybe 2-4 TB of them in the dip.

Years ago when I used to run backpacking programs we got a dried veggie mix that was great! But I can't remember where we got it. I'm sure we ordered it from somewhere, probably a place that sold bulk foods for storage/survival, etc. I didn't really want to go that route, although the dried tomato sauce was also great that we used to get. That's why I went to the health food grocery yesterday, hoping they might have some of that dried veggie mix in bulk, since they do have a small amount of bulk foods. No luck on that, but I did get whole wheat bread flour! And Rapunzel brand vegetable broth powder which contains a lot of dried veggies ground up. Also "Simply Organic" brand spinach dip mix, but that has dried spinach in it, lol! I'll look next time I'm at Wegman's, they have a bulk food section maybe they have the dried veggie mix. I have dried onions, dried chives, dried parsley, and dried green peppers on hand already. I'm not really in the mood for mail ordering something special or driving a long distance for it, but I'll keep my eyes open for it now. That dried veggie mix is great to add to other types of things too! Makes easy peasy soups.

Does not seem to matter whom Linda was addressing, since as I mentioned, I am looking for a recipe sans MSG since I am allergic to it. Actually I'm kind of excited now about coming up with my own version! I may be able to put myself on the map on the Internet aka Annie's salsa! (Just joking around!)

"and generally has been a fixture here for a long time"

Oh, golly gee, Linda!!! You mean I've reached "fixture" status after 8 plus years? Oh my! I'm so honored! I want to thank the academy and all the little people out there who voted for me. I know I don't deserve this honor, but my heart is so full of gratitude. Thank you, thank you so very much!

Gratefully yours,
Teresa (teresa_nc7)

;o)

Teresa, I've been called worse things than a "fixture", LOL.

Lpink, if the broth mix has all those veggies in it, could you just use that, maybe with water chestnuts and fresh or frozen spinach, at least as a base to start?

Annie