Healthier Onion Dip Mix

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. But put me near the dip and chips, and watch out. I like it so much that we had to institute “Dip Mix Season” which runs from Thanksgiving Day to New Year’s Day. There are two additional periods of legal dip mix use- Super Bowl Weekend and Daytona 500 weekend. Consuming dip outside of those calendar dates is frowned upon.

This past year, I stumbled upon an idea to make dip mix healthier. Not healthy. Just a little less bad. The easy swap was using cottage cheese for sour cream.

Check out the nutrition labels from Daisy (not an paid endorsement, just my favorite sour cream and cottage cheese brand).

Both cases are for the low-fat version (big tip: AVOID buying the no-fat version of sour cream. Even by accident.)

The actual nutrition stats aren’t that different. Similar numbers for Fats, Cholesterol and Fiber. Cottage cheese has a little more carbs, but also more protein. But the big number is up at the top. The serving size. Two tablespoons vs. half a cup. I don’t know about you, but I’m NEVER eating two tablespoons of onion dip.

The “recipe” is easy – mix your favorite dip mix (I like the Trader Joe’s pictured above) with a tub of cottage cheese instead of a tub of sour cream. You may find you need less of the dip mix (I usually use a little more than half a packet). The texture is different in that the cottage cheese is thicker than sour cream, and lumpier, too. Either use thicker chips (we often sub rice cake pieces), use a small knife, or run the dip through your blender to liquify it a little more.