Artichoke Dip

When I first came across this dip recipe, it was over 35 years ago and it was very popular to serve it at parties and get-togethers with friends. I was recently looking to remake some fun snack foods for folks to serve and enjoy during the upcoming football bowl games, and when I stumbled across this dip again, I thought it was a perfect one to “rebuild”. The dip uses just a few ingredients, and the only one that needed to be switched was the mayonnaise. These days, there are many lighter varieties of mayonnaise available but the one I prefer is made with olive oil. We made this dip for Christmas day as a mid-day snack as we were waiting on family members to arrive and we served it with multigrain tortilla chips with sunflower and flax seeds and this lighter version of an old classic got rave reviews. You could also serve this dip with raw vegetables or whole grain pita chips, but do choose artichokes hearts in water, not marinated artichoke hearts which are preserved in oil to keep this recipe healthy. This dip can also be prepared up to one day ahead of time and refrigerated, then baked just before serving.

• Reduced fat olive oil based mayonnaise replaces the higher fat version to reduce calories and fat.
• Canned artichokes in water are used in place of marinated artichokes in oil to reduce calories and fat.
• Serving the dip with raw vegetables or whole grain chips increases the nutritional value.