Cottage cheese fried pickle dip
18 min · 11 g protein · 122 cals / serving
The dip that took over every feed: whipped cottage cheese blended silky with garlic, onion and dill, loaded with crunchy chopped dill pickles and a splash of their brine, then showered with buttery toasted cracker crumbs that taste just like the batter on a fried pickle. Tangy, salty, crunchy and very hard to stop scooping.
Ingredients
Dip
- 2 cups (one 16 oz tub) cottage cheese (1%)
- 3 tbsp light cream cheese, softened
- 2 tsp white vinegar, or pickle brine
- 3/4 tsp garlic powder
- 3/4 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp dried dill
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 cup chopped (about 4 spears) reduced sodium dill pickles, patted dry, finely chopped
- 3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh chives, snipped
Crunchy topping
- 8 round crackers butter crackers
- 1/2 tsp paprika
To serve
- 4 stalks celery, cut into sticks
- 1 1/2 cups baby carrots
Steps
- Put the cottage cheese, cream cheese, vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder, dried dill and pepper in a blender or food processor and blend for 1–2 minutes, scraping down once, until completely smooth with no curds left. This is what turns cottage cheese into a creamy dip; a stick blender in a tall jug works too.
- Pat the pickles dry on paper towels (wet pickles make a watery dip), chop them finely and fold them into the dip with most of the fresh dill and chives. Taste and add a splash of pickle brine if you want it sharper; the pickles bring plenty of salt. Chill for at least 30 minutes so it thickens and the flavours meet.
- Just before serving, crush the crackers into coarse crumbs in a bag and toast them in a dry pan over medium heat for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until golden and smelling buttery. Let them cool for a minute, then scatter over the dip with the paprika and the rest of the herbs. Serve with the celery and carrots, and pickle spears if you like.
Good to know
Why the cracker crumbs?
They are the "fried" part: buttery, salty and crisp, they taste like the batter on a fried pickle. Add them at the last minute, because they soften within an hour on the dip.
Make ahead?
The dip keeps 3 days covered in the fridge and gets better on day two. Toast the crumbs and keep them in a jar, then top just before serving. Stir once before serving if a little liquid has collected.
Make it spicy?
Fold in 2 tbsp chopped pickled jalapeños with the pickles, or finish with a pinch of cayenne. Bread-and-butter pickles give a sweeter dip; dill pickles are the classic.
Per
- Calories
- 63
- Protein
- (38%)
- 6 g
- Fat
- (28%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (35%)
- 6 g
- of which sugar
- 3 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 223 mg
More snacks
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 735 kcal goes into the pot and 1174 g of ingredients comes out as about 1170 g of food: 63 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.