This 5-ingredient, easy, real food onion dip recipe is so good, it will make you wonder why you ever bought the packaged mix! Find other great recipes on the Quick Healthy Recipes page.
Onion dip. Let's go there today - it's another thing that I literally had NO idea growing up that you could make at home. And I loved those little containers of onion dip. It was probably my favorite dip - with potato chips, of course. I'd maybe have a carrot stick or two, but I couldn't really be bothered much with vegetables as a teen. I remember many a college dinner that consisted of onion dip, chips and a couple carrot sticks. Yikes - I can't believe I just admitted to that. The foolishness of youth, right? Hey, it was cheap, though!
In my defense I started experimenting with cooking, especially stir-frying vegetables, in the last years of college, so the crap-food phase didn't last that long. But making homemade onion dip didn't occur to me until I saw a recipe in a magazine a few years after Brian and I got married. Whaaaat? Head blown completely off. And it was so easy! And only took a few ingredients!
In fact, only about five ingredients, if you don't count salt and pepper, but let's go ahead and count them and call it seven ingredients total. And then let's compare that to the ingredients listed on the back of the packaged onion dip mix:
Ingredients:
Onions (deyhydrated), salt, cornstarch, onion powder, sugar, corn syrup, hydrolyzed soy protein, caramel color, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, monosodium glutamate, yeast extract, natural flavors, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate.
Wow. Okay, only 2 of our ingredients are listed - onions and salt. We'll just use onions that we caramelize in olive oil to produce sweetness and browning and do away with the added sugars, soybean oil, and caramel color, as well as the additives and preservatives, okay? That just leaves the two ingredients left to add, cream cheese and sour cream.
If you've never had true, whole food onion dip, this may just blow your head off, too. Real, fresh chopped onions in a dip takes it to a whole new level - really.
And guess what? Since letting my body adjust and taste real foods like this, I have no desire for the packages or containers of dip anymore - not even in a 'comfort food' category. I've found this has happened with other packaged foods I used to eat regularly (though not all!)- they have a funny taste to me now and I don't even want to eat them.
Want to see if that happens to you? Start by making your own onion dip and see!
Easy Homemade Onion Dip (better than a mix!)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ¼ cup chopped onion about 1 small onion
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse black pepper
- 8 ounces Neufchatel cream cheese cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, salt and pepper, and cook 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and starting to brown. Turn off heat, but leave pan on the burner.
- Add the cream cheese and sour cream to onion mixture and stir until cheese is melted and ingredients are combined.
- Scrape into a serving bowl, cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes to 1 hour before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Looking for more whole food, real dip recipes? Check these out:
Cheesy Chicken Artichoke Skillet Dip
Chicken Feta and Dried Tomato Dip
Janette says
Hi Jami, I love your blog! I made the onion dip and it was really delicious. The taste from the sautéed onions and garlic was amazing. For some reason, the dip was almost too thick. Would it have made a difference if I let the neufchâtel cheese melt more in the skillet? Otherwise I'm wondering if just using the sour cream would make sense. I look forward to your input here.
Jami says
Thank you so much, Janette! You can try it different ways, but I prefer the flavor with the cream cheese in there. If it's too thick, I just thin it with a bit of milk.
Pat Galloway says
Looks really yummy. Now if only you could create a mix like that to use as dried onion soup mix for making other things, like chicken and rice using Lipton onion soup mix.
I love your blog and watching the progress on your farm house. You two are doing really nice work.
Jami says
Thank you, Pat!
That's an interesting idea about a real food reboot of the chicken and rice mix. 🙂
AndiW says
Wow! That onion dip recipe sounds to-die-for! MUST try!! Thanks for sharing, Jami!
Jami says
It is SO good Andi!
Ranae says
This looks amazing! I'm so glad you posted this because we don't eat a lot of this: only on special occasions. Many times I throw what's left of it away...this way I can make it fresh and I'm sure it'll get eaten!!!
Thank you!
Jami says
I think you'll find that to be true, Ranae - we love to eat it as leftovers to liven up our vegetable snacks. 🙂
Michele says
This looks delicious! I am so making this tomorrow!! I'll let you know how it turns out!