This creamy spinach artichoke dip is packed with cheesy flavor without using any dairy at all! A cashew based cream sauce is mixed with a savory spinach artichoke mixture and baked to perfection. Paleo, vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, and Whole30 compliant.
Spinach artichoke is one of my all-time favorite food combos. I can’t get enough of it, which is why I love creating new spinach artichoke recipes for the blog!
Although I have an old paleo spinach artichoke dip recipe, I wanted to try a new version with the cashew cheese sauce that I’ve been making lately. I’ve made a version of the sauce for recipes like my burrito casserole, cheeseburger casserole, and roasted garlic pizza.
The cashew based sauce worked out perfectly combined with a savory sautéed spinach artichoke mixture. Plus, with the help of a blender, this dip couldn’t be easier to whip up!
What You Need to Make Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip
The ingredients for spinach artichoke dip are simple and wholesome. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Fresh baby spinach
- Canned artichoke hearts
- Onion
- Garlic
- Cashews
- Avocado oil
- Fresh lemon juice
- Onion + Garlic Powder
- Nutritional yeast
- Sea salt and black pepper
How to Make Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip
First, make sure you soak your cashews. They only need to soak about an hour or so before beginning as long as you use hot water.
Once your cashews have soaked you can make the cheese sauce. I used a Vitamix for this which works well. You can use any high speed blender – it might just take a bit more patience and pulsing with some blenders.
Simply add all the sauce ingredients to the blender and blend/pulse until creamy. This can take up to 5 minutes depending on your blender. You can always add a bit of extra water if the sauce seems too thick.
Once your sauce is done, make the spinach artichoke mixture. Sautee your onions and garlic in the avocado oil, season, then add the spinach and chopped artichokes to the skillet and cook until the spinach wilts.
Then, combine the sauce with the spinach artichoke mixture and transfer to a casserole dish. Lastly, bake the dip in a 350° F oven for 10-15 minutes, or until heated through. Then serve hot and enjoy!
What To Serve with Spinach Artichoke Dip
If you’re going for Whole30 compliant options, any fresh cut veggies are great, or you can make tostones (twice fried plantains) or baked sweet potato fries.
You can also use it to top a baked potato for a filling Whole30 + vegan meal, or top sweet potato toast for a delicious Whole30 snack.
If you’re not doing a Whole30, grain free tortilla chips from Siete or any simple mills crackers would be great with this dip for a fun savory paleo and vegan snack!
I hope you’re ready for a seriously tasty spinach artichoke dip that you won’t believe is vegan, Whole30 compliant and healthy! Get your cashews soaking because it’s time to start – let’s go!
Spinach Artichoke Dip {Paleo, Vegan}
Spinach Artichoke Dip {Paleo, Vegan}
Ingredients
Sauce:
- 1 1/2 cups cashews soaked in hot water for 1-2 hours*
- 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice about 2 lemons
- 2/3 cup warm water or plain unsweetened almond milk
- 1/3 cup avocado oil or light flavored olive oil
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Spinach Artichoke Mixture:
- 2 tbsp avocado oil or olive oil
- 1 med yellow onion chopped
- 4-5 cloves garlic minced
- 10-12 oz fresh baby spinach roughly chopped
- 14 oz can organic artichoke hearts drained well and roughly chopped
- Sea Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
Make the sauce:
-
In a high speed blender (I used a Vitamix) add all sauce ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy, set aside.
Make the Spinach Artichoke Mixture:
-
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a 2 qt. Casserole dish (about 8 x 8 square) with avocado oil spray.
-
Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the avocado oil. Once hot, add the onions and sprinkle with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-5 minutes or until soft and fragrant. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the spinach in batches to allow it to wilt slightly, then add the artichoke hearts. Cook another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, then sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper.
-
Remove from heat, and add all the sauce to the spinach artichoke mixture, scraping the blender to get it all in. Mix well, then transfer to the prepared casserole dish. Smooth the top, then bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until heated through. Serve hot, with grain free crackers or chips, fresh veggies for an appetizer, or over a baked potato or sweet potato for a meal. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*Save leftovers in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Re-stir, and reheat in the oven or microwave.
Nutrition
Shop Products and Ingredients:
Want More Paleo + Whole30 Appetizer Recipes? Try One of These!
Tostones with Avocado Ranch Dip
Loaded Pizza Sweet Potato Fries
Crispy Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings
Loaded Taco Sweet Potato Sliders
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Oooh man I would so love to make this recipe but cashews tears my insides up.. it saddens me bcuz there are so so many good recipes nowadays that calls for cashews
Are there substitutions for the cashews and almond milk? This recipe sounds amazing but my granddaughter is allergic to all nuts.
I think my question is the same, can I sub something else for the cashews?
I mean, like a coconut cream for example? thanks for your thoughts…
We have made several of your recipes and love them all! (I especially loved the spinach chicken & artichoke spaghetti squash recipe! Oooh- and the chocolate pecan pie, that was yumm!)
Also wondering if anyone made this without the cashews? I can’t have nuts but everything else in this recipe works, thanks!
We made it with just the spinach artichoke mixture plus the nutritional yeast and a half a cup of mayo. It turned out really good. It was not as creamy of course but the flavors were great. I didn’t saute anything just mixed it altogether and threw it in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. It was still really good.
Made this last night for an appetizer with almond crackers, it was a hit I loved it, we had some leftover so I made Mac and cheese with the dip add some non dairy milk and mix it with elbow noodles, it was yummy
Seriously life altering!!! This was so good! I am dairy free, but wanted a cheesy decadent dip for Thanksgiving. Everyone loved it. I used to make a similar dairy loaded version of this and I can honestly say – this was as good if not BETTER! Added a little crushed red pepper for a kick. 🙂
Spinach artichoke is one of my all-time favorite food combos. I can’t get enough of it, which is why I love creating new spinach artichoke recipes for the blog!
https://supersmashflash2.io
Great recipe, thanks!
So yummy, love the lemony garlic flavor and cheesy texture. My 2 year old loved it too! We made roasted sweet potato slices to dip.
Nice post
Would this recipe work without the nutritional yeast?
This spinach artichoke dip is so delicious. Stunning! This is really a mouthwatering dish!
I love both spinach and artichoke, by the way. They are a genuine wealth of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, so they’re really healthy. Like many children in the world, mine don’t like vegetables either, and that’s a problem for me like for every mother. So I’m constantly thinking about the ways to get my picky eaters to have a small portion of veggies. I cook different sauces, gravies, dips with veggies chopped as finely as possible.
Michele, this spinach artichoke dip is a blast. I made it on Saturday, and everybody enjoyed it! By the way, I like it because it’s vegan and paleo at the same time. I do love the way we eat now: paleo, plant-based, and cruelty-free. I’m gonna cook this dip again and again.
Michele, I’m grateful that you share all those awesome recipes! Thank you for your invaluable work! Just keep it up! 🙂 And Happy New Year!
This will be our new go to! This was delicious! Thank you for sharing your recipes!
I have a ninja blender and the sauce did take about five minutes to come together.
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This was tasty and fun to make. Normally I have issues with nuts but with soaking the cashews, it was completely fine.
This tastes so good! I haven’t even baked it yet, I just tasted it before putting into the oven and it is SO good! I added shredded chicken from the crockpot to mine.
This recipe is so delicious, I eat dairy and find this to be better than the traditional cheesy dip.
Hi Michele!
I was wondering if I don’t have any cashews on hand, but I do have cashew flour. Can this recipe work with that?
Thanks
Paula Castillo
I made this last night and it was SO GOOD! No one could believe it was dairy free. Thank you so much for sharing such yummy recipes!
Thanks for the article information of the author, it was very helpful to me.
Is this how you made your spinach and artichoke pizza? I’m picturing this deconstructed on a pizza.
This is delicious. I wasn’t paying attention and accidentally bought only 5 ounces of spinach so I just used half of the sauce and it came out just fine. It does have a very cheesy taste and texture without the dairy. Thank you!
I just used half of the sauce and it came out just fine. It does have a very cheesy taste and texture without the dairy. Thank you!
Wow that was a great recipe, I should try it this holiday season. Thank you for this!
Can this dish be prepared the day before and baked just prior to serving?
This stuff is so nasty. There’s no cheese taste at all.
That’s bc there’s no cheese lol
Delicious! Going to use leftovers to stuff in chicken breasts for dinner this week. Yum 🙂
This is ridiculously amazing! We used it to stuff salmon (it was incredible), but this dip by itself is a true delight! And so much better then traditional spinach artichoke dip!
This was very good! We didn’t miss the dairy one bit!!
This looks amazing! Thoughts on using mayo instead of cashews? My tummy doesn’t like them even tho I do 🙂
Another amazing recipe!!!! Thanks for sharing! I served with potato wedges and veggie sticks. Even my family liked it!!
Is this gluten free? If not why not. Thank you
Thanks for sharing the recipe. Any good substitutes for cashews?
I was hoping the garlic, onions & artichokes would cover the cashew nutrional taste. It did not. If your into that taste than u may like it
So good! I made it tonight and added grilled salmon crumbles, it was delicious!
Do you strain the cashews first? Making right now and don’t see this specified.
I just tried this recipe and turned it great, my cheese loving husband even liked it! I was wondering if this can be frozen?
I LOVE this dip!! It’s my new favorite snack. My husband loves and he normally prefers cheese/full-dairy ingredients. It’s so creamy and tasty!
This was phenomenal! SO hard to believe it’s dairy free & tastes way better than traditional recipes—LOVED it! Dipped with roasted fingerling potatoes. Can’t wait to make again!
EVERYBODY loves this dip. Took it to a pizza party as an appetizer and it was getting decimated. The vegetarians took it and started heaping it on their pizza, too.
Currently doing whole30 so I made this for the Super Bowl and it was delicious! Everyone loved it.
Made for Super Bowl and I LOVED it! I think it was even better the next day heated up in the microwave! Always enjoy every recipe I’ve made of yours. Thank you!
I have made this several times now and I love it. I thought I would never eat spinach and artichoke dip again when I found out I could no longer have dairy, so this changed my life! I eat it with Simple Mills crackers or on top of chicken breast with tomatoes. Thank you Michelle!