Spinach Cob Loaf

Spinach Cob Loaf means it is party time! To wow your guests, make this hot spinach dip in a bread bowl as an appetizer for entertaining! 

Appetizers to please a crowd like our Grazing Platter, Caprese Bites, Cottage Cheese Dip or our savory baked brie appetizer are perfect before the main meal! 

Spinach and cream cheese is a winning combination any day of the week. Spinach, cream cheese, french onion soup mix and greek yoghurt mixed together and baked in a loaf of bread is simply heavenly!

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So handy to serve as the starter for any gathering, this easy french onion cob loaf tastes delicious and has the wow factor.

The party won't start till the cob loaf hits the table! 

This is a vegetarian recipe that you can prepare in advance and heat just before the guests arrive!

WHAT IS COB LOAF?

Cob is a type of bread that is versatile and can be used for a lot of recipes.

Often refereed to as cob loaf it is round white bread with or without sesame seeds. It is sold in local grocery stores as well as bakeries. Plus is very easy to find at the shops.

It works perfectly for entertaining as its round shape holds ingredients so well! We simply scoop out the soft bread, leaving the fresh outer shell of the cob bread and fill it with a delicious dip before oven baking it.

WHAT DO YOU EAT WITH COB LOAF?

You can eat a wide variety of crackers, vegetables and toasted bread with cob loaf. 

The basic thinking is that any food which can be dunked into the dip and is easily held as guests are socialising are good cob loaf serving suggestions. 

You can tear this bread apart, you can eat the outside crust of the loaf as you make your way down. You can stick a carrot into the dip, a piece of celery, a cracker, anything that allows you to get dip on it and is easy finger food works.

CAN YOU FREEZE COB LOAF?

Yes, you can freeze cob loaf.

I find the best way to do that is to make the loaf up with the spinach dip inside, then freeze it. So you don't cook it then freeze it.

This works as you can be organised and do this in advance of your party.

Then when the time gets closer you can pull this out of the freezer and get ready to cook it!

CAN YOU REHEAT COB LOAF? 

You can reheat cob loaf.

It is unlikely you will need to though as it will be gobbled up so quickly there won't be anything left to reheat!

If you want to reheat it, you can wrap it with alfoil, place it on the middle rack in the oven and bake for 20 mins. This will ensure the dip is fully reheated through to the bottom of the bread.

WHAT INGREDIENTS DO YOU NEED FOR SPINACH COB LOAF

I have set out all of the ingredients you will need and labelled them in the photo below so you get the idea quickly and easily about what you will need to make it yourself.

The ingredients for making cob loaf dip are basic. Think household staples.  You will find they are also easy to get your hands on. Most, if not all of the ingredients can be found at your local grocery store.

When I started making this dip years ago, I used to use frozen spinach. But I didn't love doing that as I found it a bit watery. I switched it up at one stage and used fresh baby spinach leaves and now that is what I use each time I make this.

Yes, the frozen spinach works and it is cheaper, plus you can have it in the freezer, so give it a go if you want to use frozen spinach. However, my personal preference and recommendation to you is using fresh spinach.

As you can see we have:

• cob loaf
• spinach (fresh is best)
• cream cheese
• french onion soup mix
• greek yoghurt

Greek yoghurt is my go to for a lot of recipes where cream or sour cream are suggested. I think it tastes better, so give it a go as you might think so too!

HOW DO YOU MAKE A SPINACH COB LOAF?

Making a Spinach Cob Loaf is easy, here are the steps and photos on how to do it.

Start by preparing the cob loaf itself, you can see me doing that in step 1:

1. cut a round circle in the top of your cob loaf (shown in photo 1)
2. pull the top of the cob loaf off to reveal the soft white bread (shown in photo 2)
3. remove the bread from inside the cob loaf, by simply pulling it out (shown in photo 3) 
4. add fresh spinach to a food processor and blitz (shown in photos 4 and 5) 
5. transfer chopped spinach to a mixing bowl and add cream cheese (shown in photo 6) 
6. stir together the spinach and cream cheese (shown in photo 7)
7. add greek yoghurt and french onion soup mix to mixing bowl (shown in photos 8 and 9)
8. add soup mix to spinach cream cheese and stir till thoroughly mixed together (shown in photo 10) 
9. spoon your spinach dip into your cob loaf (shown in photo 11) 
10. place cob loaf in oven to bake until cheese dip is cooked through (shown in photo 12) 

Of the steps that are listed above there are 4 essential steps to pay particular attention to for bomb diggity hot spinach dip in a bread bowl.

Let's have a look at those steps below.

HOW TO CUT BREAD BOWL FOR SPINACH DIP

The way that you cut your bread bowl for your spinach dip does make a difference.

Use a sharp knife and cut around the top of the cob loaf.You can score a border at the top too if you like.

We pull all of that fluffy white bread out of the cob loaf as we are going to toast it and use it to dip into the bread later.

If you have a look at the 2nd photo here, you will see me mixing together the dip ingredients. This step takes a bit of time especially if the cream cheese is on the firmer side to start with. Either way, spend the time to mix these together well as the end result will be delicious dollops of cheesy, spinachy, bread bowl dip!

The next step is to scoop the bread into the bowl. Just keep scooping till you get it all in there, but you can leave a border at the top as otherwise the 1st dippers will have the spinach run down the sides of the cob loaf.

Spinach Cob Loaf quick info:

About the recipe:

• opt for fresh spinach, but you can use frozen if you need to
• buy your bread fresh on the day if you can!
• this is a vegetarian recipe
• spinach dip is the perfect appetiser for entertaining

FAQs about Spinach bread bowl dip  

1. we use 1 x family size cob loaf
2. the dip gets mixed together then cooked in the bread bowl 
3. you will find the french onion soup mix in the soup section of the supermarket
4. the dip has great flavour to it but is not hot or spicy

Your quick questions answered:

1. prepping the bread will take about 3 mins
2. pull less bread out of the centre if halving the dip ingredients
3. use crackers and toasted bread to dip into the bread bowl to eat it
4. rip, tear, pull the bread apart as you go that is part of the fun
5. This is an EASY recipe

Expert tips:

It will be handy to keep these tips in mind when you are making this recipe:

• THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT: you can make this recipe with 1 x cream cheese (250 grams), 1 x spinach leaves (240g grams) 1 x french onion soup mix, (40 grams) ½ cup of greek yoghurt and the 1 x cob loaf. The thing to keep in mind if you want to do this is that your dip will not fully fill the bread bowl. You can be a bit tricky and take less of the bread out so it will appear fuller. So if the thought of ½ of cream cheese scares you (haha, I get it) then make the dip ingredients  a half portion size of this recipe
• the oven needs to be hot to begin with, then turned down. This allows us to toast the spare bread and then fully cook the dip which is not a quick, hot cook, but a long and slow one
• make your circle at the top smaller so that you are not widening the surface area of the dip (need more to fill it)
• add 1 cup of grated cheese (like mozzarella) if you like instead of 250 grams of cream cheese
• spray both the inner pulled out bread and the top rim of the cob loaf with cooking oil for crispy toasty bread

APPETISERS FOR ENTERTAINING

So many appetisers so little time, haha!

1. Grazing Platter
2. Coconut Prawns (shrimp for my American friends) 
3. Mini Quiches 12 ways (both vego and non vego options)
4. Honey Soy Chicken Wings (family favourite recipe)
5. Chili Lime Chicken Wings (oven baked recipe)
6. Baked Chicken Meatballs (with homemade satay sauce)
7. Baked Stuffed Mushrooms

This Cob Loaf Dip is just the start of your entertaining menu. You can choose for it to be the star of the show or choose to have some other appetizers to serve with it. Either way, hot spinach dip in a bread bowl will rock your guests socks!

Your guests will appreciate variety. So have some veggie sticks, some cracks, some toasted bread. Plenty of options make for the best ever spinach cob loaf!!  

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Holiday Season

If Christmas recipes are on your mind (and we are talking appetisers, so I wouldn't be suprised), then fear not as I have you covered. 

You might want to try these skin on roast potatoes, our chicken liver pate or our 8 egg pavlova, all recipes which will float your boat and rock your socks! 

Hope you hop, skip and jump to your kitchen to give this recipe a go, your cob loaf spinach dip recipe will be calling you and I will be here to answer questions if you get stuck!

Adrianne xx

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