Spinach Cob Loaf is a quick and easy appetizer! Perfect for entertaining, using simple ingredients this cob loaf dip goes down a treat!
Please a crowd with my Grazing Platter, Cottage Cheese Dip, or Baked brie to get the party started.
Choose quick and easy with my Gherkin Dip, Corn Relish Dip or Cream Cheese Onion Dip.
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Recipe Highlights
- Fuss free and effortless: some appetizers like canapes can be quite fiddly and time consuming to bring together. This recipe is the opposite. It uses simple, everyday ingredients with basic steps and simple techniques.
- Taste, texture and flavour: 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!
- Freezer friendly: you can make this dip and freeze as a whole for serving at a later date when you simply have to cook it in the oven.
- This is a vegetarian recipe, so it caters to guests who are non meat eaters.
Ingredients
The photo below shows you the ingredients you need to make the recipe. It is a great visual guide to use when shopping. For exact measurements please refer to the printable recipe card below.
As you can see, the recipe calls for:
- cob loaf: this is best from the bakery or bakery section of the supermarket. It is a round loaf that is perfect as a bread bowl dip as you can literally dunk into the bread.
- spinach (fresh is best): you can use frozen spinach an alternative, however, I find the taste is better with fresh spinach that we blitz in the food processor (less watery).
- cream cheese: I am using the spreadable tub version of cream cheese. You can also use the block version to the equivalent amount.
- French onion soup mix: this will be in the soup section of the shops, in packet form. It is full of flavour and a great addition to a recipe needing taste without loads of time.
- Greek yoghurt: I use Greek Yogurt as an alternative to sour cream in many of my recipes. I find it better for you as well as containing less unhealthy fats. It is still thick and creamy in texture.
Top tip: remove the cream cheese from the fridge as a starting point as it will be at room temperature when you come to use it.
Instructions
Making a Spinach dip in bread is easy, here are the steps and photos on how to do it. We start by preparing the cob loaf, you will need a knife and chopping board.
Top tip: save the plastic wrap that the bread comes in. Make the dip, then place back into the bag, seal and freeze for prep for your next party!
Serving Suggestions
The bread from inside the cob loaf is an essential part of the recipe!
It is perfect for dipping and dunking.
Your guests will also appreciate variety. So have some veggie sticks, some crackers or crudités handy. Plenty of options make for the best ever spinach cob loaf!!
How to Guide
How to store the recipe
This bread bowl dip is best eaten on the day it is cooked.
You can have it across 2 meals, for example, leftovers later that day from an earlier brunch, however, I do not recommend eating it across more than 1 day.
Can I freeze the dip
Yes! This is a perfect recipe to freeze.
If intending on freezing the recipe, it is best to add the raw mixed dip to the bread bowl (untoasted), wrap in the original bread bag and freeze.
It is not recommended to cook and then freeze the recipe.
How to reheat the dip
If consuming the leftovers from earlier in the day, simply place on a baking tray and reheat in the oven for 10 - 15 mins.
It is not recommended to reheat the dip more than once.
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
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 in a circle.
You can score a border at the top too if you like.
Pull all of that fluffy white bread out of the cob loaf, toast and use it to dip into the bread later.
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.
Expert tips
It will be handy to keep these tips in mind when you are making this recipe:
- 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 kg of cream cheese scares you, 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.
- if halving the recipe (see tip no 1 above) 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.
More Party Starter Recipes
Sometimes it feels like so many appetisers so little time, haha! Here are some more ideas to get the party started:
- Cream Cheese Jalapeno Dip
- Cream Cheese Salsa Dip
- Coconut Prawns
- Cream Cheese Caramel Apple Dip
- Mini Quiches 12 ways
- Honey Soy Chicken Wings
- Chili Lime Chicken Wings
- Chicken Liver Pate
Or check our all of my appetizer recipes.
Hunger still got you? You can SUBSCRIBE to receive the latest recipes, follow me on Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook.
Adrianne xx
📖 Recipe
Spinach Cob Loaf (Cob Loaf Dip)
Equipment
- Baking tray
- Food processor
- Mixing bowl
- Wooden spoon
Ingredients
Spinach Cob Loaf
- 1 cob loaf Note 1
- 240 grams spinach Note 2
- 40 grams french onion dip Note 3
- 500 grams cream cheese Note 4
- 1 cup greek yoghurt Note 5
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C/400°F/gas 6.
- Use a sharp knife to cut a hole in the top of your cob loaf
- On a baking tray, set out baking paper for the bread bowl and additional bread pieces
- Pull the fluffy white bread out and set aside
- Use a food processor to blitz the spinach leaves
- Add chopped spinach leaves and cream cheese to a mixing bowl, stir to combine
- Add french onion soup mix to mixing bowl as well as greek yoghurt, stir to combine until raw dip is consistently mixed together
- Spoon spinach dip into prepared bread bowl
- Bake for 10 mins at 180°c
- Remove toasted additional bread from tray and set aside, turn the oven down to (325 degrees F 165 degrees C gas mark 3).
- Transfer bread bowl to middle oven rack and cook for 50 mins (bread will toast and dip will be cooked through)
- Serve on platter surrounded by veggie sticks, crackers and toasted bread
Notes
-
- Note 1 you will easily be able to get bread like this either at the local shops or the bakery. I like the round loaf which has sesame seeds on it
- Note 2 you can use frozen spinach, but I prefer using fresh as I think it tastes better!
- Note 3 this is in the soup section of the supermarket. It is a small packet (40 grams) and you can use any brand. We use 2 of them for this recipe.
- Note 4 it is much easier to work with cream cheese when it is softer. So try and remove it from the fridge early if you can as then you will be able to mix it into the ingredients with less elbow grease!
- Note 5 some recipes would use cream here, but I prefer greek yoghurt as it has less calories and a great taste that works well with the other ingredients
Jas @ All that's Jas says
Serving dip in a bread bowl hits all the right spots! I'll be definitely making this one soon. YUM!
Adrianne says
That is great to hear Jas, thanks, hope you love it!
Lizet Bowen says
My boys love dips, but not veggies. Great way to add some spinach to their diets 🙂 Looking forward to making it this weekend.
Adrianne says
Sounds great Lizet!! Thanks for your feedback and I hope everyone enjoys it with the boys getting their veggies in! Cheers
Mimi says
I have never heard of a cob loaf before! Live and learn! This looks really fun, and I love the color! I don’t usually use mixes, but for this I wil make an exception!
Adrianne says
Hey Mimi! there are hugely popular in Australia and New Zealand. Yes, hope you try it, I think you will enjoy it. Cheers!