Our vegetable dip recipe is an excellent excuse to eat with your fingers. The vibrant dip features a mayo and sour cream blend infused with spices and fresh herbs.
Gather your vegetables of choice, serve them up with this mayonnaise-based dip, and you’ll have a rainbow of colors and flavors on one vegetable platter. Best of all, the dip comes together in a matter of minutes, making it an ideal last-minute dish that will still be a hit on the table.
Is this Vegetable Dip Healthy?
Even made with mayonnaise and cream, our vegetable dip is relatively healthy. To be precise, each of our servings — with vegetables included — contains only 186 calories. It is a perfect low-calorie snack you can munch on without feeling guilty.
With 3.6 g of saturated fat and less than 300 mg of sodium, the dip itself is a good choice nutritionally. Besides, it can become a complete fiber and vitamin bomb when teamed up with fresh vegetables and fruits.
Thanks to the abundance of veggies, each serving of our vegetable dip piles on the USDA-recommended nutrients — you get up to 31% of your daily vitamin A and 72% of your vitamin C. To sum up, this recipe is one of the healthiest (and tastiest!) options if you want to incorporate more fresh vegetables and fruit into your eating plan.
What Veggies Are Good to Dip?
Although veggies taste amazing on their own, serving them with a creamy dip takes them to another level. Our favorites include carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers.
The dippers should come from contrasting textures and colors to make your platter more attractive and delicious. Of course, you can add any of your favorite flavorings like bacon, crackers, or even shredded cheese as long as it works for you.
Ingredients For The Dip
Veggie dips can be made of various dairy-based components of either mayonnaise or sour cream or a combination of the two. You could easily swap out the sour cream for Greek yogurt, though it’s worth noting that this will add more tang to the flavor profile.
- Dairy: Mayonnaise and sour cream soak up the seasonings and give everything a silky consistency perfect for scooping. We used whole-fat mayonnaise and sour cream, but you can adjust it to save on calories by using low-fat versions.
- Seasoning and Spices: The basic combo of salt and pepper is essential to the mixture’s flavor, while the onion and garlic powder add aromatics without an intense bite.
- Lemon Juice: A splash of acidity creates a hint of tanginess to balance out the dip.
- Herbs: Fresh chopped coriander and parsley make our vegetable dip stand above the rest. They also make a beautiful garnish.
How to Make Vegetable Dip
Our dip is a simple blend of dairy, seasoning, and herbs. Everything is mixed together, after which you can serve it immediately or chill it in the refrigerator for a few minutes.
Make the dip.
Top with the herbs.
Assemble with the veggie platter.
Serve.
Tips for Making Vegetable Dip
Go lighter: You can lighten the vegetable dip by using light mayonnaise or light sour cream or substituting it with nonfat Greek yogurt. The texture will vary slightly, ending up thicker or thinner, but all these options come with a rich, creamy taste.
Dried Herbs: Fresh herbs work best in the dip recipe, but not everyone has them in their pantry all the time. If you switch to dried herbs as flavoring, you will want to use half of what the recipe calls for since the dried variations have more concentrated flavors.
This perfect side for light meals is an excellent example that includes tomato.
What Are Other Healthy Dips for Vegetables?
Dips are easy to make and fun to enjoy. They involve all sorts of ingredients, flavors, and consistencies. To help you expand your ‘dip horizon,’ we’re sharing other healthy recipes that are both simple to make and incredibly delicious.
Guacamole: Guacamole is a traditional Mexican dip made with avocado, onion, and tomatoes. Given that the main ingredient is avocado, the dip has the perfect buttery, nutty flavor and is also an excellent source of healthy fatty acids.
Hummus: This chickpea-based dip is creamy, hearty, and idyllic, with a surprisingly complex flavor profile. Adding extra green to the basic hummus is an amazing way to pack more nutrients into the dip.
Serve and Store
Serve: Since it contains dairy, the dip only stays safe at room temperature for about 2 hours. We suggest taking note of how long it has been sitting out so that you can throw it back in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes before serving it again.
Store: Keep your dip refrigerated, tightly covered, or in a sealed container; it can last for 3 – 4 days. From our experience, the dip even tastes better the next day since all the flavors have a chance to meld and mellow. It’s a great idea to prepare the dip the night before the party.
We don’t recommend freezing this dip; the dairy base tends to separate when frozen.
More Magically-Easy Recipes:
Vegetable Dip Recipe
Our vegetable dip recipe is replete with fresh veggies and fruits for a light and healthy appetizer or snack that comes together in just 10 minutes.
- prep TIME 10 mins
- total TIME 10 mins
- COURSE Side Dish
- CUISINE Global
- SERVINGS servings
- CALORIES 185 kcal
INGREDIENTS
- 4 oz carrots
- 4 oz celery
- 4 oz cucumber
- 6 oz cherry tomatoes
- 4 oz yellow bell pepper (sliced)
- 3 1/2 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
- 4 tbsp sour cream
- 2 tbsp parsley (chopped and divided)
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil (divided)
- 1 tbsp coriander (chopped)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp paprika
INSTRUCTIONS
Make the sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together 3 1/2 tbsp mayonnaise, 4 tbsp sour cream, 2 tbsp chopped parsley, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 2 tsp lemon juice, 1/2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp chopped coriander, and 1/4 tsp salt. Combine well and set aside.
Pour the sauce into a small glass bowl. Top with 1/4 tsp paprika, 1 tbsp chopped parsley, and 1/2 tbsp olive oil.
Arrange 4 oz carrots, 4 oz celery, 4 oz cucumber, 6 oz cherry tomatoes, and 4 oz yellow bell pepper on a plate.
Dip the veggies in and enjoy.
NUTRITION
Tuyet Pham
Chef, Culinary Consultant
Luna Regina
Writer, Author
Lizzie Streit, MS, RDN, LD
Nutrition Reviewer
- Jeff
March 27, 2023 at 7:56 AM
This vegetable dip is a great way to add flavor to raw vegetables while getting some extra nutrients in your diet. I love the combination of flavors it has!