Ask Alyse Whitney when her fascination with dips started and she'll tell you that her parents had to reintroduce her to soft foods as a child because she insisted anything could be swallowed whole. She has parlayed that creamy obsession into a book, Big Dip Energy: 88 Parties in a Bowl for Snacking, Dinner, Dessert, and Beyond!
Whitney calls Lipton Onion Soup Mix her gateway dip and says she always has a packet of it on hand. Mayonnaise, sour cream, and cottage cheese are essential fridge ingredients but pinches of MSG go a long way for a good dip, she explains. Copious amounts of freshly ground pepper and pre-peeled garlic also pull their weight.
One of her signature dips is "Cranch." Two packets of Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning mixed with cream cheese, mayonnaise, garlic, and lots of black pepper creates a base that can be enhanced with chili crisp or buffalo sauce.
Whitney's Caesar salad dip, which uses an entire head of pureed romaine lettuce as the base, is another favorite. "I wanted to have a refreshing, lighter bite, kind of reminiscent of aji amarillo in Peruvian cuisine," she says. "I love that the dip — using all the ingredients that would normally be in a Caesar dressing paired with this entire head of lettuce — makes the dip green, refreshing, and bright."
Caesar Salad Dip
Serves 4 to 6
I love all my children equally, but Caesar Salad Dip is my favorite. (I don’t care for G.O.B. This is Arrested Dipvelopment.) This dipfied all expectations of how dishes can be transformed into dips. This isn’t just a Caesar dressing that’s slightly thicker and more dippable—it’s salad blended into a dip. The base of the dip was inspired by aji verde, a Peruvian green sauce made with a base of pureed romaine lettuce, which adds a subtle vegetal flavor and some of its signature color. I ate it frequently when I lived on New York’s Upper West Side (shout-out To Pio Pio!) and was reminded of it by my friend and food stylist Nick Torres during the dipvelopment process. Watching lettuce get pulverized in a food processor is a little gnarly, but trust the process and romaine calm. The water in the lettuce keeps things light and bright even after you add in all of the dairy and garlic, making it refreshingly decadent—and the best way to get yourself to eat a lot of vegetables in one sitting.
Ingredients
- 1 head romaine, roughly chopped, or 1 bag (7 ounces) chopped romaine (for lazy ease)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 2 teaspoons anchovy paste or fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire or soy sauce
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese (freshly grated or the pre-grated kind from the refrigerated section)
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 10 to 15 cranks black pepper, plus more to taste
- Kosher salt, to taste
Instructions
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Don’t let fear stop you—put that lettuce right into your food processor. Blitz it with the garlic until broken down into little bits, then add the lemon juice, anchovy paste, dijon, Worcestershire, and cheese. Run the motor again until the mixture is smooth and evenly combined. Add the mayonnaise and sour cream, then run it again until you have a creamy, green-speckled dip. Crack in as much black pepper as speaks to you and taste to see if it needs any salt (it shouldn’t, but you be the judge).
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Pour the dip into an airtight container and let it sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours to firm up slightly to the right dipscosity. You can dip in right away but it will be looser, more like a
dressing or dipping sauce.
Alyse Whitney says her fascination with dips and soups started when she was an infant. Photo by Andrew Bui.
"Big Dip Energy" dives into entertaining's favorite centerpiece. Photo courtesy of William Morrow Cookbooks.