Homemade French Onion Dip

 I came across an Alton Brown recipe for homemade french onion dip. It was just before Super Bowl weekend so I figured I would try it out. My family are fans of store bought french onion dip, and I grew up with my mom stirring the freeze-dried and powdered french onion soup mix into sour cream, but I had never tried making it from scratch with actual onions. Alton made it look pretty simple, so we made it for our game night snack. 

The first try came out pretty great. We loved the fresh onion taste, and the method of deglazing with the vinegar added the perfect tang, but my boys felt it was just a little bit too rich. So I made some tweaks and came up with this version that we now enjoy very much. We substituted non-fat Greek yogurt in place of sour cream and mayonaise. It is still rich and creamy but not overwhelmingly rich. For us, a great change. 

French Onion Dip

Ingredients:

4 Large Onions

1/5 teaspoon plus one pinch Baking Soda

1 tablespoon Salt

1 tablespoon Dark Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Olive Oil

Apple Cider Vinegar for deglazing

1 tablespoon Blasamic Vinegar

2 cups non-fat Greek Yogurt

1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4 teaspoon Pepper

Directions:

1. Thinly slice the onions and put them in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. 

Remember that cutting onions with glasses on is a bad idea

Sprinkle the onions with baking soda, salt & brown sugar. Stir the onions to break them up and evenly distribute the salt, soda and sugar. Cover the pot and let the onions rest for 10 minutes.

2. After the onions have rested, uncover the pot, and place over high heat. Drizzle with olive oil and cook, stirring often until the onions are reduced by 75% and are a light golden color. 

3. Reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking approximately 15 minutes, stirring often.

4.When the onions begin to brown, deglaze the ban with a splash of apple cider vinegar. I did this three times before the onions were the desired dark brown. 

When the onions have reduced to about 1 1/2 cups in volume, deglaze one last time with the balsamic vinegar, stir a few times then remove from heat and let cool.

5. When the onions are cool, stir them into the 2 cups of yogurt. Add the garlic powder and pepper. Cover the dip and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour. It is best when it sits overnight. 

I had just the right amount of yogurt left in my container so I just mixed the onions and seasoning right in. :)