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I’m all for green foods for St. Patrick’s Day, but only if they’re healthy and naturally green!  Spinach Artichoke Dip Flatbreads are not only healthy, but full of delicious spinach artichoke dip flavor!  They’re perfect for a lunch or a light dinner.

When St. Patrick’s Day rolls around I think of lots of green things.  I think of all the green beer.  That’s just gross.  Beer shouldn’t be green.  Then I think of green velvet cupcakes.  Again, just stop with the green stuff!  At least the fake green stuff.  The only thing green I think of during St. Patrick’s Day is cabbage.  Yes.  Just cabbage.

However, last year Sunday Supper Movement had the same event and it got me thinking about other green ingredients and recipes to have for St. Patrick’s Day.  Last year, I shared a delicious potato skillet leek pizza.  And then I shared a roundup of the recipes we all shred last year.  It is full of recipes for all types of delicious healthy green foods.

Take leeks for instance.  I guess it’s the potato leek soup, but I always associate leeks with Irish food.  I’ve made quite a few recipes with leeks.  They’re so delicious and easy to use in almost any recipes.  Now, the trick to leeks to rinse them.  Rinse them thoroughly and more than any other vegetable you can think of.  I put my sliced leeks in a colander inside a bowl.  Then I separate the layers to make sure all the sand rinses out.

Brussels sprouts aren’t necessary Irish in my mind.  Actually, I’m not sure where they come from.  I should look that up.  Maybe they are from Belgium.  Who knew?  I sure didn’t.

When I was growing up, I didn’t like sprouts. They were usually frozen or boiled and just didn’t taste good.  Now that I’m an adult and the art of roasting vegetables has been a game changer, I love sprouts!  I sauté them with pancetta or I roast them with salt and pepper.  My favorite recipe is the Brussels sprouts carbonara I made.  It is delicious!

Of course, you can’t think of green vegetables without spinach (or kale or collards or chard, etc.)  I remember sitting at the table refusing to eat canned spinach with hard boiled eggs.  I think I fell asleep.  But as an adult, I have lots of recipes for spinach.  One of my favorites is the spinach baked eggs I share a while ago.  And then there was the creamed, chipped spinach over toast.  THAT was a delicious recipe!

On the flip side, there’s green onions.  I have lots of recipes with green onions in them, but none that really highlight this delicious vegetable like this chow fun.  I also have a cole slaw, too.  We use green onions all the time in salads and our famous scramble.  The hubs makes that for me.  He made it for me while I was injured and on crutches last month.  I have the best husband.

And then there’s pesto.  Pesto is packed with delicious basil.  Except, I’ve turned my pesto into carbonara, oven fried chicken, mac and cheese gnocchi, savory cheesecake appetizer, I think my favorite recipe is the broccoli pesto pasta.  Which is ironic because I wasn’t a huge fan of broccoli growing up either.  My parents used to put it in a casserole topped with cheese and Ritz crackers to get me to eat it.  To this day, it is my favorite way to eat broccoli, but I also love it roasted and sautéed.  So so good.

For this event, though, I looked to one of our favorite appetizers at a restaurant.  Well, aside from calamari, it’s one we will order if it’s on the menu.  Artichoke spinach dip is so flavorful and delicious on its own.  However, this recipe is supposed to be healthy.  So I decided to spread it out on a delicious flatbread and use lower fat ingredients where I could.

It also helps that this recipe is packed with hearty spinach and yummy artichokes.  That’s a pair made for each other in my book.  Then you combine it with cream cheese and cheese and it’s makes for a creamy dip and a creamy good flatbread.

See what I mean?  There’s plenty of spinach and artichokes.  There’s just enough low fat cream cheese paired with a moderate amount of Parmesan and mozzarella.  All of this is topped on a crispy flatbread crust.

Now, I made my own crust with my sourdough starter.  I really do such a crust.  Well, let’s be honest.  I suck at making bread.  I just can’t quite nail it.  It’s a work I progress.  But, this crust a little more flavorful than the others.  The hubs said I needed to add a little sugar.  And maybe I did.  I think I needed to add a little salt and sugar.  Of course, you could easily purchase a dough or make the dough of your choice.

A word about the spinach.  You could use frozen spinach that’s been thawed and wrung out to remove as much moisture as possible.  However, frozen spinach just has a little grittiness or some flavor that I’m not a huge fan of all the time.  If it’s in a dip or mixed with something else and not the star, then it’s fine.  However, if it’s part of the star then I want fresh, sautéed spinach.

It makes a difference.

I grew up eating artichokes before they were popular.  We used to have them steamed with butter.  I think it wasn’t until I was at least a teenager that I knew about canned artichoke hearts.  That was a bit mind blowing.  I still love steamed artichokes with butter, but for a recipe like this it’s easier to use the canned version.

You can get marinated in oil if you’d like.  I went with a simple canned artichoke heart to let the flavors in the cream cheese mixture show through.  The combination of the artichokes, spinach, and the cream cheese base make for a creamy and flavorful flatbread!

This spinach and artichoke dip flatbread has the perfect combination of artichoke hearts, spinach, and cheese flavors.  As with all recipes, this just a suggestion.  If you like more spinach, add more.  If you like more artichokes, then go for it!  Add more cheese if you want to!  It’s your flatbread.  Make it how you like!

How do you like your flatbread?  Do you eat everything green on St. Patrick’s Day?

Make sure to see what the rest of the members are serving up for this fun and festive holiday.

Healthy Green Foods for St. Patrick’s Day

Healthy Green Main Meals

• Kale and Brussels Sprout Frittata by Pies and Plots
• Spinach and Artichoke Dip Flatbreads by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Winter Minestrone with Turnips, Potatoes, and Kale by Wholistic Woman

Super Green Side Dishes

• Oven-Roasted Fiddleheads with Capers and Lemon by From the Bookshelf