Roasted Garlic & Onion Dip

Labor Day Weekend-- traditionally, this holiday is all about the end of summer. Grills are being fired up for the last time, in many parts of the country.  As for me, I wear white after Labor Day.  It's my Californian rebellious nature. Flip-flops are worn year-round... pretty much.  I love summer. But, this one has been a total "bust".  Pacific Grove (my forty-minute commute to work) has been foggy almost every single day-- well, there have been a few days of blue skies.  I think I can count them on one hand.  However, our home is situated in the sun belt.  On the weekends, hubs and I have enjoyed glorious 70-degree afternoons on our patio.

One sunny day, in July, I had a craving for onion dip.  I can't recall the last time I've eaten onion dip. What I do remember is that the recipe consisted of a packet of onion soup mix was stirred into sour cream.  I don't stock that product, any longer.  How hard could it be to make onion dip from scratch, I wondered?  I did a bit of research on the internet, and decided to come up with my own version.

It took a little bit of time to roast the garlic.  I cut the top off a whole head of garlic, and drizzled a bit of olive oil over it. The garlic was wrapped in foil, and baked at 350F for about 45 minutes.  I unwrapped it and set it aside to cool.  In the meantime,  I sliced an onion very thin, and caramelized it in olive oil until golden and caramelized-- about 20 minutes.

Once the roasted garlic had cooled enough, I squeezed out that glorious sweet garlic...then mashed it with a fork.  NOTE: Try adding this to mashed potatoes. Wowza!

The seasonings are simple-- garlic powder, white pepper and salt.  I took a shortcut and used 1 Tablespoon of Susie-Q's Santa Maria Seasoning.  I used 1 1/2 cups Lite Sour Cream and 3/4 cup of mayonnaise-- and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

 I gave it a stir and tasted to see if I needed to adjust the seasonings to our liking. 

I then stirred in the mashed roasted garlic, and the caramelized onion.

Then, we dipped in.

VERDICT:  While it took a bit of  prep work, as opposed to opening a packet of onion soup mix, the results were much better.  Chips with mayo and sour cream = total guilty pleasure.  Very good!  However, there are a few notes on what I would do differently, next time.  First, the onions should be diced.  At first, it was fun to have a clump of onion with each bite. At the bottom of the bowl, there were too many onions that clumped together.  I didn't like how that looked.  Secondly,  the Susie-Q seasoning should have been reduced by about half.  I love this seasoning mix for our Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip.  I felt it was a little too salty, though my husband didn't.  I wasn't compensating for the fact that the chips are already salty, so keep that in mind while seasoning the mayonnaise and sour cream.  I think a pinch of cayenne or paprika would be a nice touch, too.

This weekend, we are grilling ribs again.  If I can find good apples, I just might bake my first fall pie of the season.  Then again, I'm just not 100% ready to let go of summer stone fruits.  My part of California has a different micro-climate.  If we're lucky, our blue skies and temps in the 70's have been known to arrive in September-October.  We shall see!

Here's the printable recipe: