Taco Dip

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 8 oz package cream cheese
  • 1 16 oz container cream cheese
  • 1 1.25 oz packet taco seasoning
  • 1/4 head iceberg lettuce
  • 1 cup grated cheddar
  • 1 large tomato
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 1 2.25 oz can sliced black olives
Instructions:
  1. Shred lettuce, grate cheddar, dice tomato and bell pepper, drain olives
  2. Mix it all together
Yield: Enough for a potluck


Description:

Back in college, when my classmates threw potlucks, I would often be requested to bring this. Although, I think part of it was because most of my classmates were female, many older, and they didn't trust me to be able to make anything more advanced. The first time around, they said I could just buy a bag of chips when everyone else was making something. So I made a coleslaw. After that, they asked me to make coleslaw and I made taco dip. After that, they kept asking me to make taco dip and I kept making it. Eventually I branched into the sweet appetizers that I've already posted: blueberry tarts, pumpkin tarts, pumpkin bread, and banana bread.

My original inspiration to take on this recipe goes back to Katimavik. One of the families connected to us invited us to dinner near the end of our Summerside, PEI rotation. Because of our limited budget, we weren't quite starving, but we were all a little hungry, and since we were a bunch of young and inexperienced adults surviving on our own home cooking, we were eager to accept food from a family more experienced in the kitchen.

We were having the famous PEI lobsters, but the initial appetizer was taco dip. I'd never had this, and we all filled up a bit on taco dip before the lobsters got brought out. At that point, the lobsters were a little underwhelming, to be honest.

Full disclosure, in this photo I used a red bell pepper because we didn't have a green one. I also put two packets of taco seasoning, which I like, but Lee-Anne said it was over-spiced.

If I were to go even further off-script, I might substitute the black olives for green, even though I know black is more authentic. I just love olives, and green seems like an overall stronger version.

This is a vegetarian dish, which can be helpful, but I can only imagine that some ground beef and sliced jalapenos would make this even better.

The original recipe calls for three tomatoes, but I can't help but feel that's an insane amount of tomato. I'd suggest trying to keep the tomato ratio roughly even with the amount of bell pepper. The tomatoes can leave moisture on the surface of the dip if you keep leftovers anyway.

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