September 22, 2014

Creamy Pumpkin Parmesan Dip

Name: Creamy Pumpkin Parmesan Dip
Prep time: 10 min
Yield: About 1-3/4 cups dip
Ingredients: 1 garlic clove, minced; 8 ounces cream cheese, softened; 3/4 cup pure pumpkin puree; 3/4 cup shredded Stella Parmesan cheese; 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh sage; 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1/4 teaspoon paprika; Crackers or pita chips, for serving

It’s that time of year when people (food bloggers especially) lose their minds over all things pumpkin. Except me. For most of my life, I really didn’t care for pumpkin. Young Lori had a nauseating experience with the smell of the pumpkin “guts” that had to be extracted from the gourds before carving jack o’lanterns. Man, doing that task in an unventilated kitchen as opposed to outside in the fresh air was traumatizing. I blame you for this, Mom. Just kidding. I know it was probably too cold to be outside that year. Still love you.

But yeah, that smell of raw pumpkin really put me off from eating pumpkin things for a long time. For many years, I even made pumpkin pie for my family at Thanksgiving, but then didn’t even eat a piece for fear that I wouldn’t like it and would just waste the slice of it.

In recent years, I’ve tried to suppress my fear and have tried little nibbles here and there of pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies. OK, they weren’t half bad. Then, as I’m always more of a fan of savory rather than sweet, I started branching out and experimenting with pumpkin lasagna and pumpkin quesadillas. This is where I really hit my stride with pumpkin. Savory was the way to go for me, and now pumpkin and I are on speaking terms again. Heck, you could even consider us friends. Not the kind of friends who can drink wine and talk about nothing for hours, but the kind of friends who maybe meet up for coffee once a year. Hey, do you think if I met pumpkin for a coffee, it would order a pumpkin spice latte? No? Anyway . . .

This Creamy Pumpkin Parmesan Dip is the combination of seven simple ingredients. Stir them up, refrigerate the dip for a little bit if you’d like, and then enjoy. Because the ingredients are so simple, it’s really important to use high-quality ones, especially the cheese. This is not the time for that powdery parmesan sold in cans. For this dip, I like to use Stella Parmesan Cheese. I buy a whole wedge and then shred it up myself. This cheese has a subtle, slightly nutty flavor that pairs perfectly with pumpkin.

Yield: About 1-3/4 cups dip

Creamy Pumpkin Parmesan Dip

Prep Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 garlic clove, minced
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup pure pumpkin puree
3/4 cup shredded Stella Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh sage
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Crackers or pita chips, for serving

Instructions

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In medium bowl, whisk garlic, cream cheese, pumpkin, Parmesan cheese, sage, pepper and paprika until very well combined. For best flavor, refrigerate 1 hour or up to 3 days. Serve with crackers or pita chips.

Disclaimer: This post is part of a relationship I have with Saputo Specialty Cheese for recipe development. Posts like this help me pay for the costs associated with this blog (groceries…lots of groceries), and help support me as I pursue a career in recipe development and food photography. All opinions are 100% my own.

6 comments on “Creamy Pumpkin Parmesan Dip”

Sophia @ NY Foodgasm — September 22, 2014 @ 4:38 pm Reply

This sounds amazing!! What a fabulous savory pumpkin recipe!

PS- do you use backgrounds in your photos, like a board? How do you make the seam not be seen?

I have been working on getting more and bigger backgrounds and boards so I don’t have to think about it. Make it easy, you know?
- Lori Yates — September 23, 2014 @ 4:03 pm Reply
  
  Hi Sophia! Thanks so much 🙂
  
  For my backgrounds, I use a small-ish brown-stained wooden board under the setup itself, and then prop a piece of black poster board up in the background. Sometimes, you can see the seam between the brown wood and the black posterboard, but I don’t worry about it too much. In these particular photos, it looks like the kale kind of hid that seam 🙂
  
  I’m all about making it easy for myself, so I don’t have to think about it, either. I have several wooden boards, vinyls, marble slabs, etc., but 95% of the time, I’m defaulting to the setup you see here. If you want more details, feel free to e-mail me and we can chat!
Karen — October 12, 2016 @ 12:17 pm Reply

Thanks for posting this dip recipe. It looks and sounds delicious! Can’t wait to try it. Have you ever had Jacques Pepin’s pumpkin gratin recipe? If not, you really should try it. It is SO good and very quick & easy to make. It has parmesan as well as Swiss cheese in it.
- Lori Yates — October 14, 2016 @ 12:19 pm Reply
  
  Thanks so much Karen! I’ll be looking up that pumpkin gratin recipe right now. It sounds amazing!
Hedda Gabler — October 15, 2018 @ 5:19 pm Reply

Made this as a dip for a party, except my sage plants are dead/dormant and my basil plants are hanging on, so subbed that and added one extra clove of garlic. Now it’s a lovely pumpkin pesto and the leftovers are excellent on pasta.
- Lori Yates — October 16, 2018 @ 11:06 am Reply
  
  I’m so glad to hear you liked this dip, Hedda! And happy to know that basil works in place of sage. I love the idea of adding leftovers to pasta 🙂