The inspiration for this dish comes from a local Greek restaurant near me that serves their own “zesty feta” dip. It’s one of my absolute favorite things to order, so I set out on a mission to make it on my own.
It turns out that this dish has an official name: Tirokafteri. And let me tell you, it is incredible.
Side note: between this , , hummus, , and more… the Greeks really know how to make a delicious dip.
Tirokafteri is an authentic Greek feta cheese dip. Since I’m not Greek and my pronunciation is awful, we can also refer to this as spicy feta dip.
With traditional Tirokafteri, you’ll find it smoother and a little bit more on the whipped side of things. This is because Tirokafteri utilizes a fresh block of feta cheese, along with olive oil to smooth it out.
For our spicy feta dip, I wanted to keep the calories a bit lower, and I wanted to keep the consistency nice and thick.
The result is spicy feta dip with only 25 calories (for 2 tablespoons) that pairs perfectly with my pita dippers.
This Tirokafteri is zesty, delicious, low calorie, and incredibly easy to make.
How to Spicy Feta Dip
The base of this spicy feta dip is roasted red pepper & feta cheese.
The spice is going to come from a little bit of paste, but you can also use or any you like. More on that in the recipe card below.
To make things as easy as possible, we’re going to use a jar of roasted red pepper, but if you’re feeling adventurous you can certainly roast your own.
Remove the red pepper from the jar and drain the liquid. You can use a strainer, or you can just add them to a bowl with paper towel as I did:
The red peppers do not need to be perfectly dry, we just want to remove the excess liquid so our dip isn’t too liquidy at the end.
After that, it’s as simple as adding them to a blender or food processor with the rest of our ingredients.
You can certainly adjust the ratios based on how you like your dish as well. If you use paste and a little bit of cayenne pepper like the recipe calls for, it will have a nice kick without burning your tongue off. If you want to up the heat level, throw in some extra and/or !
I used reduced-fat crumbled for my T, but any will work. I prefer crumbled just for the ease of it, but you can also use a block of and chop it up to make blending easier.
We’re going to add half of the feta cheese to the blender and blend it all together until it becomes a smooth-ish dip.
Once it smooths out, we’re going to add the rest of the feta cheese and blend it up until it’s all incorporated.
By adding the rest of the feta cheese at the end, it leaves some of the pieces intact, leading to that chunkier texture that we’re after.
If you prefer a smooth dip, you can continue to blend it up until it smooths out! Personally, I much prefer the pieces of feta within the dip.
Regardless of which route you take, you’re going to be left with an absolutely delicious spicy feta dip. Just refrigerate for one hour after blending it up, and this spicy feta dip is ready to rock!
The total servings in this spicy feta dip are up to you and your appetite, but I estimate about 10 total servings in this whole batch.
Each serving is only 25 calories, 1g of fat, 2g of carbs, and 2g of protein.
What to Serve with Spicy Feta Dip
Since first making this spicy feta dip, I’ve used it in many different ways. You can store this dup in the fridge and enjoy it for a full week (or more) after making it.
The best (and recommended) way to enjoy this dip is to make my soft pita chips to use as dippers.
Or, use it as a condiment for your favorite Mediterranean dish, like my juicy spinach & feta turkey burgers.
But the possibilities for this are endless. Use it as a spread for a spicy chicken sandwich, top a , add to your , add to some to create a portable … whatever your heart desires!
Ingredients
- 6oz Roasted Red Peppers
- 4oz Reduced Fat Feta (any feta works great)
- 1/2 tsp Chili Paste
- 1-2 Cloves Garlic
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/8 tsp Ground Cayenne Pepper
- Pinch of Salt
- 1 tsp Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Drain your roasted red peppers if using them out of the jar as I did. It’s okay if they are not completely dry, but we don’t want a ton of excess liquid in our dip.
- Add all of your ingredients to a food processor or high-speed blender, but only use half of the total feta cheese.
- Blend on high for a minute or two, or until the entire mixture turns light orange in color and there are no large chunks of feta left. It does not need to be completely smooth, but we don’t want any huge chunks in it.
- Add the rest of your feta cheese, then blend on low-medium for 30 seconds to incorporate. We want there to be plenty of feta in the final dip, so we don’t want to completely blend it together.
- Pour into a container and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
- Serve alongside my pita chip dippers and enjoy!
Notes
- This dip is not super spicy, but it does have a kick. If you want more heat, feel free to add extra cayenne.
- I opted for reduced-fat feta cheese to keep the calories lower and also because I find it to taste the same as full-fat feta. Feel free to use any feta you’d like!
- I left out the olive oil to save some calories, but drizzling some extra virgin olive oil on top and sprinkling some paprika before serving really elevates this appetizer.
Nutrition Information
Yield 10 Servings
Serving Size 1/10 Recipe (About 2 Tbsp)
Amount Per Serving
Calories 25Total Fat 1gCarbohydrates 2gProtein 2g
