Sour Cream and Onion Dip is a great appetizer to serve with chips and a Veggie Tray at holiday occasions, parties, and other get-togethers, but those mixes are just junk. Good thing you can make it homemade without any packaged soup mix!
With just four ingredients, this homemade onion dip is great paired with other appetizers such as Healthy Spinach Dip and Homemade Seven Layer Dip. Be sure to serve the leftovers on baked potatoes for a fun topping.
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Everyone loves a good dip. Am I right? Dips make football games more exiting. Dips make backyard BBQs more fun. Dips make the world go round. Too bad the commercial varieties are full of junk.
Thankfully you don’t need a dip mix. You can make sour cream and onion dip homemade!
Why Make This
It’s delicious. This Sour Cream and Onion Dip makes for a great appetizer or snacky dinner component, especially when supplemented with some veggie dippers and potato chips.
It’s easy. You’ll be amazed at how easy it was! It takes less than five minutes to mix up. It’s a simple thing to add to an Easter Veggie Tray or other party trays.
It’s more healthful than commercial dip mixes. With just four real food ingredients that are common pantry staples, you can avoid unneeded preservatives and additives.
Ingredients
Commercially made onion dip mix or the premade kind from the deli case is typically made with a lot of ingredients, including but not limited to: onion, salt, hydrolyzed corn gluten, soy protein, wheat gluten, dextrose, yeast extract, corn maltodextrin, and spices.
Homemade Sour Cream and Onion Dip, however, is much tastier and only includes four ingredients:
sour cream – Buy whatever kind you prefer or is on sale. If you like, you can even use Greek yogurt for a higher protein version. The fuller fat Greek yogurt will be less sour than a nonfat version.
dehydrated onion flakes – Shelf stable and generally affordable, onion flakes are sold in the spice section of the grocery store. If you prefer, you can use three times as much freshly chopped green onion or chives.
garlic powder – Another cheap pantry staple, garlic powder is sold in the spice section. If you like, you can use one clove garlic, finely minced.
Better than Bouillon beef base – also known as demi glace, Better than Bouillon is a paste used to prepare beef broth. If you prefer, you can use a dry beef bouillon cube, crumbled into powder as a substitute.
Vegetarian Variation
If you prefer a meatless, vegetarian version of sour cream and onion dip, try my Homemade Onion Soup Mix as a mix in or simply substitute Vegetable Better than Bouillon for the beef flavor.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Just as there are minimal ingredients, there is also minimal prep when making homemade sour cream and onion dip.
Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and chill the dip for about an hour before serving.
Storage
Keep this sour cream and onion dip refrigerated at all times. Food left at room temperature for longer than two hours should be discarded, so promptly refrigerate leftovers.
You can make the dip up to three days in advance of serving. It is not suitable for freezing.
FAQs
This Sour Cream and Onion dip is great served with potato chips or vegetable dippers. You can keep it simple and buy some chips or make your own homemade potato chips. Onion dip is also delicious with french fries and baked potatoes!
Prepared food is good in the fridge, covered, for up to 4 days. Since this is a dip that might tempt double-dipping, consider serving it in single-serve cups or provide a spoon so folks can dish out a bit on their plates. This is better food safety and it will help your dip stay good longer.
Sour cream is not suitable for freezing on its own. When mixed in casseroles, it typically does okay, but on its own, as in dip, it does not thaw well after freezing.
Recipe Costs
Knowing how much it costs you to prepare a recipe can help you decide if it’s the type of recipe to make regularly or one you might want to save for special occasions. Let’s crunch some numbers and see how this recipe pencils out.
- sour cream $0.99
- beef base $0.13
- onion flakes $0.29
- garlic powder $0.02
Shopping at a mid-range grocery store at non-sale prices, you can expect to pay $1.43 per batch for homemade sour cream and onion dip.
Made with high quality ingredients, this homemade version is guaranteed to taste better than the cheap dips and mixes you might buy at the store. (Similar style dips will range from $2.48 to $3.99 at the same store.)
How to Save Even More
All of my recipes are affordable to begin with but there are some things you can do to make sure you’re spending well. Here are some of the strategies you can use to make this recipe more economical:
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. When I find regular kitchen staples on sale, I buy a lot. It’s a great way to save money on your groceries without clipping a single coupon. I’m currently using a price book to track prices and that’s saving me money. For this recipe, keeping an eye on sour cream and bouillon base is key. When I see them on sale, I buy a few extra.
- Buy spices in bulk. Instead of paying a few dollars for a small jar of garlic powder or onion flakes, I buy larger container for even less!
More Great Dips You Can Make Yourself
Tell us what you think!
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Sour Cream Onion Dip
Equipment
- glass dish with lid
Ingredients
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon dry onion flakes
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon Better Than Bouillion beef base
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Chill for one hour.
- Serve with chips and veggie dippers, or on baked potatoes or french fries.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published January 1, 2011. It has been updated for content and clarity.
George Moy
This homemade sour cream and onion dip won’t fall apart like the store brought ones? You see the dips you get in the store,after you use it for 1 to 2 days,the very next day, it starts to (melts)it have a layer of water just sitting in the refrigerator, so is there a way you could make a dip that don’t water on you? Also do you know any way of a dip call roasted corn flavor,its known as Mexican street corner food,it has a bit of heat in it, Kroger sells it.I’m sure it’s not no good of seller unless you like the heat you get after just two bites from a chip.
Jessica Fisher
You’re going to get some weeping with most sour cream or yogurt. That’s often a natural by product of mixing veggies into a dairy product. As long as you use the dehydrated onion flakes, you should be good. They will absorb most of that liquid.
I’ve never had the cheesy corn dip, but you might try our Corn Salad with Cilantro Dressing. You can make it as spicy as you like. This one is dairy-free, though.
Julia
I ALWAYS make this for get togethers and it’s always such a hit with the crowd. 🙂
Barbara Jo Klobucar
Tried this for the Puppy Bowl. I used Better Veggie flavor. My mom (very picky) used it for raw broccoli and we both used it with Herr’s Ripples chips. It was very good. We usually have clam dip with cream cheese, but decided to do something different. It is a keeper.
Frances
Thanks for the 4 ingredient onion dip recipes. My husband is on a low sodium diet so I substituted Herbox sodium free granulated Beef Bouillon for the Better then beef. I just sprinkle the packet of granulated beef bouillon in the sour cream mixture. It’s great and I got a two thumbs up from him. Again thanks????
Jessica Fisher
Yay!
Ed overseas
wonderful, always easy if you can _get_ sourcream, but how do you make it in a country where there is NO SOUR CREAM, or for that matter even small heat-treated packs of imported cream are very hard to find and way expensive.
Jessica Fisher
Yogurt is a nice substitution. A little more sour, but can work in a pinch.
Terri
You can use cream cheese, it is so good that way. You may need to thin it out a little bit with milk.
Jessica Fisher
Thanks for the tip, Terri!
Anita W.
I don’t care if it’s 2017! This is the best recipe for French onion soup I’ve ever come across. Just like the previous poster, I actually happen to have all of the ingredients, including the Better Than Bouillon. So happy! I will never buy it again. Thank you so much.
Jessica Fisher
Yay! You just made my day. Thanks! 😉
Jay
Brilliant! I even had all the ingredients. Including the exact brand of beef base. This worked out perfectly and tasted just like I hoped it would. Gotta love the Internet!
Nancy
An old friend recently came across a college picture of me sitting on a stool at her house with a bowl of dip in my lap. I knew immediately what it was that I was keeping to myself, for it was her mother who introduced me to the dip that became my life-long favorite. It was onion cucumber dip, and I thought it was delicious. So good I can eat it without crackers or chips or veggies. Depending of course upon how much I want to make (I try to restrain myself), I generally make it as follows:
In a small bowl combine 1 cup of mayo; 1/2 cup of sour cream; finely chopped onion to taste; finely chopped cucumber to taste. I usually deseed the cucumber. There’s no way to make it taste any way other than great, but you can experiment with the ingredients to suit your taste. My husband cannot eat cucumbers, so I usually make two batches when I make it, one w/o cucumbers. I haven’t made it in years, but there were many times I took it to bridal teas as cucumber sandwiches. Makes me hungry thinking about it.
Kelly
I’ve been thinking I could make onion dip with dried onion and sour cream. Have you tried it without the beef base? I love onion dip and really miss it, but we don’t eat stuff we can’t pronounce anymore, so it’s hard to find!
Jessica
@Kelly, I am sure you could leave out the base. Maybe add some more spices like paprika and thyme to up the flavor?
Stacy
This was always our standard dip. Our only dip, really. I’ve thought about making it before, but don’t like the ingredients in most things like that. Thanks for this one–printing it now.
Leah
I never really cared for pretzels because they were too dry. Then I was hanging with some friends in college and they had onion soup mix dip and the small pretzel sticks….LOVED them. My inlaws eat cornchips with the onion soup dip, I can’t wait to flip out this dip at our next gathering.
tuxgirl
aha!!! that’s what I was missing! I had always done it with the onion soup mix, but when i tried to make it from scratch, I tried to use dehydrated onion and garlic powder. it seemed to be missing something, but I couldn’t figure out what…
maggie
sounds good and without the MSG.
Kelly
@maggie, The beef base is full of MSG, disguised as hydrolyze soy protein and Autolyzed Yeast Extract.
Sigh. I want a good homemade onion dip too, may just make it w/o the beef base, or figure out how to make it with homemade beef stock.
Jessica
@Kelly, I usually buy the organic one. I assume it doesn’t have that, but I could be wrong?
Heather Bradley
Demi glacé I think it’s called, but you can’t omit the beef flavor or it’s not tasting like you want because the junk food version is made of French Onion soup mix. I make beef broth or buy good organic quality and set it to simmer and reduce it to a thick jelly. You basically want it thick enough that it won’t make your dip runny. Maybe reduce 2 cups of broth for one batch of dip. It’s time consuming, but so tasty and it’s guiltfree so you don’t mind after you’re eating it!
Jessica Fisher
You can find my recipe for dry mix here: https://goodcheapeats.com/homemade-onion-soup-mix/
Anita
This sounds wonderful! Onion dip, a bag of Ruffles & a glass of cold sweet tea brings back my childhood. My sister & I would spend hours enjoying a good game of rummy while enjoying our chips & dip. I’m going to have to try this!