This classic dill dip recipe makes an easy, creamy Eastern European style dip made from tangy dill pickles, zingy purple shallots, garlic chives and loads of fragrant fresh dill stirred into sour cream and cream cheese, and seasoned with salt and white pepper. Garnish with fresh dill and serve with crackers, crisps or crunchy crudités.
Our homemade dill dip recipe makes another one of those delicious retro-classic dips from the 1970s that deserves a comeback. Along with French onion dip, smoked salmon dip and our olive dip, it’s one of our most delicious dip recipes. This is such an easy dill dip recipe, too. Make it once and you’ll never buy a store-bought dill dip again.
This dill dip recipe is also quick to make, and is perfect if you’re looking for food ideas for feeding a crowd, whether it’s for a Eurovision party, footie final or the Super Bowl. Worth mentioning: we also have compilations of Super Bowl recipes, as well as healthy-ish Super Bowl ideas, for everything from Mexican guacamole to a chilli bean dip.
My creamy dill dip would also be the perfect snack to serve before a romantic Valentines Day dinner if you’re cooking up a special meal for a loved-one for Valentines Day, and if you are, we have plenty of recipes for romantic Valentines Day dinners for you, as well as ideas for Valentines breakfast.
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Now let me tell you more about my easy creamy homemade dill dip recipe.
Dill Dip Recipe for an Easy Creamy Eastern European Style Dip
My creamy dill dip recipe will make you another one of those retro-classic dips from the 1970s that I reckon deserve a comeback – hence me sharing these recipes for a French onion dip and smoked salmon dip made from scratch.
Homemade dips taste so much better than store-bought dips and if you do the maths you’ll find out that they’re also more affordable, plus, even when they’re creamy – and the key ingredients are sour cream and cream cheese – they’re also healthier.
Made in ten minutes, our dill dip recipe consists of little more than diced dill pickles – or gherkins or pickled cucumbers if you prefer – diced purple shallots, finely sliced garlic chives, and loads of fragrant fresh dill that’s stirred into sour cream and cream cheese, then seasoned with salt and white pepper. Too easy.
After stirring it all together – in a bowl, with a spoon; there’s no need to use a blender or food processor – you just have to taste it and adjust the seasoning to suit your palate, and that of your guests. It couldn’t be simpler.
Just a few more tips to making this easy dill dip recipe below.
Tips Making this Dill Dip Recipe for an Easy Creamy Eastern European Style Dip
We only have a few tips to making this easy dill dip recipe as it’s a cinch to make. It’s a dill dip, which means dill is the key ingredient, so don’t even think about using dried dill. You want beautiful fragrant fresh dill in this dip.
If you can’t source fresh dill, buy dill seeds. We grow dill in a pot on our balcony and there are few herbs that are easier to grow. Dill grows super fast, so fast that you’ll find yourself Googling dill recipes every day (we have lots!). I’m going to do a separate post on growing herbs.
If you can’t source purple shallots you could use red onions and if you can’t find jarred dill pickles or gherkins or pickled cucumbers or whatever you want to call them, then you can easily pickle your own cucumbers. We do it regularly and I have a pickled cucumber recipe here.
Making this dill dip recipe is as easy as stirring everything together, tasting it and adjusting the seasoning to suit your palate (I actually add more salt and white pepper than this dill dip recipe calls for), and refrigerating it to firm it up.
One hour in the fridge is enough but, yes, sure, you could refrigerate it overnight, but don’t refrigerate it for several days as some recommend. When you’re ready to serve it, transfer the dill dip to a serving bowl, garnish it with some more fresh dill sprigs, and you’re done.
Serve our dill dip with crunchy crudités (I love cucumber spears and carrot batons), crunchy potato crisps or your favourite crackers. You could always continue the retro Seventies theme with our favourite Australian savoury biscuit, Jatz.
Or make some homemade pita chips, which are super easy, or these sourdough crackers if you bake sourdough and have discard. We also have a recipe for spicy sourdough crackers.
Dill Dip Recipe for an Easy Creamy Eastern European Style Dip
Equipment
Ingredients
- 100 g cream cheese
- 150 g sour cream
- 2 tbsp fresh dill - roughly chopped
- 1 large gherkin - (pickled cucumber), finely diced
- 2 small purple shallots - finely diced
- 1 tsp garlic chives - finely chopped
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp white pepper
Instructions
- Leave the cream cheese out of the fridge for 20-30 minutes to soften then in a big mixing bowl stir the cream cheese and sour cream together to combine well.
- Stir in the roughly chopped fresh dill, finely diced gherkins or dill pickles (pickled cucumber), finely diced purple shallots, finely chopped garlic chives, and salt and white pepper until well incorporated. Taste and adjust seasoning to suit your palate.
- Refrigerate until you’re ready to service (for at least one hour), transfer to a bowl, garnish with more fresh dill, and serve with crackers, crisps or crunchy crudités.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make our dill dip recipe as we love to know how our recipes turn out for you.
Hi, can I use crème fraîche instead of sour cream? I’m assuming that it will be a little more tangy…
Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Janine, our pleasure! You can definitely use crème fraîche next time instead of sour cream. It will be rich and less tangy. It’s the sour cream that adds more tang. I’ve had to use crème fraîche a few times here in Australia for some Russian dishes and pastas I’ve been making for mum, as it’s more readily available than sour cream, and I’ve found that it’s somewhere between cream and sour cream. If you want to add a little more tang, add some yoghurt.