Not long after, she collaborated with the gourmet LA grocery store Erewhon on a Short ‘N Sweet smoothie (the name of her album).
But recently, Sabrina took on the cooking herself. In honor of the release of her newest album, Man’s Best Friend, Sabrina shared a few easy recipes in a video with Vogue.
Two of them were inspired by her album — “go-go juice” (after her song by the same name) and puppy chow (a play on the name of the album).
However, the recipe that really stuck out to me was when Sabrina made her mom’s dip recipe. Sabrina calls the dip an “heirloom,” which could either just mean a family recipe or a smart pun about the tomatoes. “My mom started making this when I was really young, and when I was little, I didn’t like it. But now that I’m clearly a grown woman, I love how it tastes,” Sabrina says in the video.
The base of the dip is salsa, which is then combined with cream cheese and extra-sharp cheddar. “[My mom’s] from Philadelphia, which is why we have cream cheese,” Sabrina says.
Sabrina starts by chopping up the salsa ingredients, deploying knife skills that kept me on the edge of my seat.
She did nick herself, sadly!
She quickly recovered, though, shredding the cheese and adding it to the bowl with cream cheese that’s been softened in the microwave. “If you don’t have a microwave, don’t make this,” she jokes.
Mix that puppy up, serve it with some chips, and you’re done!
To make the Carpenter family dip, I gathered together a tomato, an onion, a jalapeño, a handful of cilantro, a lime, cream cheese, and a block of extra-sharp cheddar.
I also chopped the cilantro.
With all the vegetables taken care of, I moved on to shredding the cheddar (the most labor-intensive step of the whole process).
And microwaving the cream cheese.
I then added everything to a bowl, squeezing in juice from a whole lime.
After that, it was time to mix, mix, mix.
I transferred the dip from a mixing bowl to a smaller bowl and chilled it for several hours to let the flavors intensify.
So, how was it? Well, first of all, the dip is very thick and creamy. The consistency is more like a spicy vegetable cream cheese since there’s so much more cream cheese and cheddar than salsa. And while I love extra-sharp cheddar, the quantity in the dip was a little too intense. While eating it, I really craved more of those fresh vegetables to balance everything out.
All that being said, I couldn’t stop eating it. Maybe it’s because I served the dip with hint of lime tortilla chips, which are ridiculously good. In the following days, I also enjoyed spreading the mixture on sourdough toast, leaning into the spicy vegetable cream cheese vibe.
If I were to make the recipe again, I’d either halve the cheeses or double the vegetables to make it feel like a true dip. Alternatively, I could see myself making it again to serve at brunch with bagels, making smaller tweaks like using green onions and reducing the amount of cheddar. Until then, I’ll be finishing off the current bowl while “Manchild” plays on endless loops in my head.
Would you try the Carpenter family dip? Let me know in the comments!
Looking for more quick dip recipes? Then look no further than the free Tasty app, where you can literally cook with us in step-by-step mode.