This Mother’s Day, celebrate mom with this gorgeous Whipped Feta Dip with Macerated Strawberries! The strawberries at the grocery store and farmers markets are starting to get really dreamy and delicious, so make the most of them with this simple but classy appetizer that’s perfect for a spring or summer brunch. My favorite way to serve it is with a nicely toasted French baguette. *Insert chef’s kiss!*

My number one tip for getting a creamy and dreamy whipped feta and cottage cheese mixture is to use a good quality food processor or blender! This food processor and this blender are both winners over on America’s Test Kitchen – you can’t go wrong with either. I have a less awesome, but much cheaper food processor (pictured here) that leaves me frustrated at times, but luckily it does have the speed to break down the cheeses into a smooth and creamy texture.

Another way to get a really velvety smooth whip is to use higher fat cottage cheese, although the image you see below of the super creamy whipped feta mixture was actually made with fat free cottage cheese with a drizzle of olive oil to help things blend up smoothly. Either option is totally fine as long as you have a decent food processor, but I tend to have the fat free cottage cheese on hand to snack on.

This is a really simple recipe with endless possible flavor variations, but here’s what you’ll need to make this super simple, high protein Whipped Feta Dip with Macerated Strawberries at home!

• Cottage cheese – I went for a fat free cottage cheese to maximize the protein content in this recipe, but you can go for a part skim or higher fat option if you want an even velvetier texture. You can also play with the ratio of cottage cheese to feta cheese to get a bolder flavor if you’d like.
• Feta cheese – I prefer using a block of feta in brine rather than the crumbled stuff since it tends to be fresher and tastier. I like to think the extra moisture helps achieve a smooth blend too, but I haven’t tested crumbled vs chunk feta head to head. I’ve really been digging the Mt. Vikos brand of feta lately, but any chunk feta in brine will work great!
• Olive oil – I drizzled a bit of olive oil through the tube on the food processor as I started to blend things up to help it along, but if you’re using a higher fat content cottage cheese, you probably won’t need the olive oil.
• Sea salt – Depending on the salt content in your cottage and feta cheeses, you may or may not need to add sea salt. You can always skip it until after things are blended up and then add to taste.
• Strawberries – Fresh strawberries are best here since they hold their shape even after being macerated. Frozen strawberries would create too much juice for this recipe.
• Sugar – Some good old granulated sugar is what you need to macerate strawberries. I don’t recommend replacing this with other types of sugars or liquid sugars like honey.
• Lemon zest and juice – Just a touch helps bring some brightness to the sweet macerated strawberries.
• Fresh basil – This really helps make the dip complete and gives it an ultra summery vibe. Mix in the basil right before serving.

Recipe