A Hamless Holiday -- Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue

Happy Christmas Week!

Starting today and going through Tuesday the daily blog post will be "A Hamless Holiday" post. Those five blogs all together will form a holiday meal. Keep checking back daily to find out another course of the meal. The theme for the Christmas meal is red, green and white and these dishes all go fantastic together making a feast for your eyes and taste buds.

I did a similar blog series called "A Turkeyless Thanksgiving" during the five days leading up to Thanksgiving and it was a hit. Hopefully this series will be as well. You can find the Thanksgiving posts here: appetizer, main dish, drink, side dish, dessert.

Today's post is the appetizer and is a recipe from the blog Favorite Family Recipes and is a copy-cat recipe for the Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue. If you have never been to the Melting Pot before find your nearest restaurant and go celebrate something! I will warn you it is a little pricey, but it is great for birthday's or anniversaries -- J and I celebrated our two year anniversary there this past September and we had such a great time.

A Hamless Holiday:
Appetizer: The Melting Pot's Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue

Ingredients:
-3 oz. vegetable broth
-1-2 oz. fresh spinach, chopped
-1-2 oz. artichoke hearts, chopped
-1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
-2 1/2 oz. Butterkäse cheese
-2 1/2 oz. Fontina cheese
-1 tsp. grated Parmesan cheese
-a small amount of flour
-dash Tabasco sauce

All of the fondue appetizers from the Melting Pot call for Butterkäse cheese which Becky had no problem finding at the grocery store....if you can't find it check out the original post for alternatives.

Heat the vegetable broth (ideally you do this in a fondue pot, I don't own one, I just did it on the stove top).

You want the broth to be hot, NOT BOILING!

Add the spinach, artichoke and garlic.

Combine both cheeses and lightly flour them.
I used a few tablespoons of flour for this. 

Slowly incorporate the cheese stirring in a figure-eight motion.
Once melted stir in the parmesean and hot sauce.

Then you'll have fondue!

We enjoyed the fondue with bread and apples.

Fondue time is always a great time.

This is a great appetizer for any party and is best served in a fondue pot, however, I'm sure that you could also keep it warm in a crockpot in order to make it more accessible than my pot which was heated by the stove. This tasted exactly like the fondue which is served at the Melting Pot. The green from the spinach is sure to tie in nicely with the other blogs this week.

Check back tomorrow!