Check out my mini football bread bowl. It is a creamy and delicious bread bowl appetizer filled with sour cream, ranch, water chestnuts, and chopped spinach.
Within moments you can have a delicious dip to serve up your family and friends.
This is a fantastic game day appetizer or if you are planning a football themed birthday party! Both are awesome at having a savory dish to serve up.
Football Bread Bowl
- Homemade cold dip
- Quick and Easy
- Ready in minutes
- Football themed game day appetizer
- Fun shaped
Ingredients Needed
Ranch Dip Mix – You want to use powdered ranch for this.
Chopped Spinach – Buy frozen spinach and make sure to allow it to thaw. Once thawed, squeeze out the liquid.
Sour Cream – Sour cream is the base of dip. You can use any brand of sour cream or even fat free or less fat.
Water Chestnuts – The water chestnuts are going to add a nice freshness and crunch to the dip.
French Bread – I used two loaves of French bread. You could swap with one larger one if you don’t want the football shape.
Green Onions – You will use the green onions to mimic football laces. This gives it a more bolder football theme!
How to Make A Bread Bowl
Making a bread bowl is very easy to do. Take a sharp knife and cut out a football shape into the bread. Then use your hands to pull out the bread in the center to make it hollow.
Make sure you keep the shape intact and don’t over pull out the bread. Then once you have the bread removed, pour in your dip.
What To Dip With
- Bread you removed from loaves
- Vegetables – carrots, celery, cucumbers, etc.
- Baguettes
- Pretzels or Chips
- Etc.
The options are endless! Have fun and create a mix of items for dipping.
Storing Dip and Make Ahead Instructions
Make ahead – Go right ahead and make this dip up to a day in advance. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Then just before serving pour into the bread bowls.
Refrigerate Leftovers – You do need to refrigerate leftovers. The bread will become soggy so I always scoop the dip into a container for storing.
The dip can be stored for 2-4 days in the fridge.
Can You Freeze Leftover Dip
Unfortunately this dip will not freeze and thaw very well. I find it is best to serve fresh and then store leftovers and discard what you don’t eat.
If you don’t want as much just half the recipe and make only one bread bowl.
Best Way to Remove Liquid From Spinach
Once your spinach is thawed fully place in paper towels or a cheesecloth. Then you will shape the spinach into a ball and squeeze.
As you squeeze all the excess liquid will come out. This step is a must otherwise it will leave your dip pretty soggy and overly wet.
More Football Themed Recipes

Mini Football Bread Bowl
Mini Football Bread Bowl are a creamy spinach and water chestnut dip filled in a bread bowl and decorated to look like a football. A game day worthy dip that is great for snacking.
Ingredients
- 1 packet Ranch Dip Mix
- 1 package frozen Chopped Spinach, Thawed and Well Drained
- 1 16 ounces container sour cream
- 1 8 ounces . can Water Chestnuts, Drained and Chopped (Optional, if you like the crunch!)
- 2 round loaves mini French bread
- 4 green onions, for garnish
Instructions
- This will create two mini football shaped bread bowl appetizers!
- Mix the dip mix, spinach, sour cream, and water chestnuts (optional) in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
- Carve a football-shaped out of the top of each mini bread bowl. Hollow out each bread bowl, caring to ensure the football shape is kept intact.
- Fill each bread bowl with dip and add pieces of bread around the bowls for dipping.
- Cut green onions in the shape of football laces like in the photo to garnish the top of the dip bowls.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 118Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 23mgSodium: 69mgCarbohydrates: 10gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 2g
