TL;DR: Cedar’s Foods just launched two new Reserve dips — Reserve Spanakopita Dip topped with feta and Reserve Falafel Dip finished with tahini — both made with avocado oil, Seed Oil Free Certified, and designed for the Mediterranean spread I rarely get to order out because my husband isn’t as enthusiastic about it as I am. These are my at-home solution, and they’re good.
There is a fundamental incompatibility in my marriage that we have managed around for years: I love Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food with a devotion that could sustain a weekly mezze habit, and my husband does not share that enthusiasm. The dream of a proper spread — hummus, baba ghanoush, spanakopita, a good kabob, all of it — rarely comes to fruition because restaurant negotiations don’t often end in my favor on this particular front. Cedar’s Foods just launched two new dips that are my at-home solution to this long-standing situation, and they’re actually excellent.
What the two dips are
The Reserve Spanakopita Dip takes the iconic Greek spinach and cheese pastry and translates it into a creamy, savory dip finished with rich feta cheese on top. Everything that makes spanakopita worth eating, the herby, salty, spinach-forward flavor profile, is there in a format that goes directly onto a pita chip without requiring phyllo dough or an oven. It tastes like the filling of a really good spanakopita, arguably the best part anyway.
The Reserve Falafel Dip delivers the bold, herbaceous flavor of traditional falafel in dip form, finished with a tahini topping. Falafel’s flavor profile — chickpeas, herbs, cumin, coriander — translates surprisingly well to a spreadable format, and the tahini on top is the detail that elevates it from a chickpea dip into something that tastes specifically like falafel. For the mezze spread I’ve been trying to recreate at home, this is the entry that fills the falafel-shaped gap.
Why the formulation matters
Both dips are made with avocado oil rather than seed oils and carry Cedar’s Seed Oil Free Certified designation — part of the brand’s premium Reserve collection, which is built around cleaner ingredient choices and chef-inspired flavor. For anyone who reads labels on dips and has noticed that most contain canola or soybean oil, the avocado oil formulation is an upgrade. The Mediterranean diet’s documented health benefits are partly attributable to olive and avocado oil rather than refined seed oils, so the ingredient choice here aligns with the cuisine’s actual tradition.
The home mezze situation
Between these two and Cedar’s existing hummus and baba ghanoush, I can now build a legitimate Mediterranean spread at home without a restaurant negotiation. A board with the Falafel Dip, the Spanakopita Dip, some hummus, warm pita, cucumber, and olives is approximately the spread I have been wanting for years and can now produce in about five minutes. My husband will probably eat the hummus. I will eat everything else. This is a workable arrangement.
Where to find them
Both Reserve Spanakopita Dip and Reserve Falafel Dip are available at cedarsfoods.com and at retailers carrying the Cedar’s Reserve line.
Dining and Cooking