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Baked Feta Dip With Spicy Tomatoes and Honey
Updated Oct. 12, 2023
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- Total Time
- 1 hour 20 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour, plus 10 minutes' cooling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1(8- to 10-ounce) brick or slice of feta
- 1½cups halved grape or cherry tomatoes
- 2large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- ¼cup thinly sliced red onion
- 2tablespoons coarsely chopped (drained and rinsed) pitted olives or capers (optional)
- ¼to ½ teaspoon Urfa or Aleppo pepper, or crushed red-pepper flakes
- Fine sea salt, as needed
- Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
- ½ to 1teaspoon honey
- Torn mint or basil (or a combination), for garnish
- Sliced baguette, pita bread or crackers, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place feta in a small gratin or baking dish, preferably not metal.
- Step 2
In a medium bowl, toss together tomatoes, garlic, onion, olives or capers, if using, Urfa pepper and a very tiny pinch of salt. Toss well, then drizzle in enough olive oil to generously coat the vegetables.
- Step 3
Spoon the vegetables around the feta. Spoon the honey over the top of the feta, using the back of the spoon to spread it out. Drizzle feta and vegetables lightly with olive oil. Bake until the tomatoes have broken down, the garlic is tender and the feta browned, 35 to 45 minutes, stirring the vegetables, but not the feta, halfway through cooking.
- Step 4
Top the feta and vegetables with fresh herbs and then use a spoon to mix the vegetables into the feta (it will look curdled, top with more herbs and Urfa pepper if you like). Serve with baguette slices, pita bread or crackers while the cheese is still warm and runny.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Made this dish as is and loved it. It has so many ingredients that I love so I knew it had to be good, but it still blew me away. I'm not a super big fan of feta cheese, but it really works well here. A few notes: 1.5 cups of grape tomatoes is essentially 1 pint (I bought 1 pt. and felt dumb using my measuring cups when at the end I realized I didn't need to). I suggest cutting the onion slices into 1-1.5 in. lengths. I used just capers but next time I'll try a mix of olives and capers.
Boursin (Gournay) or Alouette. Cream cheese would be another option.
I make this dish weekly, however I use goat cheese (in lieu of feta) and add it AFTER I pull the tomato mixture from the oven… break it into large pieces and poke it under the surface until it melts. We prefer the creamier texture over feta. Boursin is a good sub as well. Huge hit whenever I make it. Leftovers (which are rare) are great on pasta or avocado toast the next day.
My experience was that cooking time was too long for a creamy result. Check after 20 minutes.
I love this dish! A tip for those whose feta cheese turned hard: In her recipe for Sheet-Pan Feta with Chickpeas and Tomatoes (also on this site and also fab), Ali Slagle included this tip: "Avoid feta made with cow’s milk, which does not have enough fat to withstand roasting." Hope this helps!
Delicious! Easy to make and looks really lovely when you take it out of the oven. A bit rich, so I recommend a group to share as appetizer, rather than a couple to eat as dinner. I ate with thin slices of baguette, but will try simple crackers next time. My husband ate almost half, so it was a hit.
I used a cow’s milk feta from the farmer’s market and it baked into a hard block - it did not break up when stirred. Otherwise, flavors were nice.
If you don't love feta, look for the Valbreso brand at an Iranian market. Behind the deli counter they call it French feta. It is packed in brine and is much creamier than what you get at another market. The brine is great as an ingredient in salad dressing, marinade, or anywhere you would use water or vinegar.
I made this last night for an “eve of the Eve” party and it was scrumptious. Super easy and can be made ahead and popped in the oven for serving at the right time. I eyeballed the ingredients, used more cherry tomatoes than it called for, a good quality sheep milk feta, amped up the spice. I might make this again today just for me.
Fantastic and easy. Made as is. Used olives and capers together and French sheep feta (creamier) vs cow feta, as suggested by many others. Let’s the veggies marinate for about 1/2 hour before adding the olive oil. 4 of us gobbled it up. Next time, i might do 1.5x the veggies :)
Delicious! Made exactly as written and was a fan favorite. Maybe a tad more honey next time? Easy and a crowd pleaser!
Delicious and easy. However, as noted by so many others, my cheese didn't become creamy. It might be useful to specify in the ingredients list to use a sheep's-milk feta, if that indeed is the key to getting a creamy result. On the other hand, the hot cheese tasted great in its solid form.
My guests loved it, some of them said it was the best thing they’ve ever eaten.
I love all the ingredients but this was not good. I used a sheep’s milk feta which warmed up to a nice creamy consistency. It just didn’t taste that great. Brought it to a holiday potluck and people tried it but left it unfinished on their plates.
It tastes of it's ingredients. Doesn't make a better "whole" so to speak. It's easy to put together but aside from the Tik-tok worthy picture, it's an okay dip.
Made this for a small gathering last night and it was a big hit. As others noted, I cooked it about 5 more minutes than recommended in the recipe…feta baked up to a lovely caramel colored crust on top. I don’t usually like honey but added as instructed and happy I did so - it added a nice flavor and created that great coloring. People scooped it on top of bread. Really delicious.
Made this for a group and subbed chipotle chili powder for the chili. It was delicious. Everyone decided it was a make again.
Second time I’ve made this as written and it’s been a huge hit both times.
Served as topping to baked spaghetti squash, yum!
Easy and delicious! I added Kalamata and Castelvetrano olives chopped coarsley as well as the capers. The honey is a must and I had red pepper flakes on hand so used that. I also thought about using artichoke hearts (in brine) or even roasted artichoke hearts. I think the combination could be delicious.
This was an easy, delicious and very forgiving recipe. I didn’t have quite enough cherry tomatoes so I added some nice chopped summer tomatoes and it worked fine. Everyone loved it.
This was absolutely delicious! I used 10 oz French feta and oil cured black olives (no capers). You can mix up the veggies ahead of time. Served with homemade pita chips and naan crackers, and the four of us polished off the whole thing. A real keeper.
Just made it for lunch with a fresh baguette. Delicious and will definitely make again. Will try leftovers with pasta.
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