This is a homemade version of the veggie cream cheese spreads you can buy in the grocery store (Philadelphia, to be specific!), and I love its delicious versatility! Of course, you can spread it on crackers, crostini, or (as I did the other day!) toasted mini-bagels…but it’s also exceedingly delicious as a sandwich spread, whether it’s a ham sandwich or a veggie sandwich with cucumbers, lettuce, and sprouts.
Here’s how to make it!
First, slice up some green onion. Serious flavor!
Then peel some carrots…
Cut them into small sticks…
And dice them really fine.
Next, dice up some red onion, otherwise known as I-have-no-idea-why-they-call-them-red-onions-when-they-are-clearly-purple onion…
Dice up some red bell pepper…
Then grab some celery…
And dice it up, too.
The idea here is to dice everything really finely so you won’t have to pulse the heck out of the cream cheese mixture to break it up. Starting with everything really small will let you control how much you mix everything together.
Now for the fun part! Throw some cream cheese into the food processor (or you could use a mixer if you’re not concerned about the veggies getting broken up too much.)
Throw in all the veggies…
Then grate or press the garlic and add it in. I like to grate or press it so there aren’t any chunks of garlic here and there. You just get the delicious flavor.
Finally, add salt and pepper…
And pulse it around until it’s the texture you want. You can just pulse it three or four times and be left with more of a white cream cheese mixture with flecks of color…or you can do what I did and pulse it several times for a more peachy-colored mixture.
Either way, the most important thing is to transfer the mixture to a container and refrigerate it for at least a couple of hours—longer is better! That way, the flavors will have a chance to combine.
Then serve it with crackers, crostini, or toasted mini bagels!
Ahhhhh.
This is super scrumptious, friends. Like, totally.
And you can add whatever you’d like to the mixture: cucumber, jalapeños, radishes, different colors of bell pepper, different herbs…anything goes!
