Swirled Beet Goat Cheese

This easy recipe for swirled beet goat cheese makes a festive appetizer that is perfect for the holidays, your next dinner party, or a simple snack!  Whip some up anytime you want to add a special touch to cheese and crackers.

If you’ve been reading my posts for any amount of time, you know that one of my favorite things to do is to take two great flavors and mix them up together (I’m looking at you, bacon and chocolate!).  And two of my all-time faves are sweet roasted beets and creamy, dreamy goat cheese.  So just in time for tailgate/Thanksgiving/holiday season, here is my latest concoction ~ swirled beet goat cheese!  Ready to swirl up your cheese plate?  Let’s make it!

In addition to all of the seasonal reasons to make festive cheese and cracker creations, one of the things the Southern husband and I like to do every now and then when the weather turns chilly is to trade in dinner for some appetizers and a glass of wine by the fire.  And I’m here to tell you that things have been rainy and chilly here in New Jersey.

Clearly time to break out some swirled beet and goat cheese!  You obviously need some of these…

Now, I get my roasted beets one of two ways.  Either I make pleading eyes at my mama who then patiently roasts beets for me, or I pick up a package of Love Beets, which are perfect already-roasted beets that my Wegman’s supermarket sells in the produce section.  If you want to roast your own beets, here’s a nifty step-by-step tutorial from Cook The Story.  One day I will roast my own beets, Mama.  I promise.

This easy recipe for swirled beet goat cheese makes a festive appetizer that is perfect for the holidays, your next dinner party, or a simple snack!Click to TweetAnyway, once you have procured roasted beets, you want to chop them up into small pieces.  You only need 1/4 cup for this recipe, which is about half of a medium beet, leaving you leftover beets for other recipes. Win!!  You also need goat cheese, cream cheese, and some herbs (I like thyme and parsley, but you can use whatever your favorite herbs are.

Whirl the cheese and the herbs in your food processor, take half of it out, and then whirl the remaining half with the beets.  Now comes the most important part: THE SWIRLING.  I put the two mixtures in a serving dish and swirl a few figure eights into the mixture so there is some pink and some cream colors.  Otherwise known as swirls.

It is immensely satisfying.  Now all that is left to do is break out the crackers and your favorite cheese knife and dig in.  Have you run across any fun new appetizer recipes lately?  Tell me in the comments!

Swirled Beet Goat Cheese

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• Author: Kate Morgan Jackson
• Yield: 4-6 1x

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Description

This easy recipe for swirled beet goat cheese makes a festive appetizer that is perfect for the holidays, your next dinner party, or a simple snack!

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Ingredients

• 6 ounces goat cheese
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons herbs (I like a mix of parsley and thyme, but you could also use tarragon, chives, etc)
• ¼ cup cooked chopped beet (about ½ of one medium beet)

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Instructions

1. Put the goat cheese, the cream cheese and the herbs in a food processor and process until creamy, stopping a time or two to scrape down the sides.
2. Remove half of the cheese mixture and put in a medium serving bowl.
3. Put the beet in the food processor with the other half of the cheese mixture and process until creamy, again stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides.
4. Scrape the beet mixture onto the cheese mixture in the serving dish, and using a knife, swirl figure eights throughout the mixture until the cheese is swirled with the beet mixture. Don’t mix too much, or you will end up with totally pink cheese.  (Which is okay if you happen to like pink cheese – it will still taste just as scrumptious.)
5. Serve at once, or put in the fridge for a couple of hours if you want it to firm up a bit.

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