Saturday, December 4, 2010

3 Layer Cheese Dip & Dairy Free

I found this recipe on another blog over here and was pretty excited to try it. While I was shopping for other items to make Thanksgiving last weekend I was looking really hard to find dairy free items that I could use in my cooking. I was pretty stoked when I came across dairy-free butter! I didn't use that in this recipe but was still excited to find it!

I thought this cheese dip would be a great idea for an appetizer at a party or holiday, I just made too much in my case!

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese ( I used dairy free kind and didn't taste any different)
8 oz goat cheese (same thing)
1-2 garlic cloves smashed and made into a paste (I pressed the garlic clove through a garlic press and added a dab of olive oil)
1/2 cup basil pesto (also found dairy free kind in the store, or you can make your own)
1/3 cup sun dried tomato paste ( I used sun dried tomato pesto that I found!)

image found from other blog

In a large bowl combine goat cheese and cream cheese and mix together. FYI: Don't use a mixer, it will get stuck in the mixers and be useless. I used a spatula. Divide mixture evenly into 3 separate bowls. To one bowl add garlic paste and mix. To another add pesto and mix. To another add tomato paste/pesto and mix. In a taller, narrower bowl line with a damp cheese cloth towel and put in the tomato paste cheese mix, followed by the garlic cheese mix and top it off with the pesto cheese mix making sure to smooth out each layer before adding the next. Top with the rest/extra cloth and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, I did mine over night to get it ready early. Take it out and plop it onto a plate with some crackers! Yum!!

For mine I used a wider bowl so my layers weren't as pretty and my garlic layer was kind of lost in the appearance but tasted just as wonderful! Also my tomato pesto, instead of paste, was a bit darker and the basil pesto I used was a bit darker, otherwise mine looked like the picture. The goat cheese really give it some nice creamy flavor. Sweetness!!! It's dairy free!!

1 comment:

kristindewey said...

Are you able to drink raw milk? There is a dairy up here that Grandpa Gene knows the owners, and they supply raw cow and raw goat milk to several whole food like places.

They mentioned that for lactose intolerant, goat products and raw milk are easier to digest.