Goat Cheese Dip
The perfect game day snack: baked goat cheese dip with sweet peppers and crunchy pine nuts.
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- It’s fun to change the peppers to honor your teams colors- hopefully red, green or yellow are among them.
- There is not much prep work other than chopping the peppers and garlic.
- You can bake and serve in the same dish
- Assemble everything the night before, chill and heat inter oven before guests arrive
- It tastes fantastic! Tangy goat cheese, sweet peppers, loads of herbs and a balsamic glaze are so delicious.
Ingredients for Baked Goat Cheese with Peppers and Pine-nut Dip:
- goat cheese
- pine nuts
- garlic cloves
- green, red or orange bell peppers
- red pepper flakes
- olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- fennel and coriander seeds
- salt & pepper
- rosemary & thyme
- crostini or toasted baguette
About this recipe:
I first came across this recipe over 10 years ago when I began hosting little cocktail parties for the Winter Park Crew moms each year. This was one of my favorite dishes to serve. It is simple to prepare, but looks impressive on the buffet. The original recipe comes from Celebrate The Rain, the beautiful cookbook from the Junior League of Seattle. I adore this cookbook and you will see many dishes on my blog based upon recipes I’d experimented with from Celebrate the Rain. This is not your mother’s Junior League cookbook- no cream of mushroom casseroles. After many years of baking this recipe, I have perfected the seasonings and I think you’ll agree- it’s one fantastic dip.
Smooth and tangy creamy goat cheese is warmed through with peppers dressed in a balsamic glaze is a perfect Northwest dish, but really- it is perfect for company anywhere. Use toasted baguette slices to scoop up the warm cheese or crostini or cracker pepper water crackers.
Equipment needed for baked goat cheese dip:
Guide for choosing the best goat cheese:
- For this recipe, we want a fresh goat cheese- a Laura Chanel or Vermont Creamy by Murray’s. This is a soft cheese- in a log style we are accustomed to seeing at the grocery store. It is bright, lemony and very soft.
- Another goat cheese I love is the Spanish Drunken Goat. Mercia Al Vino, which is soaked in Doble Pasta wine for 72 hours to add a deep purple hued rind to the cheese. This is a semi-soft goat cheese. Perfect for a charcuterie tray, but not ideal in this recipe. Enjoy this wine bathed cheese with savory crackers and Spanish olives.
- Valençay Frais- French pyramid goat cheese.This unique cheese is covered in a vegetable ash to helps bring out the clean lemony flavors. A great trivia question for this cheese is which French ruler, after being conquered by the Egyptians, lopped the top off this cheese so it did not remind him of his losses in Egypt. Napoleon, of course. Enjoy this cheese with a glass of wine from the Loire Valley. Purchase here.
Other great appetizers to try:
- Party Spinach Dip
- Blistered Shishito Peppers
- Baked Brie with Kahlua and Walnuts
- Cuban Cocktail Sliders
- Roasted Salsa Verde
Ingredients
- 4 TBSP olive oil
- ¼ cup diced green bell pepper
- ¼ cup diced red bell pepper
- ¼ cup diced orange bell pepper
- 3 cloves garlic minced fine
- 2 tsp fresh rosemary chopped fine
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- ½ tsp fennel seeds crushed
- ¼ tsp coriander seeds crushed
- ½ tsp black pepper
- kosher salt to taste
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 8 oz fresh chevre/goat cheese such as Ile De France cut into 8 slices
- 3 TBSP toasted pine nuts
- Toasted baguette for serving
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 300 degrees.
- Lightly grease an overproof baking dish.
- Slice the goat cheese into 1/2u0022 thick discs. Set aside.
- Heat 1 TBSP of olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Sauté the chopped bell peppers and garlic until just tender- about 5-7 minutes. Add remaining olive oil ( 3 TBSP) spices and herbs- rosemary, coordinated, fennel, ground black pepper and thyme.
- Remove pan from heat and stir in salt and balsamic vinegar.
- Arrange the goat cheese in the baking dish so that the slices are just touching.
- Top the cheese with the pepper mixture. You can make this ahead and chill up to 4 hours.
- Sprinkle with pine nuts.
- Bake until just warmed through- about 10 minutes.
- Serve with toasted baguette or savory crackers.
