Pimento Cheese

Pimento Cheese

If you follow my tweets at all, you know I like pimento cheese. Not the store-bought, in a tub, fauxmento cheese. The creamy and bold homemade stuff. I put it on plenty of different things - a practice which only recently developed. Everything from sandwiches, to snacks, to tacos. It adds a completely unique flavor to things which call for other cheese. This is my mom's old recipe (gussied up a bit), which I wasn't a fan of as a kid. But hey, I wasn't a fan of steak either. You get wiser as you age.The recipe is fairly straightforward, and I've got some pictures below that show some things I like to do with it. Some notes... I use fat free cream cheese and an olive oil-based mayonnaise. These two have less flavor than the originals, so they serve two purposes: 1) they're not so terrible for you, and 2) they allow the cheese and pimento to be the focus of the dish.

The Worcestershire gives it a bolder flavor, and the lemon brightens the flavor. The Tabasco sauce just gives it a kick - I use a few dashes and it isn't spicy at all.

Ingredients

8 oz. extra sharp cheddar, grated

4 oz. pimento pepper, diced and drained

1 1/2 tsp onion, grated

8 oz. fat free cream cheese

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Tabasco sauce to taste

Salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Directions

In a bowl, combine the grated cheese, diced pimentos, and grated onion. Stir these together well.

Add remaining ingredients and mix with a paddle mixer, or mix with a fork to blend ingredients, leaving mixture chunky.

That's it. Easy and tons of flavor. Spread it on a sandwich, on crackers, or top any of your other favorite foods. Here are some things I do with it. Let me know how you like to use it; I'm always looking for good ideas to combine this with.

Pimento Cheese Sandwich

Pimento Cheese, Crackers, Sausage

With Jalapeno