Super Bowl!!! It’s happening this Sunday if you werentst aware, and while I’m suspecting there are some people who actually like to watch the hot football action, I’m under the assumption that most of us love Super Bowl Sunday for one reason only: Chowing Down, Baby!
We’re talking soft pretzels, pizza, great cocktails, and lots and lots of dip—my most favorite of favoritist foods. (Clearly I’ve lost any regard for using words that already exist.)
This Super Bowl I’m pushing the chip + dip bar. It’s a genius idea that I’m sure someone came up with before me, but let’s just pretend I did. You set out cute little sacks of chips and an array of salsas, hummus, guacamole, cheese dip, you get the idea and everyone can pick and choose what they like. Heck, they could even make their own nachos of sorts with all the dip options. Which leads me to believe a nacho bar is also an excellent idea.
This whipped goat cheese dip is absolutely making an appearance. It is an airy cheese dip (virtually unheard of) beaten into a fluffy mass with cascabel chile-garlic oil and topped with toasted pine nuts and freshly grated orange zest.
Cascabel chiles are round, bulb-shaped chiles that have the same name fresh or dried. Sometimes called rattle chiles due to their natural maraca-like nature when you shake them, they have a sweet, slightly smoky flavor with moderate heat. Leave the seeds in if you want it to be fairly hot or remove them before cooking if you want the heat to be pretty tolerable. If you can’t find cascabels you can substitute guajillo chiles although those aren’t really hot at all.
The chiles don’t need to be toasted or soaked or anything they go into the warm oil after being stemmed and chopped (seeds removed if you’d like–see above) with some chopped garlic and then let that steep until the oil becomes a vibrant orange color and your whole house smells like roasted garlic. This oil can also be used for roasting vegetables, drizzling over pasta, or I’m sure a million other uses you’ve already come up with.
After you’ve made the chile oil there is little left to do but whip it with some softened goat cheese, a bit of salt, and some black pepper.
Enjoy your weekend Mis Amigos! I’ll be cheering for whoever you want me to.
Oh, and in the meantime, check me out on North Dakota Today making this dip, homemade tortilla chips, and a whole lot more!
- More DIP recipes
- More GOAT CHEESE recipes
- More DRIED CHILE recipes
Mexican Goat Cheese Dip Recipe
A whipped goat cheese dip recipe with a spicy cascabel chile-garlic oil, toasted pine nuts, and fresh orange zest.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 5 dried cascabel chiles, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped (about 1/4 cup chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 8 ounces fresh goat cheese, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
Instructions
- Combine oil, chiles, and garlic in a medium frying pan and place over medium heat. Warm oil until garlic is fragrant and chiles begin to toast a little, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep 10 minutes.
- Combine goat cheese, milk, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Spoon out the chile and garlic pieces from the oil and add to the food processor. Add half of the oil.
- Blend on high until fluffy and smooth. Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle with remaining oil. Sprinkle pine nuts and orange zest over the top and serve with crackers, chips, and veggies.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 204Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 18mgSodium: 229mgCarbohydrates: 1gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 8g
One More Thing
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Sounds absolutely delicious. I suppose I could replace the chilies with a more common kind, there’s no way I’d find those around here, but I would love to make this.
Hi Adina,
You could use any dried chile, they all have different flavors, but you really can’t go wrong here. Let me know what you use and how it turns out!
A hit at our Superbowl Party! We used guajillos, which, like you said, weren’t spicy, but were still delicious. The orange zest on top was my favorite part.
We’ve stirred the leftovers into scrambled eggs all week to make some fabulous breakfasts. The dip that keeps on giving!
Awesome Beth!! We missed you guys this year. Hope you had fun! xoxox
Hola Kate! I followed your lead on making this flavored oil and did my own version with moritas, guajillo, and garlic. Oh my! It is amazing! Just minutes ago, we were using it as a dipping oil for bread. Do you remember how I told you that I made a cascabel chile oil and it wasn’t red? Well, I had followed Hartwood’s method and baked it in the oven for 1.5 hours. You don’t cut the chiles up at all. I honestly like this way better. It’s so much quicker, and I think it produces a more flavorful (and colorful) oil. Love this!
Awesome Nicole! I’m glad you loved it as much as I did. I haven’t made anything out of Hartwood but it is a beautiful book.