Cucumber Cream Cheese Dip Or Spread

Cucumber and cream cheese make for a cool and delicious combination. This recipe is an adapted Benedictine spread and it comes from Kentucky, USA. It’s packed full of flavour and is ideal as a summer dip or sandwich spread.

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See my cookie and privacy statement for further details.

Cucumber is something I very much associate with summer, mezze-style meals and curries. With it’s dark green skin, cooling flavour and crunchy texture, it’s a bit of a star which we all take somewhat for granted.

I only have two cucumber recipes on Tin and Thyme – until now that is. They’re good ones though and just the sort of things you want to eat in the summer: cucumber roll-ups and cucumber and celery smoothie or summer soup.

What Is Benedictine Spread?

Benedictine spread is a light green flavoursome mix of cucumber and cream cheese with the addition of various other ingredients. It comes from the state of Kentucky in the South of the USA.

Whilst the English enjoy their refined cucumber sandwiches with just a scraping of butter for afternoon tea, the Americans go for something a lot more punchy: onions, herbs, garlic and hot peppers.

The invention of Benedictine spread is attributed to Jennie Carter Benedict. She was a cookbook author and also ran a tearoom in Louisville, KY in the early 1900s. She used the recipe to make cucumber sandwiches.

The original recipe used cucumber juice rather than the the actual cucumber. It also contained onion juice, cayenne pepper and a lot of salt. Modern recipes tend to use less salt, grated or chopped cucumber and onion as well as dill. As Benedictine spread is meant to be green in colour, most still use green food colouring.

These days it’s more often used as a dip rather than a sandwich spread, though you’ll find both in the southern states. It’s a popular party and potluck item and almost essential for the annual Kentucky Derby.

Cucumber Cream Cheese Dip Or Spread

I’m always looking for delicious sandwich fillings that are a bit different from the norm. Quick and easy is the name of the game and this cucumber cream cheese dip fits the bill beautifully.

All you have to do is chop a few things and mix them together. You can use a food processor to do this, but I quite like the chunkier texture that you get if you do it by hand.

So next time you fancy an afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches, how about changing things up a bit and making them with this cucumber cream cheese filling instead? Alternatively, serve it with crackers or crudités for a delicious summer dip. My homemade spelt crackers work a treat.

You only need a handful of easy to get hold of ingredients. You’ll probably find most of them in your fridge anyway at this time of year.

For large gatherings, just double, triple or quadruple the recipe.

I dispensed with the addition of artificial green food colouring. However, I decided to use my wild garlic oil instead of garlic to give it the traditional pale green colour. It worked a treat.

Cream Cheese

Go with your favourite cream cheese, but make sure you use a full fat one. Yes, it’s full of fat, but if you’re spreading it on a cracker or using it in a sandwich, you’re not going to be eating a lot of it. Low fat varieties generally aren’t firm enough.

Cucumber

A long English-type cucumber is good for this Benedictine spread recipe. Make sure it’s a nice firm one. I quite like the texture of chunky bits of cucumber in the spread, so I’ve gone for finely chopped rather than grated.

If, however, you prefer to grate the cucumber, you’ll need to squeeze the water out of it before adding to the cream cheese mix. Otherwise, the mixture will end up watery. Either press the grated cucumber in a sieve or wrap it in a cloth and squeeze.

Cucumber Cream Cheese: Top Tips

Although the spread or dip is fine to eat straight away, leave it in the fridge overnight for the flavours to meld.

Cucumber cream cheese will keep in the fridge for three days. Just make sure you use a sealed container. If it’s separated at all, just give it a good stir.

If using as a dip rather than a spread, you may need to add a little extra sour cream or yogurt to make it less stiff.

Cucumber Cream Cheese: Step-by-Step

As already stated, there’s not really a lot to this cucumber cream cheese recipe. It’s mostly a case of chopping and mixing. However, as with most recipes, there are a few things worth noting.

Step 1. Prepare Cucumber

You’ll need to remove the seeds from the cucumber before you use it. If you haven’t done this before, it’s ever so easy.

Cut the cucumber lengthways down the middle, then drag a teaspoon along the centre, scraping out the seeds as you go.

Once done, finely chop the cucumber. If you prefer something less chunky, you can grate the cucumber instead, but you’ll need to squeeze out any excess moisture before mixing it with the other ingredients.

Place in a medium sized mixing bowl.

Step 2. Chop Onions

Chop the tails of the spring onions (scallions) and give them a quick rinse in water. Finely slice and add to the bowl.

Step 3. Grate Garlic

Peel the garlic and grate it directly into the bowl. A microplane* is an excellent tool for this job. You can finely chop the garlic instead, but grating it gives a stronger flavour.

Alternatively use wild garlic oil instead. This will impart the traditional pale green colour.

Step 4. Chop Herbs

Finely chop the herbs and add to the bowl. Likewise, finely chop the jalapeño chilli slices. The finer you chop these, the more the flavour spreads throughout the dip.

I had neither mint nor dill in the photos you can see here, so I used chives instead.

Add to the bowl.

Step 5. Stir

Add the cream cheese to the bowl along with the sour cream and salt. Give everything a really good stir with a metal spoon.

If you prefer a less chunky dip or spread, place all of the ingredients into a food processor. Pulse a few times until you have a texture you’re happy with.

Once it’s thoroughly mixed, it’s good to go.

Cucumber Cream Cheese: Simple Swaps

Cucumber cream cheese is the sort of quick dip or spread you can make at a moment’s notice. This means you may not have the exact ingredients I’ve listed here, but you probably have some others you can use instead. As long as you have cucumber and cream cheese, you’re good to go.

Sour Cream

Swap the sour cream for plain yoghurt, Greek yoghurt or crème fraîche. It’s the slight sourness you’re looking for here as well as something to loosen the mix a little.

Spring Onions (Scallions)

Spring onions (scallions) are good to use as they require little fuss in terms of peeling and you can just cut them into slithers without the need for grating. However, grated onion is actually more traditional, so try grating a quarter of an onion into the mix. Alternatively, go for a handful of finely snipped chives.

Garlic

Grated garlic gives a bit of additional punch to this cucumber cream cheese dip or spread. I used wild garlic oil in the recipe you can see here. Mostly because I didn’t have any fresh garlic in the house, but also so it would impart the traditional green tinge.

I’ve not tried using garlic powder, so I can’t say how it would taste. But half a teaspoon is the equivalent to two cloves of garlic.

Herbs

Dill or mint are the best herbs to use for Benedictine spread. Use fresh if you can get them, but if not, half a teaspoon of dried dill or a quarter teaspoon of dried mint will do the trick.

Jalapeño Peppers

Jalapeño peppers really add a nice kick to this cucumber cream cheese recipe. You don’t need much, but it makes a difference. I used a few slices from a jar of pickled green jalapeños. The original Kentucky Benedictine spread recipe uses a pinch of cayenne pepper. A dash of hot sauce is a good alternative, especially if you have a green hot sauce.

Vegan Benedictine Spread

To make your Benedictine spread vegan, just swap the cream cheese for a vegan ‘cream’ cheese. It’s actually quite easy to make your own cashew cheese if you fancy having a go. Instead of using sour cream, add a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice to loosen the mixture and give it that slight tang.

Other Sandwich Spread Recipes You Might Like

• Avocado & egg
• Carrot & cheese sandwich filling
• Cashew ‘cream’ cheese (vegan)
• Creamy pea dip
• Mushroom pâté (vegan)
• Whipped feta with garlic and parsley

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this Benedictine spread, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?

If you’d like more summer recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Cucumber Cream Cheese. PIN IT.

Cucumber Cream Cheese Dip Or Spread – The Recipe

Sharing

I’m sharing this recipe for cucumber cream cheese with #CookBlogShare, which is hosted by Feast Glorious Feast this week.