On one of my visits back to the US, I walked into a bagel shop and bought cream cheese to take back to London. Yes, I’m serious. Scallion cream cheese, specifically. What you might call spring onion and Philadelphia if you’re not American (or Canadian?). It was a really good scallion cream cheese. And it was $5 for a small carton that I wasn’t even sure would survive an 8 hour flight.
Once I’d finished every last speck, the mourning process began. Wistful flight searches. Daydreams about when I could next get a creamy, oniony, freshly made smear onto my bagels. Then I started thinking big. What if I could make my own scallion cream cheese?
Something to rival those neighborhood bagel shops from back home.
And so I set out to whip up a scallion cream cheese recipe for those of us who can’t get this wonder spread.
The fridge stable 8 month old pre-packaged stuff is not the same and I’m not going to pretend it is. Keep on keeping on if you love it, I don’t want to stomp on your flower garden. But really, this is so much better.
Put me, this scallion cream cheese and a few bagels in a room together, and I can guarantee there won’t be any left. But I know everyone isn’t like me, so I’ve come up with other easy ways to polish off your pot of scallion cream cheese.
Quarter scallions lengthwise, then finely chop them. Combine with milk, salt and cream cheese and that’s it! If you have the patience, let it sit in the fridge for a few hours before digging in.
Bonus: Rainbow bagel, because it was so ridiculous I just had to.
Ideas for using up your scallion cream cheese
Stir it into a quiche. Stir it into the eggy quiche mix, then layer it with your favorite quiche ingredients. Maybe spinach or ham, or whatever you have in the fridge.
Layer it into your 5-6-7 layer dip and break out the tortilla chips.
Stir it into vegetable pasta.
Option 1: Cook up some asparagus or tender stem broccoli (or both) in garlic, then add a squeeze of lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir the cream cheese into pasta, gently incorporate the green vegetables and top with grated parmesan.
Option 2: Pump up a super-easy lasagne-style pasta bowl.
Pile it onto a baked potato, sweet or otherwise. Top with chopped bacon, pan fried mushrooms or just fresh herbs.
Stuff it into chiles, cover them in bread crumbs and bake for pepper poppers.
Serves 2 tbsp
5 minPrep Time
5 minCook Time
10 minTotal Time
Save RecipeOn the Counter
- 180g (8 oz) container of cream cheese (I use Philadelphia)
- 2 scallions/spring onions
- 1 tsp milk
- 1/4 tsp salt
What to Do
- Quarter the spring onions, lengthwise. Slice them finely
- Scoop the cream cheese into a bowl, and add the milk. Break up the cream cheese then stir to combine and thin out the cheese.
- Add in the salt and spring onions, and stir until the spring onions are evenly distributed.
- Put the cream cheese back into its container and refrigerate.
- It's good right away but tastes a lot better if you let it chill for at least a few hours.