Vegetable Cream Cheese

Homemade vegetable cream cheese recipe is easy to make and perfect for breakfast and brunch! This version is made with fresh red onion, carrots, celery, and herbs, but you can customize it with your favorite flavors. Serve your veggie cream cheese with toasted bagels, smoked salmon, and other toppings for an epic bagel platter.

a bowl of veggie cream cheese on a plate with sliced vegetables.

For all the brunch-worthy occasions, we have an easy vegetable cream cheese. It’s creamy and loaded with flavor and so simple it’s almost silly. Silly delicious, that is, because nothing makes fresh veggies taste better than chopping them up and mixing them with cream cheese.

Think holidays or regular old Sundays for this creamy cream cheese spread, and toss in some toasted bagels, smoked salmon, and veggies to make it fancy-like. It really is the best way to celebrate any old occasion – even if it’s just a “whoopee!” it’s the weekend celebratory brunch.

And, to address the elephant in the room: yes, you can buy a tub at the store, so why would you make your own? I know; I used to think that, too, until I learned that not only is it easy to make, but you can customize it based on your tastes and what you have on hand.

vegetables in the food processor.

Ingredients

  • Red onion
  • Carrot
  • Celery
  • Fresh chives and parsley
  • Softened cream cheese
  • Kosher salt
chopped veggies mixed with the cream cheese.

How to Make Vegetable Cream Cheese

It starts with softened cream cheese, and I must stress the “room temperature” part because it makes it so much easier to whip up the spread.

A food processor makes easy work of this vegetable cream cheese. First, process the vegetables until they’re finely chopped. Next, add the cream cheese and chopped herbs and process it until the spread is combined and smooth.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can grate the veggies with a box grater, too, but it will take a little more effort.

Cover the vegetable cream cheese and chill it for up to two days before serving. It’s best to make it in advance because all the flavors have time to mix and mingle. Leftovers will keep for up to a week!

bagels topped with vegetable cream cheese.

A Few Tips

A great reason to make veggie spread is to use up the leftover fresh vegetables from one of those veggie platters no one touches at a party. Or, use up the leftover vegetables from a holiday meal – all those carrots, broccoli, and peppers that weren’t used can be turned into veggie cream cheese the next day.

You can do any combination of flavors for your vegetable cream cheese, so feel free to experiment. I would avoid high-water content veggies, but everything else is fair game – red bell peppers, jalapenos, other fresh herbs, radishes… you see where this is going.

I use regular full-fat cream cheese for this recipe, but you can use low-fat or Neufchatel cheese, which is a soft French cheese that is similar but a little lighter.

Vegetable cream cheese on a toasted bagel is delicious, but for special brunch occasions, it’s fun to make a simple bagel platter that guests can dip into and top their bagels with all sorts of fresh bites.

If you make the vegetable cream cheese in advance, the only thing you need to do the day of is to toast the bagels and assemble the platter. Arrange everything on a large cutting board or rimmed sheet pan like a cheese platter so everyone can help themselves. Here are some tasty ideas:

  • Toasted everything bagels
  • Sliced seedless baby cucumbers
  • Slice radishes
  • Sliced smoked salmon
  • Capers
  • Sliced red onions
  • Carrot and celery sticks for dipping
overhead shot of the vegetable cream cheese on a platter with veggie sticks.

Here’s to weekends, brunch, and warm toasted bagels with delicious homemade vegetable cream cheese. It’s a seriously good way to live.

Happy Brunching!

April
overhead shot of bagels with cream cheese.

๐Ÿ“ฃย Do you love this recipe? I would love to know! Leave a comment below the recipe along with your recipe star rating.

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Vegetable Cream Cheese

vegetable cream cheese.

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5 from 1 review

Homemade veggie cream cheese is easy to make and can be customized with different ingredients. Make this spread up to two days in advance to allow the flavors to develop.

  • Author: April Anderson
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Method: Mix
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1/8 of a red onion (cut the onion in half and then each half into quarters, so you have 8 wedges. You only need 1 unless you really love onion, in which case add more!)
  • 1 medium carrot, peeled
  • 1 medium celery rib
  • 2 tablespoons fresh chives, roughly chopped
  • 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, roughly chopped
  • 16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)

Instructions

  1. Finely chop the onion, carrot, celery, and herbs in a food processor. You can also shred them with a box grater.
  2. Transfer the chopped vegetables to a medium bowl and stir in the herbs and salt. Next, add the cream cheese and stir all of the ingredients together until all of the veggies and herbs are evenly distributed. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.
  3. Veggie cream cheese will last for up to a week in the fridge.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
  • Calories: 205
  • Sugar: 2.8g
  • Sodium: 333.1mg
  • Fat: 19.6g
  • Saturated Fat: 11.5g
  • Unsaturated Fat: 6g
  • Trans Fat: 0g
  • Carbohydrates: 4.6g
  • Fiber: 0.4g
  • Protein: 3.7g
  • Cholesterol: 57.3mg

Do you love this recipe? Don’t forget to leave a comment and your recipe star rating!

The nutrition is an estimate only. It was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.

Post and photos updated from the archives. First published in May 2015.

15 Comments

  1. This is THE perfect way to use up leftover vegetables! Why I didn’t think of this myself, I have no clue.. I bow down to your cleverness. I love the veggie flavored cream cheese from the store, and I bet this is a billion times more tasty!! Seriously I want to slather this on everything… or just eat it by the spoonful! Yummmmmy!






  2. What a great way to use up those odds and ends that always end up in the fridge (and usually get shoved to the back and turn into a science project).

  3. I vegetable cream cheese once a few years ago, but I didn’t have what I wanted at home so I went out and purchased the veggies to cut up to put in it. It felt like such a pain so I never made it again. But I don’t know why I’ve never thought to just make it with the leftover stragglers that are always in the fridge! Great idea!

    1. I agree with you — you use so few veggies to make it, it seems silly to buy all the stuff just to make the cream cheese, but leftovers totally make sense especially because you can totally customize it – no rules ๐Ÿ™‚ Also, it really helps to use a food processor – makes the chopping/grating a whole lot easier.

  4. I am using up the rest of my store bought veggie tray for this. Yum! How long do you think it will keep in the fridge after I make it?

  5. This vegetable cream cheese sounds delicious! I love the idea of adding fresh veggies for extra flavor and nutrition. Canโ€™t wait to try it out on my next bagel!

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