Our dill is in. Not only is it in the spots we planted last year, but I had let it go to seed in our container herb garden last year. We then spread the dirt from that pot into our new raised garden beds, and now there are tiny dill plants coming up everywhere. Not that I mind. I am going to move them once my large dill goes to seed, and then we’ll start the cycle all over. A whole summer of fresh dill and, subsequently, lemon dill cream cheese.
This happens to be Ole’s baby (read: he took pictures of the process and demanded I blog about it). He usually stirs his smoked salmon right into the cream cheese, but this time we kept it separate, leaving the cream cheese to stand alone.
Start by slightly softening a brick of cream cheese. This will make it easier to mix.
Mince some fresh dill, and then zest one smaller-sized lemon and mix those in.
Add the juice from half of the lemon.
Mix everything together. Cover and refrigerate and let the flavors mix until you’re ready to eat.
For us, this most often means smearing it atop a toasted bagel and following that with a bit of the smoked salmon we were talking about before. While the smoked salmon is divine, this would also be incredible with lox laid out on top.
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1/2 lemon, juiced
1 lemon, zested
2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced
Mix together cream cheese ,lemon zest and juice and minced dill. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Serve on toasted bagels with smoked salmon or on crackers as an appetizer.
Makes 8 ounces.
My stomach is growling just looking at that last photo. Seriously- I feel like I can smell that cream cheese full of only three ingredients that happen to be three of my favorite things. I also have a healthy crop of dill in the garden- this recipe has been added to my list of garden gifts.
Looks super yummy!!!
Oh my gosh Shaina, I’m going to call you before I make my lunches. I’ve been eating lox with cream cheese on a bagel for the past few weeks, and now this looks amazing! Can I borrow some dill when I come over? 🙂
One word… drooling! :o)
That looks so good! And now I know what I want for lunch…
This is such a great mixture. I loved herbed cream cheese on bagels. The dill and the lemon look perfect for the salmon.
Beautiful photos of the final dish! It was a lot of fun meeting you at Food & Light last week. I’m wishing I had planted dill this year. We are making pickles and I’m in sore need of dill plants!
My favorite is fake smoked salmon. A can of salmon, 250 g
cream cheese, and liquid smoke to taste. If you want to
pretend it’s sockeye, add a few drops of red food coloring.
If you like a bit of bite, a tbsp or so of creamed
horseradish is nice.