Pimento cheese is a southern staple and a regular at house parties. And while everyone’s grandma has a unique twist on pimento cheese, we think this one might blow her recipe away.
This week’s recipe is courtesy of Wes Eldridge at Southern Food Lab. Wes is a local foodie, chef and farmer’s market regular who hosts a YouTube series that highlights classic southern recipes. Thanks for letting us share this one!
Also, shout out to Kentuck for the bowl featured in the photos. Our team picked it up at the last Kentuck ice cream night, and it’s one of our favorites!
Pimento cheese is generally pretty easy to make, but this recipe calls for all-fresh ingredients. If you like, you can sub the grated onion or roasted garlic with onion and garlic powder – but we don’t recommend it. The fresh ingredients bring a deep, rich flavor that you have to experience for yourself.
Ingredients
- 1 4oz jar of Pimentos
- 8oz of Cream Cheese
- 8oz Sharp Cheddar
- ⅓ Duke’s Mayo
- 3-5 Cloves of Roasted Garlic
- 1-2 tsp Finely Grated Onion
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- ½ – 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- ½ – 1 tsp Paprika
- 2-5 Splashes of Hot Sauce
Directions
- Roast the garlic (see below for the recipe).
- Strain the pimentos. You may need to strain twice to get all of the water out.
- Grate the onion and add it to your mixing bowl.
- Add the cream cheese to a mixing bowl and stir until light and fluffy.
- Add all of the other ingredients.
- Mix.
- Serve and enjoy!
How to roast garlic
- Preheat your oven to 400° F
- Cut the top off your garlic. About 1/4″ should siffice. (Be sure to cut the top near the stem, not the bottom near the root!)
- Lay the garlic upright on a sheet of aluminum foil. If you’re having trouble getting it to stand, you can use the top you just cut off to balance it.
- Drizzle olive oil over the clove, then sprinkle salt and pepper.
- Loosely close the foil around your garlic. Be sure to leave room to breathe.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes.
- Optional: Remove the garlic five minutes early, unfold the foil, then place it back in the oven to brown. This gives the roasted garlic a more robust color and flavor.
- When the garlic is done, remove to cool for about five minutes, then add it to your pimento cheese.
If done correctly, the garlic should be “mushy” and spreadable like butter.
Things we learned while making this recipe
- Now that you have the basics, you’re welcome to add stuff to your pimento cheese. Taking inspiration from Bo Hicks’ pimento cheese at Druid City Brewing Company, we recommend adding some diced Conecuh sausage.
- Straining all of the juice out of your pimentos is the difference between a party favorite and sad leftovers. No one likes watery dip!
- We used preshredded cheddar for this recipe since it was what we had readily avilable, but we recommend grating it yourself. Preshredded cheese has a slight rind to it, while fresh-grated cheese is nice and gooey.
Wanna get featured on social media?
We’d love to see how your pimento cheese turns out. What did you add to it? DM us pics of your final product, and we’ll share it!
Submit your favorite recipe
This week’s Piggly Wiggly recipe was submitted by Wes Eldridge from Southern Food Lab. Do you have a recipe you’d like to share? Reach out to us on our contact page or message us on Facebook or Instagram! We’d love to cook your dish and feature it on the Piggly Wiggly website!
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