Rainbow Goat Cheese Spread

Rainbow Goat Cheese Spread with seasonal berries, fruit, nuts, and herbs is a perfect appetizer to celebrate Pride Month or for any other gathering event.

Hello everyone – happy Monday!

Pride Month

With Pride Month nearing an end, I figured out it would be great to share something rainbow-inspired. To be completely honest, I create this dish for the Diversity & Inclusion Committee of my organization first. But this appetizer turned pretty lovely (And most importantly, delicious) that I’ve also decided to share it here!

Rainbow Goat Cheese Spread

This Rainbow Goat Cheese Spread, however, is a totally different thing! First of all, there are no artificial colourings. Secondly, the colours look pretty natural (Even though they might not fully represent the rainbow.) By the way, please disregard these questionable purple and blue hues :)

I used the following flavours for this spread:

• Purple: Fresh cherry and cardamom
• Blue: Fresh blueberries and thyme
• Green: Pistachios and mint
• Yellow: Lemon and honey
• Orange: Dried apricots and pecans
• Pink: Fresh raspberries and pink peppercorns

Best Ingredients to Use

The best flavour combinations were pistachio-mint, lemon, and dried apricots-pecans. They turned thick but spreadable and packed with a flavour. Other layers were delicious too, but I would adjust them next time. While fresh fruit are great, they could also be bland (I am talking to you, blueberries!) Also, they result in thinner spread, which is totally fine. So for the best result, use either very aromatic (yet not too juicy) fresh fruit and berries or dried ones. I bet dried cherries (cranberries), blueberries, and raspberries (strawberries) would have been so much better!

To sum it up, the best ingredients for this spread would be nuts, dried fruit, fresh herbs (Basil, thyme, lavender, mint, lemon balm, tarragon), spices (Cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, peppers, ginger), and some aromatic yet not too juicy fresh fruit and berries such blackberries, cherries or raspberries. I won’t really recommend fresh blueberries unless you use spices and herbs to liven it up. Or maybe dehydrate it first a little bit to bring up the flavour? I don’t recommend using frozen fruit either – more moisture and less of the flavour.

Also, you can totally make a savoury variation. Think of colourful bell peppers, roasted beets, radishes, herbs (like chives or dill). Something crunchy – zucchinis or tomatoes won’t be a good pick.

Will Feed a Crowd (Or not!)

Please keep in mind this is a large plate as we are going to use about 350 gr. of goat cheese – it won’t make sense to have it less. So it’s a great sharing dish (But indeed we both finished it up in two days – no crowd needed lol.) Just roughly divide the cheese in 7 parts (Or depending on how many colours you want to have) and stir in the filling. And, if you are using fresh berries, do not whip it up, just slightly mash them. We want nice bites and don’t want too much of their juices released. I also added a bit of honey into each part. That’s optional, but it adds sweetness and makes the spread…well, more spreadable! :)

I arranged the layers using a knife and spoon, but you can choose piping. And I think that garnishing the layers with some chopped ingredients works beautifully too. It lifts the presentation to a different layer, and it’s kind of cool to know what’s inside, right?

I hope you like this Rainbow Goat Cheese Spread, and you will give it a try soon. If you make it, let me know in this post or send me an Instagram message or share you photos adding the hashtag #havocinthekitchen.

Happy Pride! Cheers!

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Rainbow Goat Cheese Spread

Recipe by Ben | Havocinthekitchen

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: Cheese Dips and Spreads

Servings

10

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Chilling (Optional but recommended)

1

hour

Rainbow Goat Cheese Spread with seasonal berries, fruit, nuts, and herbs is a perfect appetizer to celebrate Pride Month or for any other gathering event.

Cook Mode

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Ingredients

• about 350 gr. of goat’s cheese (Could be increased, but won’t recommend taking less.)

• Purple Layer:

• about 1/4 cup pitted fresh cherries, finely chopped

• about 1/2 tsp. honey (optional)

• a pinch of cardamom

• Blue Layer:

• about 1/4 tsp. honey (optional)

• 1/2 tsp. chopped thyme

• Green Layer:

• about 1/4 cup shelled and salted pistachios, nicely chopped

• 1 tsp. of honey

• about 10 mint leaves (less or more, to taste)

• about 1/4 cup fresh blueberries – see notes

• Yellow Layer:

• 1 tsp. lemon zest

• 1/4 tsp. lemon juice

• 1 tsp. honey

• Orange Layer:

• 3-4 dried apricots, roughly chopped

• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped

• 1/2 tsp. honey

• Red Layer:

• about 1/4 cup fresh raspberries

• 5-10 pink peppercorns, crushed

• 1/4 tsp. honey (optional)

• Garnish:

• a few of each ingredient, to represent the filling (optional)

Directions

• Using a immersion blender (or other blender), beat the goat cheese for 20-30 seconds just to make it smooth. Roughly divide it between 7 parts (Or depending on how many layers you want to have) and place in small bawls
• Working with one flavour at a time, stir in the ingredients of the specific colour into a bowl. If you are using fresh berries or fruit, do not pure them, just lightly smash otherwise you might end up a bit too runnier spread. Try and adjust the taste by adding more of the honey, spices, or herbs. Repeat with the remaining flavours.
• Take a flat serving plate and working with one flavour at a time, arrange alternating colours: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and pink. It’s convenient to do this using two spoons (or a spoon and butter knife), but you can place each colour into a small bag and pipe them. As the consistency of the layers will vary (Thicker and drier with dried fruit and nuts and thinner with fresh berries), some of them will be easier to arrange. You can always use a knife to smooth out one layer prior to working with the next one, for cleaner boarders. On the other hand, once served, these “borders” will be ruined anyway, so don’t pay too much attention to this.
• Optionally (But highly recommended!), garnish each layer with a few of the ingredients corresponding with its colour. It adds more texture, visual presentation, and it also helps to camouflage any imperfections between the “borders”.
• You can serve it right away, but chilling for an hour is recommended. Keep any leftovers covered for up to 2 days (If you use only dried fruit, nuts, and herbs, this could be kept longer). Enjoy!

Notes

• Fresh blueberries are not the best choice here. Try using dried blueberries (1 tbsp. chopped) or using fresh blackberries. Also more aromatic herbs like lavender or tarragon could help.