It’s a lot a milder than a Swiss cheese fondue, but the wine, Monterey Jack and cayenne pepper give it all the kick it needs. And it’s awesome with lightly steamed vegetables, or chunks of a good bread like a French baguette.
It’s also a super easy cheese fondue recipe. Even though we always had lots of people working on it, it was just for the fun of it. It’s about as easy as you could hope for!
Here it is!
Cheddar Cheese Fondue
Preparation Time: 10m Cooking Time: 15m Total Time: 25m
Servings
Serves 4.
Ingredients
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup white wine
8 oz sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
8 oz Monterey Jack, grated
8 oz cream cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp shallots, minced
1 1/2 cups finely chopped spinach
1 tsp ground dry mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt the Cheddar, Monterey Jack and cream cheese in the milk and wine over medium low to medium heat. Stir until it’s all melted.
- Be sure to keep the heat low at first. Cheese burns pretty easily, so until it’s incorporated in the milk and wine, you’ll need to be careful.
- Add the garlic, shallots, spinach, mustard and peppers to the cheese, and stir until it’s all nicely blended.
- Cook, stirring often, until the spinach is cooked. It’ll take about 10 minutes.
- Transfer to a fondue pot, serve, and enjoy!
Tips
- Back in college, my friends and I didn’t have a fondue pot. So we just ate it right out of the saucepan and heated it up every so often! I know, I know – not the most elegant option. But it was just as delicious! So if you don’t have a fondue pot, but you have a cheddar cheese fondue craving, don’t be shy!
- You can use cheese that you grate yourself or the kind that comes pre-grated.
- Cheese you grate yourself is generally just better, but it doesn’t make as much of a difference when the cheese is melted. It all depends on if the difference is worth the trouble of grating the cheese for you.
- If you want to cut down on the cooking time a bit, you can saute the shallot, garlic and spinach for a few minutes before putting it in the pot.
- This easy cheese fondue recipe is awesome with chunks of crusty bread, steamed veggies, or even chunks of cooked meat like ham or chicken.
- I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to spicy food. If you’re not, you can easily double the amount of cayenne. Or triple it! Whatever suits your tastes.