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This deli-style chive cream cheese is bursting with fresh flavor! Mix up a batch to slather on bagels, sandwiches and more.

Chive cream cheese
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There’s nothing more satisfying than sinking your teeth into a spongy bagel with a luscious cream cheese schmear. So here’s how to enjoy it in your own home: try this homemade Chive Cream Cheese! This recipe brings the intense freshness of this bright green herb to the forefront, pairing it with garlic and onion for an unforgettably savory spread. It’s ideal for lunches throughout the week, or an impressive bagel brunch spread for a party. Here’s how to make this deli-style chive cream cheese!

Tips for making chive cream cheese

Chive cream cheese is fast and easy to make at home: and so much tastier than the store-bought kind! Purchased cream cheese can have a vaguely artificial aftertaste. But make it at home and it’s beautifully fresh and savory! Here are a few tips for whipping up a batch (or jump to the recipe below):

  • Soften the cream cheese first. This is important for getting the correct fluffy texture. Leave it out at room temperature for an hour, or zap a few minutes in a microwave.
  • Chop the chives. Fresh chives are easy to find in the refrigerated section of the grocery, and if it’s the right season it’s even better to grow them at home! See How to Grow Herbs.
  • Mix with seasonings, adding a bit of Greek yogurt or milk to soften if desired. If the cream cheese is very thick, add 1 tablespoon Greek or plain yogurt or ½ tablespoon milk as you’re mixing it. It should come together into a soft and tasty spread!
Whipped cream cheese

Variation: make it whipped

If you like, you can make whipped cream cheese first for this recipe! Whipped cream cheese has an airy, light texture that’s even more spreadable than the standard. All you have to do? Mix the cheese with ½ tablespoon milk in a food processor or stand mixer, stopping and scraping as necessary. You can also simply use a whisk if you prefer! Go to Whipped Cream Cheese.

Ways to serve chive cream cheese

This chive cream cheese is fantastic as a bagel schmear: but there are so many more ways to use it! Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Chive cream cheese

More recipes with chives

During the summer, we always have a big pot of chives growing in our garden! They’re very easy to grow and much cheaper than buying them at the store. Here are a few more recipes to try:

This chive cream cheese recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free.

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Chive Cream Cheese

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4.3 from 3 reviews

This deli-style chive cream cheese is bursting with fresh flavor! Mix up a batch to slather on bagels, sandwiches and more.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: 1 cup (8 2 tablespoon servings) 1x
  • Category: Spread
  • Method: No cook
  • Cuisine: Spread
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
  • ¼ teaspoon onion powder
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt or ½ tablespoon milk, to soften (optional)

Instructions

  1. Make sure the cream cheese is softened. Leave it out at room temperature for 1 hour, or place it on a plate in the microwave, cook 5 seconds, flip over the block of cheese and cook another 5 seconds. (If it’s not room temperature at this point, cook another few seconds, but air on the conservative side.)
  2. Chop the chives. Mix everything together in a bowl, adding a little Greek yogurt, milk or sour cream 1 tablespoon at a time if you’d like a fluffier, more spreadable texture (we used 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt). Store refrigerated for up to 1 week.
  3. Whipped alternative: Make whipped cream cheese by adding ½ tablespoon milk and whipping the cream cheese in a food processor or stand mixer. Then add the chopped herbs and pulse until combined.

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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4 Comments

  1. Anonymous says:

    I loved how this ended up tasting, but I had to change a few things to my taste. I added slightly less onion and garlic powder because it was too salty, and I added some more chives.






  2. Anonymous says:

    This is a very delicious dip so thanks for sharing. how long does this keep in the fridge and is it possible to freeze? thanks






    1. Sonja Overhiser says:

      It stores 1 week refrigerated. We do not recommend freezing this because the texture becomes grainy. Thanks!

  3. Sonja Overhiser says:

    Let us know if you have any questions!