Paprika Goat Cheese Spread

This goat cheese spread takes happy hour to the next level in 5 minutes! The ultimate easy appetizer, pair this cheese spread recipe with crostini and wine. Also: it’s inspired by our surprise AncestryDNA results!

This Paprika Herb Goat Cheese Spread was created in partnership with AncestryDNA. All opinions are our own.

A few weeks ago, Alex and I sent off kits of our fresh saliva (!) in AncestryDNA kits to discover our roots. My mom is 1,000% percent into family history: she’s the family guru who knows the family tree backwards and forwards. So when she found out Alex and I would be discovering our roots using AncestryDNA kits, she couldn’t contain her excitement – and I couldn’t either! What would my test reveal? Would I secretly be a Spanish princess (is that why I’ve always felt pulled there)? And what about Alex? We each had an idea of what our ancestry was, but would the test confirm it?

Recently, we got back our results and we couldn’t believe what we found! Ready to see our results?

Our AncestryDNA results

Here are my AncestryDNA results! I’ve grown up knowing I’m 50% Norwegian, 25% German, and 25% English. My maiden name growing up was Kuhnau, a very German name, and my dad’s always had a strong identification with his German heritage. So I typically tell people I’m Norwegian and German descent. However, when you look at these DNA results: surprise: I’m only 5% German! And in place of what I thought was German, 34% of my DNA is from Great Britain. I never would have guessed that! So, this AncestryDNA test shows that DNA is much more complicated than family traditions and culture.

Another surprise (and delight) came from my Spanish background. Growing up I fell in love with the Spanish language, studied abroad in Madrid in college, and have a deep love for the country. I’ve always joked that I was a Spanish flamenco dancer in another life! Low and behold, my AncestryDNA results say my DNA is 5% Spanish (Iberian Peninsula)!

And here are Alex’s DNA results! Going into the test, he identified his heritage as 50% French, and the remainder German and British. As you can see above, he’s mostly Western European! He was interested to see that he showed up as 18% Great Britain, which was more than he expected. It was also cool to use the Migrations feature and see his family came to New York in the US around 1800. What a fascinating way to look at patterns of immigrating throughout history!

And what about our son Larson? Since Larson is adopted, we’d love to know more about his ancestry! We know a bit from his birth mama that he’s part Mexican and Polish, but we’d absolutely love to know more. And who knows, maybe we’ll do a post one day about his background! How about you: if you are adopted yourself or have adopted, have you ever thought about something like a DNA test to discover more about your heritage?

Overall, getting ourAncestryDNA results was such a fun experience! It’s interesting to think about how family culture shapes how you perceive your own heritage, and how your actual DNA may or may not reflect that. Our results have started some fun conversations with our parents, siblings and friends. And in the end, we are all humans: which makes us all related and similar in so many ways! These results can help us celebrate what makes each human unique and different, but also what unites us together as one human race. If you want to try for yourself, you can purchase an AncestryDNA kit here!

Why paprika goat cheese spread?

You’re probably wondering, how does paprika goat cheese spread relate to Alex’s and my AncestryDNA results?

First of all, food is not just about ingredients and flavor. Food is people. Food is an expression of cultural identity. It’s the way we pass down our own culture from one generation to the next, and a powerful way to experience other cultures. Alex, Larson and I just got back from an epic trip to Europe and so much of what we loved about the trip was experiencing culture through food. And speaking of, that trip is partially where we got the inspiration for this cheese spread recipe!

Cheese spreads of all kinds are popular for snacks alongside beer and wine throughout the European regions where Alex is from, be it at a German beer garten or the French countryside. On our trip some dear friends hosted us for a few days in Vienna, Austria before heading to Croatia. They introduced us to liptauer (a tasty Austrian cheese spread), and several other creamy cheese spreads at a buschenshank, a popup restaurant at a winery. These are basically European forms of pimento cheese, which is popular in America! We loved the versatility of these cheese spreads, and enjoyed spreading them on all sorts of breads, crackers, and veggies!

This goat cheese spread is loosely based on that liptauer cheese spread, with nods to a German beer cheese spread and of course French goat cheese spreads. Basically, it’s a European fusion: exactly what our AncestryDNA shows!

Related:Best Goat Cheese Recipes

How to make goat cheese spread

Now, we wanted our European fusion paprika goat cheese spread recipe to taste a bit like the European cheese spreads we love, but also be pretty simple to put together. (Since that is our schtick.) Many cheese spread recipes have lots of mayo or butter added with the cheese. Instead, we opted for straight up goat cheese spread with just a few other key ingredients thrown in for mega-flavor. This goat cheese spread is a 5 ingredient, 5-minute easy appetizer that takes your happy hour to the next level with a very little amount of effort! Here are the magic ingredients we chose:

• Goat cheese: tangy, creamy goat cheese carries the dip
• Olive oil: adding olive oil helps to make the goat cheese spreadable
• Paprika: adds a back-end flavor and makes the beautiful orange color
• Dijon mustard: adds a savory, rich flavor
• Capers: the magic ingredient! Capers add just the right amount of savory saltiness that make the dip shine. Do not omit these! Capers are also a nod to French cuisine (Alex’s side).

What about you?

Have you tried AncestryDNA kits? If so, what have you found?

Looking for more party appetizer recipes?

Outside of this paprika goat cheese spread, here are some of our favorite party appetizer recipes:

• Healthy Loaded Sweet Potato Rounds
• Baked Brie
• Easy Pinwheels
• Blistered Shishito Peppers or Roasted Shishito Peppers
• Paprika Goat Cheese Spread
• Happy Hour Platter with Caramelized Onion Dip
• Pesto Grilled Cheese Dippers with Marinara
• Very Verde Cilantro Dip
• Baked Brie with Roasted Cranberry Sauce
• Cherry and Goat Cheese Crostini
• Easy Mango Salsa & Homemade Tortilla Chips
• Famous Tomato Dip with Grilled Bread
• Creamy Labneh 
• Classic Hummus
• BBQ Soy Curls

This recipe is…

This paprika goat cheese spread is vegetarian, gluten free, and naturally sweet.

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