MATTY'S HOMEMADE CHEESE AND ONION SANDWICH SPREAD

Have ever tried Heinz sandwich spread? The pale slightly tangy concoction they sell in the little jars with the green label? Well this tastes nothing like it even though it was my homemade attempt to emulate it using an array of fresh vegetables and pickled gherkins chopped very finely and processed together with cream cheese, herbs and mustard powder. What I ended up with was a spread that is more like the cheese and onion spread you get on pre-packed sandwiches in supermarkets. Was I disappointed? Err no! It's super scrummy delicious.

This makes a hefty portion of spread so do be warned. However, if you love it as much as me then you'll be using it to spread on sandwiches throughout the week for your lunch, dolloping it into jacket potatoes at dinner time or dipping in batons of carrot or celery as a late night snack.

The trick to getting the right consistency to your spread is to dice everything into small cubes of roughly the same size. This takes a bit of time and effort and will test your knife skills but that is literally the most work that this recipe entails as you will see shortly.

Give it a try at least once. I get that it isn't the most prettiest looking thing around but I promise you that if you love cheese and onion flavors you are going to fall in love with my sandwich spread. It's proper dirty like but sometimes those naughty little treats are the best!

Cheese And Onion Sandwich Spread

500g Cream Cheese

1/2 Finely Diced Red Onion 

1 Finely Diced Carrot

1 Finely Diced Red Pepper

1 Finely Diced Stalk Of Celery
6 Finely Diced Spring Onions
2 Finely Diced Gherkins

1 Tbsp Chopped Dill

1 Tbsp Chopped Chives

1 Grated Garlic Clove

1 Tbsp English Mustard Powder

1. Add all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz until well combined but not too much so you want to be able to taste the little bits of vegetables throughout the spread rather than making a smooth paste. You may need to stop every now and then and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Yup, it's as simple as that. Transfer the spread out of the food processor bowl and into an airtight container to store in the fridge until the date of the cream cheese's use by date (make a note before you throw the packaging away). You can then take it out when duty calls, be it for sandwiches, jacket potatoes or just to have as a dip. The cream cheese has a proper onion kick to it that isn't overpowering as it works in harmony with the tang of the gherkins and the herby freshness of the chives and dill. The garlic sits in the background with the warmth of the mustard powder to tie all the flavors up together in a nice little package of sandwich spread specialness.