I make this cheese ball often just to have in the fridge to serve with crackers, baked potatoes, or on toasted bread. You can make it in a food processer with the mixing blade, as opposed to the cutting blade, but squishing it through your fingers is just as good.

It has been on my recipe file for about 30 years and we all love it in our family but it is quite rich so a little goes a long way. The quantities of cheese do not have to be totally exact, so don’t be worried about being too precise. You can use any color bell pepper or a mixture of colours, but I prefer red.

It keeps for several days in the fridge and the recipe may be halved.

Ingredients:

•  250 gm (8 oz)  cream cheese, the low fat type is fine.
• 185–250 gms (6–8 oz) mature cheeder cheese, grated
• 125–185 gms (4–6 oz)  mild cheese, grated, I use edam or colby
• 1 small onion, grated
• 2 pickled gherkins, finely chopped
• ½ small red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp gherkin relish.

Method:

Allow the cream cheese to soften in a bowl or the bowl of your food processer.

Beat until smooth.

Grate the onion and finely chop the peppers and gherkins.

Add everything to the cream cheese and mix until combined. This takes quite a bit of squishing if you are using your hands.

At this point you can either put the cheese ball into a container with a lid or roll into a ball and then roll again in one of two toppings:

1. 1 Tbsp each of curry powder and paprika or
2. Chopped walnuts which may be toasted.

Keep the cheese ball in the refrigerator and use as needed.