Cream cheese comes in a variety of flavours and normally you can use plain cream cheese in your dinner recipes to create a rich taste for your dish. If you are health conscious, low-fat cream cheese is a good alternative to heavy cream and coconut, with the added benefits of nutrients vitamin A, calcium, and iron.
Creamy Pasta Dishes
Cream cheese is also helpful in enhancing the flavour of your homemade pasta sauce and curries. For example, by mixing half a cup of cream cheese with garlic, Parmesan cheese, milk, salt and parsley, you will get the perfect Alfredo sauce for spaghetti.
Rich Curry Sauce
Cream cheese can also be used to create the little cheese balls in vegetarian curries. You simply mix the cream cheese with the masala spices you'll be adding to your curry sauce and refrigerate overnight so the flavours can blend.
If you are more interested in a curry dish rather than a snack, you can make curried chicken using Indian spices such as garam masala, ginger, garlic paste, cumin seeds, coriander and turmeric powder. Brown your chicken, then lightly fry with your spices, add liquid to cover, add vegetables and heat. Before serving, add the cream cheese to the chicken pot and allow to simmer slowly. Soon you will have a tasty curry chicken with a thick, creamy gravy.
Prawn Risotto With Cream Cheese And Leek
Risotto is a popular rice dish that originates from Italy. The knack to a good risotto is the creamy texture of the rice - but you can cheat. Preparing this dish may not be as difficult as you think and, by adding cream cheese, you will be able to serve the smoothest risotto imaginable. Here's a recipes for risotto with leek and prawns.
First, cook leek and garlic for five minutes in hot oil before you add in your Arborio rice and mix them well. Then add 3/4 cup of white wine and stir it into the rice. Gradually add four cups of chicken stock. Remember: you need to wait for the stock to be fully absorbed before you add in more.
Now add bay leaves, prawns, and lemon to the rice and leave them simmering for five minutes. When the prawns are white and cooked through, stir in the cream cheese and gently mix well until the cheese has liquefied evenly. Serve with finely chopped parsley or coriander.
Spring Vegetable Spagetti
For a quicker dish, you can try making spaghetti with spring vegetables. First, cook spaghetti in boiling water until it softens. Heat up some oil in a pan with olive oil and garlic and begin cooking the vegetables of your choosing for three to four minutes until the vegetables are softened. Put the cooked vegetables aside and pour a cup of chicken stock into the cooking pan and turn down the heat. Add 125g cream cheese and allow the ingredients to simmer on a very low heat for five minutes. Add lemon, seasoning and vegetables to the cream cheese mixture before you stir in the spaghetti.
Char-grilled Salmon With Creamy Mustard
If you are a seafood lover, this creamy mustard sauce goes fantastically well with char-grilled salmon. Boil half a cup of cooking wine and onions in a saucepan for two minutes, then reduce the heat and add 250g chopped and softened cream cheese into the mixture. Add in one and a half table spoons of mustard (English or seeded) and cook the sauce for three minutes until it thickens and cream cheese has melted evenly. Remove the sauce from the heat and add seasoning. Set aside. Put olive oil into a char-grill pan and cook the salmon for around four minutes. Remove from heat and pour on sauce. Serve with a lemon wedge and steamed rice that has finely chopped dill mixed through it. Green beans are a nice compliment.
Chelsi Woolz, freelance writer and domestic goddess, loves cooking with cream but can't really afford the extra calories. She is always on the lookout for low-fat, quick dinner recipes and likes to share them.
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