Easy Homemade Queso!
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Skip the restaurant fake cheese and make this Easy Homemade Cheese Queso at home instead to enjoy with your favorite chips!
Hello, all my queso cheese lovers! In our house, queso is something that my husband LOVES! I can't blame him; I mean, it's queso! This easy cheese dip recipe creates a creamy dip that tastes just like the queso at your favorite Mexican Restaurant. If you've ever wanted to know how to make queso dip on the stove, this recipe is for you!
Most homemade queso dips contain processed food cheeses, like Velveeta. When we were first married, my husband asked me for some queso and thought I would melt some Velveeta with some salsa and call it a day. I told him, "That's not real cheese!" Now he is thoroughly spoiled because he knows I can make it without the processed ingredients, and it tastes BETTER!
This recipe contains NO Velveeta in this dip, just real quality cheese and ingredients melted together and ready to dip. All while still being grain-free!
Sauces and dips like these are commonly started with a roux. A roux is usually a paste made with some fat as a base with flour mixture into it. While this recipe does have a roux to help it thicken up, it uses tapioca starch, so the result is still completely grain-free.
If you haven't made homemade queso before, TODAY is the day! IT'S DELICIOUS!
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Ingredients in Queso
-
- Avocado Oil
- Milk
- Tapioca Starch
- Cheddar Cheese
- Queso Fresco
- Jalapeno
- Chili Powder
- Onion
- Tomatoes
- Cilantro
- Garlic
- Salt
- Pepper
Picking the Right Peppers!
To determine an estimated level of heat in a jalapeno, look for the following. For a milder pepper, you want a green, smooth surface. The more striations (dry, brown, veiny-looking things, like stretch marks) on the pepper, the hotter it will be.
Because this recipe does use jalapeno peppers, it's essential to determine the heat level. After all, some of us (myself included) prefer more heat to our queso while others (my husband) prefer a little less.
Queso Pairings!
We all know queso from all the Mexican restaurants we would order to go with the chips and salsa on the tables we've been to over the years. No, those chips aren't grain-free, but that's okay because we aren't in a restaurant anyways. We are home where we can enjoy the amazing Siete brand of not only gluten-free but grain-free tortilla chips to dip into our better than restaurant salsa. These chips are so good I promise you will keep going back to them. I mean, that's what we used to do with the salsa and chips waiting for our foods before going grain-free, right?
You can also use it to dip vegetables into or even make killer nachos with it!
Does this queso recipe stay smooth and creamy as it cools?
Because this recipe is made with real ingredients, it does harden as it cools a little faster than the cheese dips made with processed cheese products. However, you can keep it warm in a slow cooker after making or reheat as you’re enjoying it. It reheats beautifully! Add a bit of milk when reheating if necessary. You can also leave the initial dip a little thinner than you would want to eat since you know it will thicken as it cools as well.
Depending on what I am using it for, I will often leave a portion in the pan on the stove and only pull out smaller portions to enjoy to quickly reheat the remaining as needed.
Hello Cinco de Mayo parties this weekend!
More Fun Dips
Easy Homemade Cheese Queso
Ingredients
- 1 TBS Avocado Oil
- 16 OZ Milk
- 2 TBS Tapioca Starch
- 1 LB Cheddar Cheese Shredded
- 8 OZ Queso Fresco Cheese
- 1 Jalapeno small diced
- 1 TSP Chili Powder
- 1 Small White Onion
- ½ C Fresh Cilantro Chopped
- 2-3 Roma Tomatoes small diced
- 2 Cloves Garlic
- 1 TSP Salt
- ½ TSP Pepper
Instructions
- In a saucepan, over medium heat add the avocado oil and diced onions. Saute the onions about 2-3 minutes just until the onions start to soften but do not let them start to caramelize. You want to take the crunch out of the onion.
- Once the onion has softened, add the garlic and jalapeno to the pan and let it cook for about a minute with the onions.
- Add the tapioca starch to the vegetables and stir, let the starch coat the vegetables, and no clumps of flour remain. This will help prevent clumps in the final cheese dip.
- Add the milk and allow the mixture to simmer about 5 minutes. The sauce will start to thicken slightly at this point.
- Once the sauce has started to slightly thicken, add the cheese and stir until all the cheese is melted, and the sauce becomes creamy.
- Remove from the heat and add in the tomatoes, cilantro, and remaining spices. You might need to adjust the spices depending on the spices in the cheeses used, and the desired level of spice. Some brands of cheese can also contain more salt in particular, than other brands.
- Serve it warm and enjoy!
Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.