5-Minute Garlic Herb Cream Cheese Recipe

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This savory, 5 minute garlic herb cream cheese is a simple, easy, and delicious addition to a bagel brunch (especially with our overnight New York style bagel recipe) or your favorite sandwich. We love using it for the base of our chicken bagel sandwich with cream cheese for an easy lunch.

Homemade flavored cream cheese is one of the best additions to breakfasts and brunches or whenever bagels are served. Especially when it only takes 4 ingredients and 5 minutes of time. 

Whenever we make a batch of homemade bagels, we’re making flavored cream cheese, whether it’s this garlic and herb cream cheese, our jalapeno salsa cream cheese, or our sun dried tomato basil cream cheese.

Why We Love This Recipe

Key Ingredients

• Cream cheese – We love Tillamook’s block cream cheese because it doesn’t use any artificial fillers or stabilizers. Plus it’s super creamy and rich. We’re always looking for minimally processed options to make our recipes with. Read more about our views on the connection between food and wellness if you’re interested in why we opt for minimally processed ingredients. 
• Garlic – Store-bought minced garlic makes this recipe really easy and allows for the garlic flavor to blend in with the cream cheese well thanks to the pickling liquid it comes in. 
• Herbs – Dried parsley and oregano give this cream cheese a wonderful herbal flavor that is generally expected in a “garlic and herb” cream cheese or dip. This also helps the cream cheese stay fresher longer. If you use fresh herbs, the cream cheese won’t stay good for quite as long since the herbs will start to wilt.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

How To Make Garlic Herb Cream Cheese

1. Get the cream cheese out ahead of time (about 20 or 30 minutes generally works well for us) so it can warm up and soften slightly and make mixing easier. 
2. Once it’s soft, add the cream cheese, garlic, parsley, and oregano, to a bowl and mix thoroughly to combine. We like to use the back of a spoon to help spread the cream cheese out and then fold the ingredients into it. 
3. Optionally return the mixed cream cheese to the fridge to chill for 15 minutes or so before serving.

Serving Suggestions

Garlic and herb cream cheese is the perfect condiment to schmear on homemade New York style bagels, toast, sandwiches, and wraps for breakfast or lunch! It’s super savory and creamy, which makes it a great spread for grilled chicken or turkey sandwiches. We also love pairing it with our sun dried tomato basil cream cheese for ultra-creamy and decadent flavor.

You can even use garlic herb cream cheese for savory snacks and appetizers! Spread it on crostini, crackers, and vegetables or pair it with fresh cucumber for a tasty treat this summer. (You can even try it in place of Alouette garlic herb spreadable cheese in our tomato bruschetta and crostini recipe here).

No matter how you choose to spread or schmear it, this savory garlic and herb cream cheese has the best flavor and texture. You’re going to want to put it on everything! Try our recipe and let us know if you love it by rating, commenting, and sharing below.