I’m almost ashamed to say that one of my favorite dips has been the queso dip from Ruby Tuesdays. After being diagnosed with gluten sensitivity and changing my diet, it was one of the processed treats I still enjoyed – up until Ruby’s stopped serving it a few months ago.
We stopped by for dinner and the whole menu had changed. So, we just never went back and I was forced to come up with my own queso dip that I was happy with. One that didn’t include Velveeta or overly processed ingredients.
This is the result of that quest for good queso.
Lots of recipes I found in my research called for cornstarch or flour. Many of them used canned tomatoes or sauce. Lots of them made things way more complicated than it needed to be. I kept it about as simple as I could. You can tweak the flavors any way you like – add more peppers, add more spinach or some cayenne pepper for some
Who knew that you could just melt cheese in heavy cream and have it come out perfectly? Not this girl, until I did it. The Monterey jack cheese liquifies when it melts, rather than becoming stringy. Not sure of the reason for this but I’ll take it!
A few notes:
• Get a block of Pepperjack cheese and shred it yourself. The pre-shredded cheese has added gums and cornstarch and it makes more of a paste than a smooth, cheesy dip.
• I used a mixture of fresh peppers and canned peppers in this. I like the texture difference and fresh flavors that the onions and peppers gave it.
• Try to get half & half without gums added. This may be hard to find but it will make such a big difference in the finished product.
• This is a real cheese dip and it starts to skim over pretty quickly. Either keep it on a warming plate to serve or … eat fast!
• This isn’t exactly like the original queso dip at Ruby Tuesday’s but it’s pretty close to the texture. It has a lot of similar ingredients but I’ll never be able to recreate a homemade product to taste like a commercial product. Who knows the ingredients that went in that? It’s one of those dishes I just didn’t want to know.
• *If you’re maintaining a low-carb diet, forego the corn chips for sweet peppers or low-carb veggies such as broccoli. It’s delicious dipped in this sauce!
Pepperjack Queso Dip
- Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
½ Tbls oil, avocado or olive
2 Tbls jalapenos, minced fine
2 Tbls red pepper, minced fine
4 Tbls yellow onion, minced fine
2 Tbls canned green chilis, chopped
1 cup half and half (without added gums), *use heavy cream for low-carb
8 oz pepperjack cheese, shredded
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp chili powder
½ cup chopped spinach
2 tsp cilantro, minced
Instructions
In a heavy saucepan, heat oil and saute jalapenos, red pepper and onion.
Stir in canned green chilis and half and half, heat to just below boiling.
Add cheese a little at a time, stirring in between additions until it’s all added and melted.
Add salt, chili powder, spinach and cilantro.
Keep on low heat for 5 minutes to flavor the cheese.
Serve immediately with corn chips or pepperoni chips and veggies for low-carb.
Notes
- Get a block of Pepperjack cheese and shred it yourself. The pre-shredded cheese has added gums and cornstarch and it makes more of a paste than a smooth, cheesy dip.
• I used a mixture of fresh peppers and canned peppers in this. I like the texture difference and fresh flavors that the onions and peppers gave it.
• Try to get half & half without gums added. This may be hard to find but it will make such a big difference in the finished product.
• This is a real cheese dip and it starts to skim over pretty quickly. Either keep it on a warming plate to serve or … eat fast!
• This isn’t exactly like the original queso dip at Ruby Tuesday’s but it’s pretty close to the texture. It has a lot of similar ingredients but I’ll never be able to recreate a homemade product to taste like a commercial product. Who knows the ingredients that went in that? It’s one of those dishes I just didn’t want to know.
• *If you’re maintaining a low-carb diet, forego the corn chips for sweet peppers or low-carb veggies such as broccoli. It’s delicious dipped in this sauce!
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Appetizers