Pumpkin Queso
Queso fundido meets pumpkin spice in this delicious twist on a cheesy recipe. Welcome fall flavors with cheese sauce and chorizo.
you're making mealtime meaningful.
My best friend’s Mom used to make this Velveeta and sausage dip that she called “chili cheese dip” and it’s one of my favorite dips to this day. Cheesy meat dips just speak to me, what can I say. I remember teaching a class of high schoolers how to repurpose a batch of pumpkin soup into a pumpkin cheese sauce for mac and cheese and how blown away they were. This recipe is inspired by that cheese sauce as we put to the test how chorizo, cheese, and pumpkin spice work together in a dip. I tested out four savory pumpkin recipes to see which one works best and you may be surpised at how this one ranked.
Check out the other savory recipes in this series here:
Pumpkin Salsa
Pumpkin Pie Glazed Meatballs
Pumpkin Spiced Chicken Wings
The best cheese sauces start with some sort of greasy meat. Chorizo releases a lot of fat as it cooks and does the job perfectly. It has a mild flavor in the end, but really adds backbone to the dip.
My favorite recent way to make cheese sauce is using evaporated milk and cheeses with sodium citrate. The American or velveeta cheeses work best for this. These cheeses contain an enzyme that helps bond fat to water molecules which basically makes any cheese bond to any liquid. Who needs a roux.
After the cheese has been mounted in is when we add in our spices and flavor enhancers. I added in ground cumin, pumpkin spices, and jalapeno brine for salt and tang. Pumpkin spice contains cinnamon, that pairs very well with meat and cumin. I was very hopeful to see how all of these work with cheese sauce and to my surprise it was not half bad. Topping the cheese sauce with pickled jalapenos and diced tomatoes made the cheese taste even more exciting so don’t skimp on the garnishes. Do I prefer this spiced queso to a non-spiced queso? I would say one the normal one for now is a summer queso and this is a fall queso. It really gets the taste buds tingling.
Queso dips like these reheat beautifully in the microwave and reconstituted with some milk. Make this dip ahead and spice it up the way you like. The pumpkin spices add such a zing to this flavor that I’m going to start expirimenting with a winter and spring version too. Queso ALL YEAR ROUND!
Pumpkin Queso
Yield(s): Makes 3 cups
10m prep time
10m cook time
Allergens: Milk
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 6 oz. chorizo
- 1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
- 5 slices American cheese slices, unwrapped and diced
- 1 cup sharp cheddar, grated
- 1 cup grated Monterey jack cheese
- 2 tablespoons pickled jalapeno brine
- 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- A dash of cumin
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- In a saucepan over medium-heat, cook chorizo for 3 - 4 minutes until slightly golden.
- Add evaporated milk, American cheese, sharp cheddar, and Monterey jack to the pan. Bring mixture up to a simmer, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Once thickened, add jalapeno brine.
- Remove from heat and season with salt, pepper, cumin, and pumpkin spice.