Turkey Cheese Ball
Of all things resembling a turkey, this cheese ball has to be the cutest. We used carrots, pecans, pretzels, and bell peppers to create the iconic look. Feel free to sub out for different ingredients for what you have on hand. Everyone will love this adorable Thanksgiving appetizer and will go absolutely nuts for it. Serve it with crackers and use the decorations as dippers too!
End Thanksgiving with Oreo Turkeys to complete the theme!
(8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
butter, softened
goat cheese
garlic powder
freshly chopped chives
freshly chopped parsley
sprig thyme, stem removed, plus more for serving
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
pecan halves, toasted, divided
Red and yellow bell peppers
Orange and white carrots, julienned
Pretzels
Crackers
- Combine cream cheese, butter, goat cheese and garlic powder in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Add chives, parsley, and thyme leaves and pulse a few times until well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Form mixture into a large ball.
- To make the turkey body, Pulse ¾ cups pecan halves in a food processor until finely chopped. Roll cheese ball in pecan crumbs and chill for at least 1 hour to allow the cheese ball to set up.
- To decorate: Make the tail by sticking pretzels, pretzel sticks and multi colored julienned carrots into the tail end of the turkey. Slice carrots to make the turkey feet. Cut a red bell pepper into a large triangle to make the face of the turkey and place on cheese ball using a toothpick or pressing into the cheese ball. Slice a smaller triangle from a yellow bell pepper and attach to the red triangle to make the beak using another toothpick. Slice a thin carrot crosswise to get 2 rounds, for the turkey eyes and place onto red triangle with toothpicks. For the wings, stick pecan halves into the sides of the body, overlapping each other to make a wing shape.
- Serve cheese ball turkey on a platter along with crackers.
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