Homemade Roasted Veggie Cream Cheese for a Perfect Lox Bagel.
Super toasty bagel people raise your hands.
Mine are both up.
We have our own little clique. Toasted and golden, no warm bread please.
If I come across a hugely fantastic breakfast spread, a bagel bar, if you will – with loads of cream cheese flavors and toppings and drizzles and fruits and nut butters and even vegetables, but no toaster?
No thanks. I’ll pass.
I simply can’t do untoasted bagels. Why are they even allowed to be a thing?
A few weeks ago, a craving for smoked salmon (or lox, I believe they are sliiiiightly different, as in lox isn’t actually smoked?) on toast hit me HARD. The only thing I had that was crunchy and toast-like were a bunch of seedy crackers, so I made a snack plate of cream cheese on crackers. Topped with avocado, salmon, salt, pepper and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil.
It made my life. And it’s SUCH a filling but light wonderful lunch. Or snack. Or breakfast. Or everything.
One night I wanted it for dessert?
If that doesn’t say my taste buds might be changing, I don’t know what does. I’ve picked savory over sweet a bunch of times recently and am like WHO ARE YOU to myself.
This roasted veggie cream cheese is everything. There have been very few times in my life that I’ve picked veggie cream cheese out of the options I’m given. Mostly because I’m pretty sure the store bought versions contain carrots? And celery?
Carrots? Um, no.
Celery? Oh heck NO.
Just like raisins, celery ruins everything. (I can handle the teeniest amount sautéed and softened in something like chicken soup, but no other way and certainly not raw ever.)
So while you won’t find those things in my version of cream cheese (though you can obviously add them and not listen to a brat like me), you will find diced peppers and onions and garlics, roasted to perfection. A little bit of char, juicy and naturally sweet, flavored to heaven and back. SO delicious.
And just when I thought that it couldn’t get much better than roasted veggie cream cheese and silky salmon, I did something else.
Thinly sliced, heavily seasoned avocado. Ooomph.
Thinly sliced, toasted sesame cucumbers. Eeeeep.
The taste. The texture! It’s a locked and loaded bagel.
My Favorite Lox Bagel with Homemade Roasted Veggie Cream Cheese
Ingredients
roasted veggie cream cheese
- 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1/2 orange bell pepper, chopped
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 (8-ounce) block cream cheese, softened
lox bagel
- 1 sesame bagel, toasted
- 1/4 seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds,
- 1/2 avocado, sliced
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- 2 to 4 ounces smoked salmon
Instructions
roasted veggie cream cheese
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the peppers and red onions to the sheet and toss with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 15 to 20 minutes, tossing once, until caramely and sweet.
- Place the cream cheese in a large bowl. Add the roasted veggies and sliced scallions. Mix thoroughly to combine. (You can use a food processor if you want, but I like the chunks!) This keeps great in the fridge for a few weeks.
lox bagel
- Cover the bagel with your veggie cream cheese. In a bowl, toss the cucumbers with the oil and sesame seeds. Spritz the avocado with the lemon and season with the salt and pepper. Build your bagel by adding the cucumbers, avocado and salmon on top!
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I appreciate you so much!
the best bite.
57 Comments on “Homemade Roasted Veggie Cream Cheese for a Perfect Lox Bagel.”
wow…. very nice recipe. Thanks for sharing it.
I can do it all except the lox…though my husband would eat all lox. Love the presentation!
thanks jen!
Veggie cream cheese has always been my fave. This looks amazing!
holy crap you are a woman after my own heart. I LIVE for toasted bagels with veggie cream cheese. And of course homemade veggie cream cheese- you need the chunkier bits of veggies amiright? Yum yum yum can’t wait to make your recipe!
-Stefanie
http://thestylesafari.com
Untoasted bagels are just plain wrong! My work building’s cafeteria’s bagel toaster is permanently on a low setting so I usually have to run my bagel through about 3 times to get to the perfect toasted consistency. I swear, one of these days I’m going to end up at the ER for a “bagel-related” burn injury haha :)
Lauren
dcgirlinpearls.com
Always toasted, always. There’s truly no other way. And I am consistently in awe of how you seem to create the most incredible meals out of unassuming ingredients. Love!
Where did you get that beautiful smoked salmon? Market District has a pastrami-style hot smoked salmon in the seafood department that is todiefor.
Girl, you are killing me, Ha! I have had a serious bagel craving for the past week, but there is no where in town to get really, really good bagels. I have plans to eat a bagel every morning when on vacation. Just 2 more weeks to go without a delicious bagel.
Thank you for understanding the importance of a toasted bagel and the evil that is raw celery.
I don’t care if eating it actually burns calories, it is simply not worth it.
This looks amazing! Also, just so you know – lox is a cured version of smoked salmon! So no smoke involved – just lots of salt and herbs. Hope that’s helpful :)
diviiine. Sounds like the best breakfast.
AHHH! I need this! Every. Dang. Day.
I have been ALL ABOUT smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels for the past couple months after having never really experienced them on a regular basis before. smoked salmon or lox used to actually freak me out when I was younger, but can’t get enough now! I finally ran out of bagels a couple of weeks ago and haven’t bought them again since but now I’ll have to make this cream cheese after my next grocery trip.
Also, toasted to deep dark perfection and I usually actually scoop out a lot of the bready insides of the bagel slices to get maximum cream cheese/salmon filling in there.. so so good. thank you for sharing! :)
on the spectrum of hot bread to well done, I err on the side of warm bread (lightly toasted, warm, chewy….sensitive palate) but bagels must always, ALWAYS be toasted. I don’t currently have a toaster and bought bagels this weekend and “toasted” them in the oven, which takes 100x longer but may be my favourite method. Cucumbers + cream cheese = most favourite!
I want to slather this cream cheese on everythingggg! I never thought of putting roasted veggies in it but it sounds amazing. :) And it’s beautiful, too!
Woah, sesame oil is genius for this!! Sounds lovely!
Oh, this roasted veggie cream cheese looks soo amazing. I love how colorful they are. I swear, sometimes I think I eat in color. But while I can tolerate a bit of raw celery in chicken salad loaded with mayo, I can’t eat it raw either when it’s the main ingredient. Like with celery and peanut butter. How does anyone snack on that? I think of raw celery as a spoon to scoop the peanut butter.
Gosh I’m a creep. But I remember you posting that sliced avocado picture to instagram months ago and I thought, “that’s the prettiest avocado ever!”
YES! We are of the same mindset right now. I’ve been craving a loaded everything bagel and now have all of the ingredients sitting in my fridge… minus the everything bagels (I’ve forced whole wheat upon myself) and the VEGGIES in the cream cheese. Genius and it needs to happen in my house.
OH LORD! As I’m making my next recipe in my head, I just can’t stop thinking about bagels. This definitely gets me inspired.
OH! You’ve made my day. Will definitely try this soon, can’t believe how good this sounds! Thank you so much for sharing :)
hey girl this looks pretty good!
No toast. Please. If you’re bagel requires toasting, its just not a good bagel.
Reference:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/05/what-makes-a-good-bagel-bad-bagel-kenji-opinion-untoasted.html
If you MUST toast, don’t slice it.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/09/how-to-reheat-old-bagels.html
I have been waiting for weeks now for this recipe since you posted it on Instagram. AHH! I so want this instead of oatmeal for breakfast this morning.
Um YES. Toast that bagel as dark as humanly possible and load it with this cream cheese! I love it. But I’m a celery fan…also raisins…
<3 <3
Toasted bagels for life! I cannot do untoasted bagels either, so glad to see I’m not alone!
Oh my this looks so delicious and oh so pretty too! I love veggie cream cheese; I can almost taste this photo.
This looks soooo amazing! I’m definitely going to make a batch this weekend!
hi
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Lox is salt-cured, which is what makes it so, um, salty. Nova is smoked. I guess it’s what you’re used to, but I couldn’t put avocado on a bagel with cream cheese, even though I love avocado. Bagel-toasted always, cream cheese, maybe tomato, maybe thin red onion, and Nova thinly sliced, maybe capers. Perfect. The first time I had an untoasted bagel, I was working in New York City. I thought It was raw! It was piping hot and tasted like a street hot pretzel.
This looks like a delicious idea! I am all about anything that sneaks veggies in.
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
Drool city. Avocado and cucumber combination is delicious.// ▲ conundrumofcoitus.com ▲
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this looks fantastic. I think I might try it, but definitely add in some carrots and mushrooms, leave out the peppers. flexible recipes are the best…and of course super cool party people bid you super cool adieu :)
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Bagels and cream cheese are my favorite, favorite thing to eat on this planet, so this made my day! I wish I could ditch work right this second to go make these!
My daughter starts every morning off with a toasted bagel. Thanks for sharing. I can’t wait for her to try the roasted veggie cream cheese!
my neighbor’s mom makes $79 every hour on the laptop . She has been fired from work for five months but last month her payment was $13766 just working on the laptop for a few hours. published here
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Can I say that my mouth is watering right this second? Gorgeous—and so divine. I’d eat this every day if I could…
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Veggie cream cheese is my choice when we order bagels out, this looks so perfect to indulge in at home! Thanks for sharing!
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This is looking so delicious :)
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this looks so amazing.