Upgrade Your Next Cheese Ball With One Powdered Soup Mix

Cheese balls are easy, ultra-rich, crowd-pleasing appetizers that give you a lot more creative license than a cheese plate alone. Spice blends, nuts, aromatics, and bacon bits are common ingredients that bring texture to a cheese ball's crust and complementary flavors to its creamy, cheesy interior, but adding powdered onion soup is a novel upgrade you need to try.

Onion soup mix packs a punchy mix of both spices and aromatics, making it a veritable one-stop-shop of seasoning ingredients. This soup mix is already a popular addition to other dishes like sour cream or mayo-based dips, so it's an easy transition to a cheese ball. It works by bringing a tangy, oniony flavor that will help cut through the richness of any cheese you choose for your balls. Many onion soup mixes contain soy sauce and beef flavors, as well as yeast extract which all contribute to umami-richness. And they often also feature sugar to imitate the caramelized taste of scratch-made onion soup. All of these flavors combined make for a unique and balanced upgrade to a cheese ball.

Cheese balls are dump-it recipes, and onion soup mix is another ingredient you can simply throw into the mixing bowl along with softened cream cheese or sour cream, shredded cheeses, and any other items you have in mind. Simply blend the soup mix, other ingredients, and cheeses together until well-combined before forming a ball and refrigerating to set.

Onion soup mix provides a robust burst of umami, salty, and aromatic flavors that will stand up to equally robust cheeses. So go ahead and pair it with goat cheese, sharp cheddar, or even a funky blue cheese. You can also draw inspiration from French onion soup by using gruyere, Swiss, and shredded beef in the filling to gobble up with crunchy, buttery, cracked pepper crostini. And pick out a French onion soup mix to go with that combination.

Incorporating dried herbs with sour cream in with some cheddar and the onion soup mix gives you a twist on sour cream and onion chips. You could serve that one with potato chips and crudites. Crispy chopped bacon, diced walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, or almonds would add crunchy texture and more savory flavors to pair with the aromas of onion soup and dairy richness of cheese. You may also want to add red pimentos, paprika, cayenne, or a few diced chipotles in adobo to bring a pleasing touch of heat or smokiness to round out the cheese ball. If you can't get enough of that pungent onion flavor, use crispy fried onions or funyuns to roll your cheese ball in for an extra aromatic crust.