Easy Vegetable Ranch Cheeseballs

These vegetable ranch cheeseballs are on of the easiest appetizer recipes you can make! We used crackers and bacon to coat them and they are made without nuts. They are perfect for any gathering.

Cheeseballs are easy to make and the perfect appetizer to bring to a gathering. They look nice and taste even better then they look! We enjoy them as a snack often here.

We started making these at home when the kids had friends with nut allergies. Most recipes and even most of the ones you can buy are coated with nuts. We wanted to make them without nuts so they could eat them too and we like the taste better without the nuts.

We use Ritz crackers to coat ours, but you can use your favorite cracker. You can even coat them with nuts if you prefer, but we like them better without.

Ingredients

Crackers – Use your favorite, they are for coating. We like Ritz everything crackers on ours.

Bacon – Optional, we use in the coating. Quite often we coat one with and one without if going to a gathering. We use real bacon pieces (not imitation bacon bits.) You can use fresh cooked and crumbled bacon, but it doesn’t take a lot of bacon so we don’t cook it fresh for this.

Cream cheese – A block of cream cheese, do not use the whipped cream cheese.

Sour cream – We use full fat sour cream.

Cheese – We use the 4 cheese Mexican cheese, but you can use your favorite cheese. I recommend more of a cheddar mix then an Italian mix for these but Italian cheese will work too.

Ranch seasoning – We use homemade ranch seasoning here, but you can use store bought as well.

Salt – For added flavor, you can leave out if you prefer less salt.

Spinach – Fresh is best and we use baby spinach, but you can use regular spinach instead. I do not recommend frozen spinach as it adds too much moisture to the cheeseballs.

Bell peppers – We use red and green, but you can use your favorite peppers.

Garlic – I prefer the taste of the fresh garlic here, but you can definitely use garlic powder in it’s place. You want to mince it very finely or you can even grate it to get it very fine. If using powder, use about 1 quarter teaspoon.

Scallion – 1 whole scallion chopped finely.

Making the cheeseballs

These vegetable ranch cheeseballs are really easy to make. It doesn’t take a lot of time with the hands on, but should be refrigerated before coating.

The filling

You will need either a hand mixer, stand mixer or even a food processor for the filling. I recommend a hand mixer here personally.

Try to chop your peppers and scallion small. I like to carefully smash the garlic clove before finely mincing it. Smashing is optional and please be careful if you are new to it. If you have never done it before and are interested, how to crush garlic will help you learn how to. The spinach leaves are going in whole.

Add the cream cheese, sour cream, shredded cheese, salt, ranch seasoning, garlic, peppers, scallion, shredded cheese and spinach in a mixing bowl.

With the mixer on a low speed mix until it is partially blended. I start on low so my ingredients do not fly out of the bowl. Once the ingredients are blended enough to stay in the bowl, turn it up to a medium to medium high speed. Mix until it is blended well and the spinach is shredded into the cheese – about 1-2 minutes.

Place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap (or in a container with a lid) and refrigerate at least one hour (recommended.)

The filling will be enough to make 2 medium sized cheeseballs but you don’t have to spit the filling before refrigeration (why dirty 2 bowls?)

The coating

In the picture we have just the crackers crushed. Bacon is optional and we love the flavor it adds, but when we go to gatherings we do 1 with bacon and 1 without in case people do not like bacon.

We do not coat them until shortly before serving to keep the coating a fresh texture.

Crush the crackers as finely as you would like. I like to have some very fine pieces and some larger pieces of crackers, but this is up to you!

Add bacon pieces if you are adding them and mix together. I like to use a small plate or bowl for coating.

Divide the filling in half and gently shape them with a spoon. You do not have to be perfect, these will be soft and you can shape as you roll them in the coating.

Add half of the coating mixture to the plate or bowl you are using. When you coat the cheeseballs you want to keep rolling the filling over in the bowl. It will take several times of rolling it around for it to pick up all of the coating. I like to keep rolling it until all of the coating on the plate is on it.

Repeat with the second ball.

Bacon ranch cheeseballs

You can customize these how you like! A different variation we make is with bacon in the filling.

When we make them with bacon in the filling, we usually leave the spinach out. We make them with the same ingredients all but the spinach.

You want to add 3-4 tablespoons of real bacon pieces to the filling mix. Leave out the spinach, unless you want it in there as well. We use 3 tablespoons of bacon pieces, but you can use 4 if you prefer more bacon.

Mix all the filling ingredients together with a hand mixer like you would without the bacon and refrigerate for at least an hour before coating.

Coat with crackers or crackers mixed with bacon pieces and serve.

Frequently asked questions