Smoked Gouda Cheese Dip

This Gouda Cheese Dip is the perfect creamy cheese sauce for fries, pretzels, tortilla chips or pasta. The rich and creamy cheesy sauce goes perfectly on cheese fries and makes both a great comfort food and a delicious cheese dip for party appetizers.

Homemade Cheese Dip for Fries

This is one of my favorite recipes to make for football game day! Of course, it is great for March Madness basketball too, or any time you are having friends over and want something simple to make fries more exciting.

My family loves finger food like fries and onion rings, and dipping sauce only makes them better. For the most recent game, we watched I wanted to come up with a fancier way to serve their favorite fries.  

Sure covering fries in ketchup is tasty, but I decided to branch out to a more gourmet experience. So I created this Smoked Gouda Cheese Dip and used it to make upscale fries.

How to Make Cheese Sauce

Making a cheese sauce is actually easy and it is a great staple since cheese sauce can be used on pasta, rice, veggies and, of course, fries. It is easy and fun to vary the taste of your cheese sauce just by using different kinds of cheeses. 

Start by making a simple cream sauce, combining butter and flour in a small saucepan. Put the saucepan on low and use a whisk to combine the flour with the butter as it melts.

Once the butter and flour are smooth, add some milk. Slowly stir the milk into the butter mixture and turn the burner heat up to medium.

This is the only even slightly complicated part of making the cheese sauce! You need to keep stirring the mixture while it heats up. After about 3 minutes the milk starts to bubble and thicken, at which point it can be removed from the heat.

Then add some creamy, shredded, smoked Gouda cheese into the milk mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until it is all melted and smooth.

Why use Gouda Cheese in Cheese Sauce

You can make a cheese sauce with many different kinds of cheese, but Gouda is a favorite of mine. Gouda is a semi-soft cheese with a very high butterfat content.

This means that it melts beautifully, much better than a hard cheese like cheddar. It also has a lower acid content than most cheeses, so the cheese sauce stays nice and creamy instead of getting stringy.

The only cheese I’ve tried that melts better than Gouda is processed cheese like Velveeta and I rarely use processed cheeses. Gouda comes in both smoked and not smoked varieties.

I usually use smoked Gouda because I think the smokiness adds depth to the flavor. 

Best Ways to Use Creamy Cheese Dip

My family and I love this cheese sauce as a quick and easy dip for fries. I can put a batch of fries in the oven to bake and have the dip ready by the time the fries are done.

Kids especially love dipping the fries but you can also make a plate of cheese fries by covering the fries with cheese sauce and toppings like jalapenos and onion straws.

The creaminess of sauce makes it an especially good complement to Spicy Sweet Potato Fries! I love the simplicity of this dish, and how quick and easy it is to take fries from the ordinary to the gourmet!

Other great suggestions for using this homemade cheese sauce include:

• Use as a dip for pretzels or pretzel bites
• Use for tortilla chips as a nacho cheese sauce
• Cook up some pasta and make everyone’s favorite – mac and cheese
• The creamy cheese sauce is a great topping for vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower. Just a little bit of creamy cheese can encourage kids to eat vegetables they might not love. And in my house this works on adults too!
• If you make some for a sports watching party and have leftovers it is delicious on an omelet the next morning or as a topping on a burger

Recipes Tips

• This recipe is for a small amount of cheese sauce meant to be used as a dip. But it is easy to double or even triple the recipe, just make sure your sauce pan is large enough.
• You can use essentially the same recipe and change the type of cheese if you aren’t as big a fan of Gouda as I am. I find that Monterey Jack works well in the recipe, as does Gruyere. Cheddar is also good, although the sauce won’t be as creamy.
• If you are making the cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese I like to triple the recipe and use three different cheeses.
• Try Maryland Crab Dip for a hearty and cheesy dip!

Find more Appetizer Ideas for Parties

• Chile Rellenos Casserole
• Cheesy Broccoli Bacon Mac Bites
• Onion Dill Dip
• Homemade Fry Sauce

4.60 from 44 votes

Smoked Gouda Cheese Dip

Published By Anne

An easy cheese sauce recipe – perfect for using as a dip or on pasta.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time15 minutes mins

Servings: 8

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Ingredients

 

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Smoked Gouda Cheese Sauce

• 2 Tablespoon butter
• 2 Tablespoon flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup Smoked Gouda shredded
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

• To make the cheese sauce melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat.
  2 Tablespoon butter
• Add the flour and stir until well mixed and smooth.
  2 Tablespoon flour
• Add the milk and use a whisk to stir it into the butter and flour. Increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil. Then lower the heat. Cook over the lower heat for 2-3 minutes until thickened.
  1 cup milk
• Remove the sauce pan from the heat and add in the shredded cheese and salt. Stir until cheese is melted.
  1/2 cup Smoked Gouda, 1/2 teaspoon salt

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Nutrition Information

Calories: 103kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 301mg | Potassium: 67mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 220IU | Calcium: 142mg | Iron: 0.1mg

Nutrition facts are estimates.

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