A cheese basket is a magic box that helps you turn a salad you’ve gotten tired of into a restaurant dish! It’s easy to prepare, looks gorgeous, and is also very tasty!

Any familiar dish can be turned into a chic dish if you serve it not in a traditional salad bowl, but in an openwork cheese tartlet. This presentation will impress your guests. Be sure to prepare cheese baskets for your beloved man for a romantic evening; the recipe with photos and videos at the end of the article will help you master all the tricks.

How to make cheese baskets

For unusual tartlets you will need hard cheese. Connoisseurs of the recipe for cheese baskets for salad recommend Parmesan, but you can use another variety, the main thing is that the cheese is hard and good quality. To form the baskets, you will need cups so that the cheese does not stick; they can be greased with vegetable oil.

You need to grate the cheese on a fine grater, and then arrange the resulting shavings in neat circles on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. There is no need to make the circles too small - the diameter should be such that the circle covers the bottom and covers the walls of the glass by 2-3 cm. If you want to make miniature snacks, take vodka shot glasses and form small “edible dishes”.

The preparations should be placed in a preheated oven. Preparing cheese baskets takes literally a matter of minutes - the cheese should melt and turn into a single mass.

The hot cake must be removed with a spatula, placed at the bottom of the glass and formed into a tartlet. After the baskets have cooled and become hard, remove them and prepare the filling.

Filling for cheese baskets

A cheese basket can contain almost anything, but it’s better not to take risks and not to use salads with a lot of sauce, as well as juicy vegetable fillings. To be on the safe side, the salad should be placed in an edible mold immediately before serving.

Chicken and mushroom filling goes well with the cheese taste. To prepare it chicken fillet finely chopped and mixed with finely chopped onions. The whole thing is marinated in soy sauce and then fried. Pickled honey mushrooms and a little mayonnaise are also added here.

As a filling for cheese baskets, you can use a salad of squid, eggs and fresh cucumber - such a salad is both tasty and light. Soft curd cheese mixed with herbs and spices is great for filling. You can also use shrimp-based salads.

Now you know how to make a cheese basket. Don't be afraid to experiment - try different fillings, surprise your guests and pamper yourself!

There are many original ways serving appetizers and salads to a festive table or buffet table. And cheese baskets are perhaps the most spectacular of all. Your guests will appreciate the unusual decoration, which also gives the dish a piquant taste. We will tell you how to make cheese baskets, and also give recipes for delicious fillings for them.

Preparing the base

Cheese baskets It's very easy to prepare. And if the first attempt ends in failure, then the second will certainly be successful. How to do:

Cheese baskets stuffed with shrimp

This appetizer will most likely appeal to the female half of your guests. Thanks to the vegetables and seafood included in its composition, it turns out very light and delicious. Recipe for cheese baskets with shrimp:

Baskets with curd cheese

For this dish we will use another method of preparing the cheese base. The peculiarity of this recipe is that you can prepare several small baskets at once. To do this, preheat the oven, cover a baking sheet with baking parchment and place several circles of small diameter cheese on it at once. The finished cheese baskets should be small, as they say, “about one tooth.” When the base begins to melt, remove it from the stove and place it on inverted shot glasses. For the filling, mix 100 grams curd cheese, two cloves of garlic and chopped dill. Mix the ingredients, place them in baskets and garnish with bell pepper slices.

Hearty baskets of cheese and flour

If you have time and want to make dense cheese tartlets, then use the following recipe:

You can fill these baskets with a hearty salad. To do this, chop 200 grams of smoked sausage, 100 grams of hard cheese, one or two pickles, 150 grams of pickled champignons and 50 grams of chopped walnuts. Mix the prepared products and season them with mayonnaise or sour cream to taste.

Cheese baskets stuffed with chicken and mushrooms

The products we chose for the filling go perfectly with the cheese base. Recipe for cheese baskets with a hearty salad:

• Prepare light tartlets in a frying pan or in the oven, then shape them using two shot glasses. To do this, place the cake on one of them, and put the second on top. You should end up with bell-shaped cheese baskets.
• To make the salad, chop and fry 300 grams of mushrooms in a frying pan, cut 300 grams of boiled chicken into cubes. Mix the products and place them in a thin layer on the bottom of the baskets and brush with a thin layer of mayonnaise.
• For the next layer, boil and chop three eggs, and place red onion half rings on it.
• Decorate the baskets with olive rings and fresh herbs.

Quick filling options

To quickly prepare snacks for guests, every housewife should be armed with recipes for quick snacks:

Conclusion

Cheese baskets, the recipe with photos of which you see in our article, can be made a real decoration for a buffet table or a festive feast. Therefore, feel free to go through familiar ingredients and experiment with new fillings. After this, you can make a small cheat sheet for yourself, in which you will include the most quick recipes. We are confident that the result will make a strong impression on your guests, and everyone will be able to choose a treat to their liking.

1. First we will need to make cheese baskets. The salad will need to set before being served. You will need a flat plate. Spread the bottom with butter. Grate a small portion of the cheese onto a plate using a fine grater. Lay out a circle with a diameter of about 12 cm. Place the plate in the microwave or in a preheated oven until the cheese melts.

2. Take out a plate with melted cheese and leave it for the cheese to cool slightly. Prepare glasses of the desired shape for the basket. Carefully remove the cheese wheel from the plate. Place the circle on the glass and give it the desired shape.

3. Place the glass of cheese in the refrigerator so that the cheese completely hardens and takes the desired shape. In this way we prepare all the baskets and put them in the refrigerator. The cheese baskets will look like in the photo.

4. Now we are preparing the salad for our basket. I already said that you can put any salad in the basket. It can be vegetable or meat. Chicken or seafood salads go well with cheese. I give you an example of a simple salad. Clean the squid carcass, rinse it and place it in a bowl. Pour boiling water over for 3-5 minutes. Pour out the water and add boiling water again. After this, cut the carcass into strips. Cut the cucumbers into strips too. Boil the eggs, peel and finely chop. Mix everything, add salt to taste, season with mayonnaise and put in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Before serving, place the salad in baskets and decorate to your liking. They eat the salad along with the “tara”.

A cheese plate for a salad, or, as people call it, a cheese basket, is a wonderful invention of chefs that allows you to turn the banal serving of salads in a salad bowl into an original and very tasty one.

The cheese salad basket looks very beautiful and unusual.

This creative idea will truly decorate your holiday table.

This option is designed for portion serving, so it’s more convenient to make a cheese basket in a small format, so that you don’t have to break it together for everyone, but just eat your whole thing.

Making cheese baskets is easy.

Just remember that they will need to harden before you put the salad on display.

You can make openwork (thinner) or regular (more dense) cheese salad bowls from hard cheeses.

The more cheese, the denser and thicker your cheese basket will be.

Thick baskets are used to decorate salads that are already seasoned with mayonnaise and can flow, and openwork baskets are used for portioned fruit salads that are topped with whipped cream already on the plate.

Cheese baskets can be prepared with different spices and additives.

For example, if you mix cheese with finely chopped dill, you will get plates of cheese with green specks.

You can add toasted sesame seeds, then the baskets will be even crispier.

Fans of spicy notes will love garlic. Or simply season the cheese with freshly ground black pepper.

If you want to make denser baskets, then you need to add a little starch to the cheese. For 200 g of cheese shavings, take a heaping tablespoon of potato or corn starch.

You can prepare cheese baskets on the eve of the holiday and put them in the refrigerator.

Cheese salad bowls should be filled with filling immediately before serving.

You cannot put hot dishes in such “containers”, otherwise the cheese will melt and your edible salad bowl will lose its shape.

Read step by step recipes cheese baskets.

How to make a cheese basket in the microwave

For 4 servings you will need 400 g of hard cheese, a Parmesan cheese basket works well, and a flat plate. Spread the bottom with butter.

1. Grate a small part of the cheese on a fine grater onto a plate. Lay out a circle with a diameter of about 12 cm.

2. Microwave the plate until the cheese melts.

3. Remove the plate with the melted cheese and leave it to cool slightly. Prepare glasses of the desired shape for the basket.

4. Carefully remove the cheese wheel from the plate. Place it on a glass or cup and shape it into the desired shape.

5. Place the glass of cheese in the refrigerator so that the cheese completely hardens.

Cooking a cheese basket in a frying pan

1. Grate hard cheese on a coarse grater. Place on a dry non-stick frying pan.

2. Heat slowly over low heat. Once the cheese has melted and begins to bubble, remove from heat and place on a cold surface (a towel soaked in ice water).

Do not allow the cheese to fry, otherwise a golden brown crust will form on the cheese plate, which should not be there.

3. Once the cheesecake has cooled slightly and stopped bubbling, carefully remove it with a wide spatula onto an inverted glass, greased with butter, pressing with a paper towel and shaping the edges.

This method will also help remove excess fat that will melt out of the cheese.

4. Place the entire structure in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Help make preparing cheese plates easier silicone molds for muffins or small salad bowls.

Place the hot cheese cake in a greased container and press down with the bottom of the glass.

Place the molds with the preparations in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and cool well.

Carefully remove the finished cheese baskets from the molds and arrange the salads.

Enjoy the taste of your cold appetizers, complemented by the aroma and piquancy of cheese.

Cheese baskets are made mainly from hard varieties of cheese, which have the ability to quickly harden and hold their shape. It can be Parmesan, Cantal, Soviet, cheddar, Poshekhonsky, Kostroma variety, etc. They differ significantly from each other in taste. In order to please guests, it is better to choose cheese with a medium salt content. Also pay attention to the fat content of the cheese, since a variety that is too fatty will result in high-calorie baskets.

How to prepare a cheese basket for salads:

To make cheese baskets, you will need a flat pan on which to melt the cheese. Use a plate if you plan to microwave the product, or a small oven-safe skillet.

Grease the mold with butter and grate the cheese on a fine grater so that no crumbs or small pieces form.

Next, distribute it across the plate so that there is more cheese mass in the center and less at the edges. You will get a container with a dense bottom and thin edges. Please note that the diameter of the dish is the size of the future basket. Therefore, it is better to decide on this in advance.

Place the plate in the microwave or the frying pan in a preheated oven and wait for the cheese to melt.

When you hear a characteristic crackling sound, this will mean that the cheese has melted to the required consistency. After this, very carefully lift the cheese pancake with a spatula and place it on a glass or cup.

The edges of the resulting mass should sag on the sides. While the cheese has not yet hardened, it is necessary to form the sides of the basket.

This can be done using a regular fork or special devices that help create a beautiful relief.

Remove the resulting form and place it in the refrigerator to further harden. You can add sesame seeds, dill, any herbs and greens to your taste. This will add sophistication to your appetizer.

How to fill a cheese basket

When the cheese baskets are ready, you should think about the filling. There are a lot of options. If you are a seafood lover, then do cocktail of mussels, shrimp and squid, sprinkling them with lemon juice. You can also do salad from any type of meat and tomato. Cheese goes well with some fruits or nuts. For example, if you fill a cheese basket grapes, pear and add walnuts , then guests will appreciate such a treat. Delicious filling will mushrooms with fried onions and buckwheat. You can experiment endlessly. However, do not forget that the filling should not be wet. Otherwise, the cheese will begin to spread and lose its shape. It is better to lay out the filling immediately before serving and store the dish in the refrigerator. Cheese baskets are great not only for adults, but also for children's tables, as children like unusual ways to decorate dishes. If you have extra baskets left, you can leave them in the freezer and use them next time.