grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Smoked Cheddar Cheese Grits Souffle

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smoked cheddar grits souffle
This is my favorite grits recipe. And we Girls Raised In The South love our grits.
Great as a breakfast food or brunch dish, it also works as a main vegetarian course for supper with a basic green salad. Add grilled shrimp or ribs with a side of collard greens and your husband will propose to you again. 
A perfect side with your Thanksgiving turkey. 
Very versatile, this is the most requested dish in my house any season of the year loved by my vegetarian daughter and carnivore son/husband.
Ingredients:
Serves 8
1 1/2 cups quick grits (the five minute grits)
1 pound of smoked cheddar cheese, grated (Tillamook is my favorite)
3/4 cups butter 
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Worcestershire Sauce (to taste)
Cayenne Pepper (to taste)
•   Grate the cheese. This is the hardest part. I can never find smoked cheddar cheese already grated. And it must be smoked. And it must be grated so that it will melt smoothly.
•   Preheat the oven to 350F. 
•   Cook grits according to directions on box. (3 to 1 ratio works for me. 3 times the water as dry grits.)
•   Once the grits are done, stir in the butter. You can eat it now, but then you won’t be able to say you made a soufflé. Every southern girl wants to make a soufflé.
•   Temper your eggs. This means, pour a tiny bit of the egg mixture into the hot grits mixture whisking like crazy. Then pour a bit more. And so on until all the egg mixture is incorporated. If you pour all the eggs in at once, you will have scrambled eggs on top of your grits. If this happens, you may as well throw on a strip of bacon and call it a breakfast bowl like some odd dish at a fast food restaurant. Or start over.
•    Add cheese and stir. If you eat them now you will have cheesy grits – yum. Of course at this stage there are raw eggs inside. Some frown on this, but raw cookie dough (with raw eggs) has never killed me, so I say at least have a few bites. Plus you’re gonna want to lick the spoon. Like chocolate cake batter. 
•   Add the dry mustard, Worcestershire and cayenne to taste. I like it spicy, but a little goes a long way.
•   Pour into a shallow 2-quart baking dish. No need to grease because there is so much butter in the mixture. Bake for about 30-35 minutes until it sets.
You can add other ingredients to it such as chopped peppers, onions or a different type of cheese. But why? Everyone will rave about this. It’s that good. 

Give your farmhands (that is, your children) cold cereal for breakfast and see how many rows they hoe. Make them a pot of grits and butter, and they’ll hoe till dinner and be glad to do it. – Janis Owens, The Cracker Kitchen

 This is Day 5 (last day!) of BLOGtober Fest with Arkansas Women Bloggers. Theme (Foodie Friday) Favorite Fall Recipes…

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Comments

  5. LOVE cheese grits! Haven’t tried them with smoked cheese, but that sounds divine!
    thanks for sharing a treasured recipe!!
    Amanda

  6. Julia Childs doesn’t have anything up on you girl! I bought some grits when I first started reading your blog nearly a year ago but I haven’t tried it yet. I have about a month before the expiration date. LOL! This recipe sounds like a good time to give it a try.

  9. The one time I tried grits I didn’t care for them but combined with cheese, they might be fantastic! I might try this recipe to see if I change my tune on grits.

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