The Best Thing to Do to Your Trader Joe’s Cheese? Marinate It

Everyone's got a story about what got them hooked on Trader Joe's. Maybe it was the vanilla-filled Jo Jo's. Or the free samples of frozen dinners waiting at the end of every aisle. Or the cheap (and pretty good!) whole bean coffee. But if you're anything like me, it's the cheese that keeps you coming back.

For Trader Joe’s shoppers with a pulse (ourselves definitely included), the inexpensive, eclectic, and cute-as-curds cheese cooler is a non-negotiable pit stop during a TJ's shopping trip. There’s a cheddar with cranberries stuck right in it! There’s a goat cheese with a cute drawing on it! Hole-y Jarlsberg, Joe!

And reader, there’s a way for you to love the TJ’s cheese trove even more.

I don’t mean geographically arranging your cheese and crackers spread on a giant printed out map or throwing six different types onto a pizza. No, it gets better than that, and it’s called marinating.

Marinating?! For cheese? Gouda almighty, did you think that marinades were just for meat? Marinating cheese turns even the most basic of cheeses into a flavor-saturated powerhouse. It turns a regular old hunk of cheese into a snack you’ll crave more than TJ’s cookies. In short, it’s how to love your cheese haul even more than you thought possible.

You only need one type of cheese to pull this off and a few pantry staples.

Take out your cheese haul and a large mixing bowl. If you have a firmer cheese—cheddar, Parm, gouda—cut it into bite-sized cubes before throwing it into the base of the mixing bowl. If it’s a softer cheese—think chevre—you can use your hands to pull off little pieces and either roll them into balls or just toss them in there all irregular-like. Feta is just right for marination, but a soft bloomy cheese with a rind (like brie) won’t absorb the flavors well. Cover the cheese with olive oil and the aromatics of your choice—black pepper, preserved lemon, orange peels, dried chiles, bay leaves, or hard, woody herbs like rosemary or thyme. Rule of thumb: if it usually tastes good with cheese, it’ll taste even better in the cheese.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pop it in the fridge, and let the cheese marinate for twelve hours (at least, but longer is fine too!) so it can get real friendly with all of the different flavors you’ve added, and—bang-a-rang!—your marinated cheese is ready to go just about anywhere.

Soft cheeses like feta and chevre get even more spreadable after a rest in the marinade, making them prime for slathering across toast, mixing into a creamy dressing for a bean salad, or as a rich, zesty sandwich topping. You can also take those mini fresh mozzarella balls (so cute, right??) and marinate them (oregano and fennel seed couldn't hurt) for a punchy way to top a frozen pizza (bonus points if it's from TJ's, natch).

Semi-firm cheeses, like manchego, gouda, or cheddar, have their nutty flavor complemented by those aromatic add-ons. Soaked in olive oil and orange marmalade (just trust me, it's good), marinated manchego makes an amazeballs small bite. Fish those little nuggets of goodness out of the marinade and put them on a plate, set out some cured meats, a few cans of sardines, and some toasted bread and you've got the fanciest-seeming quick tapas dinner of all time, all without lifting a finger. Take that, Tuesday night!

All this talk of dinner getting you thirsty? Lucky for you, it’s just a skip over to the wine section.

Try this marinated goat cheese on for size, why don't you:

Marinated Goat Cheese with Herbs and Spices

And once you're finished with that, this marinated feta is pretty dope, too: