Turkey Appetizer

Rita~'s Note:

Turkey appetizer, No meat here! Just veggies arranged like a Turkey! No limits on how big or small you make this. My picture of this is a side view of the turkey. But by all means make it as you want. Asparagus would be really good in this. I made this again for Thanksgiving using cheeses and cold cuts. Just to show how flexible this recipe is. I did post the picture with the cheeses and meats but I did have to travel with it so it did get a little tossed around.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 10

Cream cheese spread

• 8 ounces cream cheese , softened
• 4 ounces cheddar cheese , cubed
• 4 ounces sour cream
• 1 teaspoon season salt
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Veggie Arrangement

• 1 bunch red leaf lettuce , washed and dried
• ½ zucchini , thinly sliced
• ½ yellow squash , thinly sliced
• 2 celery ribs , thinly sliced
• 4 radishes , thinly sliced
• ½ red onion , thinly sliced
• 4 mushrooms , thinly sliced
• ½ yellow pepper , thinly sliced

Optional

• cracker , to be used as an optional feather row (optional)
• pretzel , to be used as an optional feather row (optional)

Chest

• 3 sun-dried tomatoes

Head

• ½ radish

Eye

• 1 peppercorn

Waddle

• yellow pepper

Directions:

1. Cream cheese mixture:.
2. Mix all ingredients in a food processor till smooth add more paprika if you want.
3. Veggie arrangement:.
4. On a large platter arrange red lettuce leaves so red is on the outer edge. Then place the veggies like they are the feathers of the turkey. The large plume of feathers behind the turkey as I layered in rows are carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, red onions, and radishes.
5. The bottom feathers are yellow squash, zucchini, yellow peppers, and celery.
6. For the body I inverted a soup bowl and spread the cream cheese mixture over it. Use the mixture as a glue add radishes along the bottom in 2 rows follow with mushrooms adding till completely covering the bowl.
7. For the chest I placed 3 sun-dried tomato half's adhered with some of the cheese mixture on the body of mushrooms.
8. For the head place 1/2 of a radish (try to find one that is a long red radish) Spread some cheese mixture on the cut side and place just above the tomatoes.
9. For the wattle adhere a yellow pepper slice to the radish(head) with the cheese mixture. Place the remaining cheese mixture in a bowl for dipping. Enjoy!

Reviews

[Belebele]

Awesome!!!!!!

[Chef #1412815]

I made it for family thanksgiving get together. It definitely came out my own creation and was fun but a lot of prep work. Noone really munched on it and so I was left with tons of left over veggies along with the other t-day leftovers. Cool idea though.

[Mom on the move]

This has become a tradition in our family. The Thanksgiving table is never complete without Tom Turkey. Every year he looks a little different, based on what is available, but he never fails to show off strutting his stuff. Wonderful idea Thank you posting Rita.