Ginger is our ingredient of the season. You can find a variety of drink, main dish, and dessert ginger recipes here. This is the second ginger spread pairing that we’re sharing.

Today we’re coming at you with a suggestion to spice up your holiday cheese plate.

If you don’t know it already, putting out a good cheese plate, or taking one to your next party is a sure-fire way to gain admirers. Our trick is to pair your cheeses with the right condiment.

What are we talking about? It could be honey with a parmesan. Cheddar with apple butter. Brie with tomato jam (also a favorite with cheddar!).

This season we’re all about Saint André + ginger.

Saint André is an extremely rich, brie-like cheese. We’re only half-joking when we tell newbs that they’re spreading butter on their crackers. It pairs beautifully with the sweet and fiery ginger spread.

Saint André can be a pricey cheese, but we often find it at a good price at Trader Joe’s. And we pick up the Ginger People ginger spread at our local market, but you can also find it online.

Since we were using just the single cheese + ginger spread, we poured the spread directly over the cheese. To do this, we thinned the spread slightly by adding a touch of water and *barely* heating it in the microwave (maybe 20 seconds). We wanted it to be more spreadable, but we really didn’t want to cook it. It was almost warm to the touch. We then poured the thinned spread over the cheese, and as you can see, it was still thick enough to coat a portion of the cheese without pooling on the board.

The spread would also be great straight from the jar. You could put the jar on the cheese plate or transfer it to a nice ramekin.

As you can see, we added a few cranberries to this simple plate for a bit of color and touch of fall. But since the cranberries aren’t edible, I could see replacing them with other fruit for color and some walnuts or pecans that would be incredible with the ginger.

In my opinion, the spread is also delicious with a good, sharp cheddar. And probably a blue. Just get a pile of cheese and go to town.