Grape Tomato Cream Cheese Tulips

by Dorothy Reinhold on April 28, 2020


Print This Post Print This Post Grape Tomato Cream Cheese Tulips: A bunch of edible Tomato Tulips stuffed with garlicky chive cream cheese makes a pretty appetizer centerpiece for a special meal, a shower or party, or Mother’s Day.

Grape Tomato Cream Cheese Tulips: A bunch of edible Tomato Tulips stuffed with garlicky chive cream cheese makes a pretty appetizer centerpiece for a special meal, a shower or party, or Mother’s Day.

When you run across a clever, cute way to prepare fresh produce or crudites, sometimes you can’t get it out of your mind, right?

More than 10 years ago I found Tomato Tulips on a Polish food blog, and shared the idea with you in my Favorite Things for September 2012.

Grape Tomato Cream Cheese Tulips on a white plateThe idea has kept floating around in my head every time I buy grape tomatoes, or grow elongated cherry tomatoes, but I had never actually made them.

Bouquet of 6 red grape tomatoes stuffed with cream cheese with green onions inserted as flower stemsWhen to serve Tomato Tulips

I think of these each year for Mother’s Day, because they look like a lovely bouquet of flowers, but in truth, you can make and eat them all year long.

A bunch of these splayed out on a rectangular white serving plate would also made a divine appetizer centerpiece, or edible table decoration for a…

  • bridal shower
  • baby shower
  • patio party
  • graduation
  • Teacher appreciation week
  • Nurses week

Loose Grape Tomato Cream Cheese Tulips on a long white plateHow to make Tomato Tulips

1. It’s a very easy recipe. The center stuffing is simply garlicky, chivey, lemon-spiked cream cheese piped into a grape tomato with a slit at the top. A fresh scallion (green onion) gets inserted to act as the tulip stem.

2. If you want to make it a faster 3-ingredient recipe, in place of the cream cheese, chives, garlic, salt and lemon, you could use Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs cheese that you have whipped with a bit of room-temperature cream cheese or a splash of cream so it is pipe-able. Boursin can be a bit crumbly on its own, so the cream cheese or cream helps to make it creamier.  So your shortcut three ingredients would be tomatoes, Boursin and green onions. 

Voila! How fun is that?

Six Grape Tomato Cream Cheese Tulips with green onions as stemsLet’s all make them this year. In my book, it’s the year of the tulip.

Grape Tomato Cream Cheese Tulips

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 10-12

Grape Tomato Cream Cheese Tulips

A bunch of edible Tomato Tulips stuffed with garlicky chive cream cheese makes a pretty appetizer centerpiece for a special meal, a shower or party, or Mother’s Day.

Ingredients

  • 2 bunches green onions
  • 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
  • 15 chives
  • 1 large garlic clove
  • Pinch kosher salt
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 pint grape tomatoes

Directions

  1. Cut off the roots and ends of the green onion
  2. Prepare the stuffing: Put the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and let it sit out about 30 minutes, to come to room temperature. Finely mince chives and add them to the bowl. Press garlic (or finely mince it) and add it to the bowl. Add salt and lemon juice and mix at medium-high speed until well blended and whipped into a lighter texture.
  3. Prepare the tomatoes: Using a skewer, poke a hole in the stem side of each tomato. Keeping the stem side down, make a cross (2 slices) 1/2 of the way down the tomato. Using a small spoon (or the tip of an old fruit peeler) scoop out the seeds from the inside of tomato and discard them.
  4. Fill a pastry bag with the cream cheese mixture, and pipe the mixture into the cut end of each tomato, filling it up. (If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can rig one up by using a small zipper-top plastic bag and snipping a tiny corner off to act as the nozzle.)
  5. Insert a green onion into the hole at the stem end of the tomato. (Enlarge the hole a bit if needed with a wooden chopstick.)
  6. Arrange tomato tulips on a serving platter.
  7. Makes at least a dozen, depending on size.

Notes

Recipe credit: Adapted slightly from The Hotel Saugatuck, in Saugatuck, Michigan. Photos by Sean Kramer.

SHORTCUT: In place of the cream cheese, chives, garlic, salt and lemon, you could use Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs cheese that you have whipped with a bit of room-temperature cream cheese or a splash of cream so it is pipe-able. Boursin can be a bit crumbly on its own, so the cream cheese or cream helps to make it creamier.

https://www.shockinglydelicious.com/grape-tomato-cream-cheese-tulips/

This recipe was developed by The Hotel Saugatuck, a luxury bed and breakfast in Saugatuck, Michigan, for their guests, to coincide with a nearby tulip festival. Tulip Time, a week-long festival that features 5 million blooming tulips, is quite the attraction for the whole area, and features parades, concerts, arts and crafts, distillery tours, trolley tours, and more. It’s held in the nearby town of Holland, the European namesake, and is one of the most beautiful American towns. “USA Today” named it as 2016’s Best Flower Festival.

areyoupinningPin the image below for Tomato Tulips to your Pinterest board to save it

Edible Grape Tomato Cream Cheese Tulips on Shockinglydelicious.com

Other Shockingly Delicious recipes that use Grape Tomatoes or Cherry Tomatoes

Tuna Tomato Pasta Dinner for Two on Shockingly DeliciousTuna Tomato Pasta Dinner for Two

Fruit Salad with Tomatoes in a white bowl on a green napkin atop a bright yellow surface on ShockinglyDeliciousFruit Salad with Tomato

Cherry Tomato and Preserved Lemon SaladCherry Tomato and Preserved Lemon Salad

Crispy Ravioli in Cherry Tomato Sauce on ShockinglyDelicious.comCrispy Ravioli in Cherry Tomato Sauce

Thanks to the hotel for sharing their recipe, and to Sean Kramer for allowing the use of his photos.

This post was originally published April 30, 2017 and has been refreshed and republished today.

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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }

Manju Mahadevan May 2, 2017 at 3:06 pm

I just cant get over the fact that they are so pretty! Too pretty to eat 🙂

Reply

Aish Das-Padihari May 2, 2017 at 1:08 pm

These are gorgeous. Saving this recipe as well and the best part is they are so easy to assemble.

Reply

Dorothy Reinhold May 2, 2017 at 2:39 pm

Aish,
I agree! It’s a big payoff in creative food for minor effort!

Reply

katerina @ diethood.com May 2, 2017 at 3:33 am

What a fantastic idea!! They are absolutely gorgeous!!

Reply

Judy @ My Well Seasoned Life May 1, 2017 at 9:14 pm

Love, love, love this idea!!!!. As gorgeous as they are delicious. Thanks

Reply

Dorothy Reinhold May 1, 2017 at 10:21 pm

Jude,
You could rock this.

Reply

Dee May 1, 2017 at 8:05 pm

I would love it if my family made these for Mother’s Day. Super cute!

Reply

Terri Steffes May 1, 2017 at 8:01 pm

I saw these on the Sunday Supper Facebook page. They are super cute and I bet they are delicious, too!

Reply

Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet May 1, 2017 at 7:03 pm

Oh my goodness, those are so adorable!

Reply

Lisa | Garlic & Zest May 1, 2017 at 4:39 pm

These are so clever! I have a feeling the kids would go nuts for this!

Reply

Janette@CulinaryGinger.com May 1, 2017 at 4:07 pm

I can’t get over how creative and cute these are. So perfect for spring entertaining.

Reply

Patricia @ Grab a Plate May 1, 2017 at 3:32 pm

These are so, so adorable! Now I bet I’ll be thinking of them until I make them!

Reply

sue | theviewfromgreatisland May 1, 2017 at 3:07 pm

Dorothy great minds think alike, I recently saw these on Pinterest and made a Boursin version, coming up on the blog ~ I love yours!

Reply

Dorothy Reinhold May 1, 2017 at 10:22 pm

Sue,
Yeah, I have a bit in the recipe where I recommend Boursin!

Reply

Cathy A May 1, 2017 at 2:17 pm

SO adorable!

Reply

Matt @ Plating Pixels May 1, 2017 at 1:58 pm

Tulips are our favorite flowers. What a fun and beautiful presentation!

Reply

Marci Slade Crestani May 1, 2017 at 1:43 pm

I LOVE this idea!!!! It’s soooo sweet……and looks like it’s pretty darn tasty too!!!! Will be trying it……
Thanks, Dorothy!!!

Reply

Dorothy Reinhold May 1, 2017 at 10:23 pm

Marci,
I want to see pictures!

Reply

Lindsay Cotter May 1, 2017 at 12:37 pm

These grape tomato cream cheese tulips are so pretty! They’ll make a lovely presentation to any celebration food table!

Reply

Jen May 1, 2017 at 12:15 pm

What a beautiful appetizer!

Reply

Chef Mireille May 1, 2017 at 11:12 am

absolutely gorgeous – great idea for parties

Reply

Amy @ Little Dairy on the Prairie May 1, 2017 at 11:09 am

These are so fun for Mother’s Day! They are adorable!

Reply

Des @ Life's Ambrosia May 1, 2017 at 11:06 am

These are too cute!! love it!

Reply

Prasanna Hede May 1, 2017 at 9:33 am

These are so adorable and so easy to make. Lovely recipe.

Reply

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