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Urnebes (Serbian Spicy Cheese Spread)
Salty white cheese mashed with kajmak, garlic, chopped hot peppers and crushed dried chilli into a fiery, rosy spread for bread and grilled meat, the way they make it in Niš.
Serbian · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 0 min · plus 30 min hands-off time
~261 cal · 13g protein · 5g carbs · 21g fat · 1g fiber · 2g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Urnebes means chaos or uproar in Serbian, a fair name for a spread that is thrown together by the handful and can be as hot as the cook dares. It is a dish of southern Serbia and above all of Niš, a city famous for its grills, where a bowl of urnebes goes on the table beside the ćevapi and pljeskavica along with bread and raw onion.
The base is white brined cheese, sheep's or cow's, mashed with a fork together with kajmak, the rich, salty clotted cream of the Balkans. Garlic goes in, and then the peppers: in the south they chop hot peppers fresh or roasted into it, while elsewhere in Serbia the heat comes from ground dried pepper, which turns the whole thing brick red. A little oil loosens it, and some cooks work in a roasted red pepper for sweetness.
Kajmak is hard to find outside the Balkans. A mix of cream cheese and soft butter gives the same rich, spreadable body.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 300 g white brined cheese (sheep’s or cow’s, feta type), full-fat, traditional brined cheeses are made with animal rennet; strict vegetarians should choose one made with microbial rennet
- 100 g kajmakHard to find? 100 g full-fat cream cheese beaten with soft butter (3 parts to 1) - rich and spreadable, without the aged tang of kajmak
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 to 3 fresh hot red peppers, finely chopped, seeds in for more heat
- 1 to 2 tsp crushed dried hot red pepper (chilli flakes)
- 1 roasted red pepper, peeled and finely chopped, optional, for sweetness
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- to taste salt, often none is needed
Instructions
- 1Crumble the cheese into a bowl and mash it with a fork until fine.
- 2Add the kajmak and keep mashing until the mixture is creamy but still a little rough.
- 3Work in the garlic, the chopped hot peppers, the chilli flakes and the roasted pepper if using, then the oil. Taste, and add salt only if the cheese needs it, and more chilli if you want it hotter.✎ Chef’s noteFor a smoother spread, pulse it briefly with a stick blender, but Niš cooks like to see the bits of pepper.
- 4Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes so the peppers colour and flavour the cheese.
- 5Serve cold with bread, grilled meat such as ćevapi or pljeskavica, and raw onion.
Southern Serbian tradition (Niš).
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Niš. Above all this is grill country. Leskovac, 45 kilometres to the south, calls itself the meat capital and holds its Roštiljijada grill festival every September, and the grill houses of Niš serve ćevapi and pljeskavica with bread, raw onion and a bowl of urnebes, the fiery cheese and pepper spread that the south makes with chopped hot peppers.
🗺️
Serbia. The slava, a family's annual feast for its patron saint, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2014, and it is the frame most Serbian celebration food sits inside: bread broken and turned by the household, wheat boiled with walnut and sugar, and a table laid whether or not visitors were invited. Sarma is Ottoman in origin, from the verb meaning to wrap, and it is shared across the Balkans rather than owned here.
🌍
Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Serbia
Pasulj (Serbian Bean Stew)Slow-cooked white beans with smoked pork, onion and paprika, finished with a fried-onion and paprika roux (zaprska) that gives the stew its deep colour and flavour.
Sarma (Sour Cabbage Rolls)Sour-cabbage leaves rolled around spiced meat and rice, braised low over smoked ribs, the dish that anchors every Serbian slava.
ProjaA crumbly Serbian cornbread studded with white cheese, baked until golden and eaten with kajmak.
Browse all Serbia recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it a Serbia meal
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VaniliceDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Urnebes (Serbian Spicy Cheese Spread)?
Salty white cheese mashed with kajmak, garlic, chopped hot peppers and crushed dried chilli into a fiery, rosy spread for bread and grilled meat, the way they make it in Niš.
Where does Urnebes (Serbian Spicy Cheese Spread) come from?
Urnebes (Serbian Spicy Cheese Spread) is a Serbian dish from Niš, Serbia.
Can Urnebes (Serbian Spicy Cheese Spread) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Urnebes (Serbian Spicy Cheese Spread) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Urnebes (Serbian Spicy Cheese Spread) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Urnebes (Serbian Spicy Cheese Spread) take to make?
About 45 min in all: 15 minutes prep and 0 minutes cooking, plus 30 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.
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