A quick and tasty vegan cream cheese recipe
The blending time for this recipe is 5 minutes, but you have to allow for soaking the cashews overnight first, and then 2 days’ fermenting afterwards.
However as this is SO good, I really wanted you to be able to make it. Especially as it tastes a lot like cream cheese…but even better!
Vegan cream cheese recipe
Makes 2 cups/480ml of soft cheese.
You will need:
A blender or hand blender
A strainer
Cheesecloth, muslin or pantyhose (this works, I’m not joking!)
Ingredients for the cheese base
- 2 cups/340g cashews, soaked overnight (or if you have a VitaMix, 30 minutes is plenty)
- 1 cup/240ml water
- 1 teaspoon probiotics (if you buy capsules, use 5 capsules, see tips) OR 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Ingredients to add after fermenting
- 2 green onions, sliced OR a handful of chopped chives…or both
- ½ small red onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- one crushed garlic clove, or ½ teaspoon garlic powder
How you do it
Blend ‘cheese ingredients’ and pour into your cheesecloth, muslin or pantyhose with the strainer underneath and a bowl beneath that to catch the ‘juice’.
Tie the top of the cloth with a rubber band and place a weight on top – you want it to be just heavy enough to let the water run out. I usually use a 16oz/500 g bag of beans, that does the trick. Most of the water will come out fairly quickly anyway.
Leave to sit in a warm place for 1-2 days – but not longer than 48 hours.
Scoop your cheese out into a glass bowl.
Mix in your veggies and spices, grab some flax crackers or veggie sticks, and dig in!
Rocking Raw Chef tips
- You can make ‘chili cheese’ or ‘italian style cheese’ by adding different spices.
- You can also add in grated carrot or chopped peppers.
- If you like your cheese extra ‘cheesy’, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast.
- Your cheese will keep in the refrigerator for at least a week.
- The probiotics that I use are found in health food stores. Just ask for acidophilus capsules. You can read more about probiotics and foods that contain them (both vegan and non vegan sources) here.
Want more recipes like this?
More gorgeous recipes are in my Raw Food Bumper Assortment collection.
Enjoy your rockin’ vegan cream cheese recipe!
And of course, let me know what you think in the comments!
