There was a time when nothing made me happier than a big toasted everything bagel slathered in cream cheese. So good! I never thought I’d find a vegan substitute for my old breakfast favorite. That was all before I started stockpiling cashews in my kitchen. Cashews are pretty amazing when it comes to making vegan versions of all things dairy. Cashews can be turned into cheese balls, cheesecakes, creamy sauces, and everything in between. As luck would have it, they also worked perfectly in this vegan cream cheese recipe.
What You’ll Need
Raw cashews. It’s important that they’re raw. This means they are not roasted. Roasting brings out the nutty flavor in cashews, which we don’t want here.Lemon juice. Please use freshly-squeezed juice! It will give your cheese the best flavor.Salt.Water. This may not be necessary, but you can add a splash if you have a hard time getting your cashews to blend up, or just want to thin your cashew cream cheese a bit.Add-ins. If you’d like, add in some of your favorite ingredients to make flavored cream cheese. I’m partial to chives. Other fresh herbs, strawberries, veggies, and hot peppers are some other add-ins you can try!
How to Make Vegan Cream Cheese
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make cashew cream cheese. Scroll down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!
Place your cashews in a bowl and cover them with water. Let them soak for 4 to 8 hours. This softens them up so they blend easily!
Rinse and drain your soaked cashews, transfer them to a blending device, and add lemon juice and salt. Blend until creamy! This can take a while, and the time will depend on how powerful your blender or food processor is. Be patient! Be sure to stop the machine from time to time and scrape down the inside with a rubber scraper.Tip: Unless you’re using a small blending device, I don’t recommend cutting down on the batch size. You might not be able to get it all to blend. Instead, make the full-sized batch and freeze some for later.
If you’d like to make flavored vegan cream cheese, throw in your add-ins now.Pulse the machine to mix everything up. I’ve added some chives in the photos below.
Taste-test your vegan cream cheese and make any adjustments you like — more salt, lemon juice, or add-ins. Now slather it on a bagel and dig in!
Shelf-Life & Storage
Homemade plant-based cream cheese will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for about 5 days, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
More Vegan Cheese Recipes
Vegan Mozzarella CheeseNacho Sweet Potato CheeseVegan Parmesan CheeseMaple Dijon Vegan Cheese BallVegan Ricotta Cheese
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title: “Easy Vegan Cream Cheese” ShowToc: true date: “2024-10-22” author: “Angel Morris”
What Makes This Recipe So Good
The food processor (or blender) does all the work for you! Throw all ingredients in there and in under a minute you’ll have homemade vegan cream cheese.It pairs well with virtually anything. Spread some on a bagel for breakfast, add a dollop to a salad, or dip your veggies in it.It’s customizable to your favorite cream cheese flavor! Add a handful of herbs, chopped veggies, or even a dash of cinnamon and brown sugar for a sweet vegan spread.
Key Ingredients
Raw Unsalted Cashews – It is extremely important that your cashews are both raw and unsalted. You might have to do some digging at the grocery store for these but they’re the main character of this vegan cream cheese recipe. Lemon Juice – Offers that tanginess you get from traditional cream cheese. If you don’t have any lemon juice on-hand, white or apple cider vinegar will work in its place. Unsweetened Plain Non-Dairy Yogurt – Can be made from coconuts, soy, almonds, cashews etc. As long as it’s unsweetened (no sugar at all!) and plain vegan yogurt, it’ll work!
Chef’s Tips
The longer you soak your cashews, the better. I soaked mine in hot water for three hours and the result is incredibly soft and easy to blend cashews.If you’re having trouble blending your cream cheese, add in a little more non-diary yogurt a tablespoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency.Play around with the seasoning. Start conservatively with the salt and add more as you’d like. Feel free to add any other spices you’d like, too – really make this vegan cream cheese your own!
Other Easy Vegan Recipes
Vegan NutellaHealthy Vegan Chocolate TrufflesBest Vegan QuesoVegan EnchiladasThe Best Vegan Alfredo SauceVegan Latkas
