As the title suggests, this cheese has a lot going on. But also, as I confirmed with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday, this vegan cheese has got it going on. Most notably going on here: pumpkin! Not that the flavor is super-pumpkiny, but pumpkin isn’t normally a thing you’d find in vegan cheese. Here’s the funny thing though: I made this way back in mid-October and froze it for Thanksgiving. Then, when I served it as a pre-Thanksgiving dinner appetizer, my family, who loved it, quizzed me on what was in it, and I totally forgot about the whole pumpkin thing. I was all, “Oh, just the usual, some cashews, nutritional yeast…that kind of stuff.” It was definitely smoother and more orange than normal though, and I couldn’t figure out why! Then when I went to write this post, I referred to my trusty kitchen notebook, and there it was – pumpkin! The other thing that’s different, though not so different for me, is the smoky flavor. (Here’s my other use of smoky vegan cheese on this site.) I got it in my head that I needed to make a smoky vegan cheddar. At some point a few years back I had a regular old smoked cheddar and loved it, but since I gave up regular old cheese shortly after that, I haven’t had a chance to enjoy it. I’m also really into the whole flavoring up my food with liquid smoke thing. A lot. I’m sure you’ve noticed. (No apologies!) So smoky vegan cheddar it was, and since the end-of-year holidays are just about upon us, I decided to get all festive with some herbs, which were delicious, even if I’m not the most skilled of herb-crusters. (I dressed up the wheel a lot for the pics. In real life it wasn’t quite as pretty.) Since Thanksgiving is over, maybe you can make it for the end-of-year holidays. It’s perfect Christmas/New Year’s material — savory, creamy, (potentially) nice to look at, and perfectly spreadable on a cracker. What this is not, is sliceable. Maybe someday I’ll work on a sliceable vegan cheese recipe, but for now, I find the spreadable variety just as delicious, while requiring less fuss.
