Vegan cream cheese

Do you have an expensive addiction to vegan cheeses? Hold onto your seats. This one’s a gamechanger.

Cream cheese is so good on toast, sandwiches, rolls and wraps but some of the nut-based cheeses are so expensive you need to take out a new mortgage. It’s understandable that those artisanal cheeses are so $$$ as a lot of quality ingredients and hard work goes into making them but when you’re on a budget, in a hurry, or live somewhere where good vegan cheeses aren’t yet available, here’s one for you.

You don’t need to wait for nuts to soak overnight or pfaff around with 101 obscure ingredients. The base mix has just six ingredients & you can get this done in <10 minutes.

Ingredients (makes a small tub ~300g of cream cheese)
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup plant based milk of your choice
120g firm tofu cut into cubes
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt

Optional flavourings:
Add a clove garlic or a pinch of garlic powder and/or onion powder, handful of finely chopped chives, some dill would be amazing.

1. Before doing anything else, pop the cashews in a heat proof bowl and cover them with boiling water. Set aside to soak for a few minutes while you get all the other ingredients sorted.

2. Just before you’re ready to blend, drain the cashews and pop them in a highspeed blender (e.g., Nutribullet) with all the other ingredients. Blend to a smooth paste. You may need to scrape down the sides and blitz once or twice until you get the desired texture.

You can enjoy this cheese immediately or store in the fridge in an air-tight container. It gets better with time. I’m still going on a batch I made >a week ago & it is *chef’s kiss*

This vegan cream cheese is delicious spread on toast with tomatoes and some basil and rocket from the garden. Sprinkle over some more nooch, pepper & olive oil if you’re feeling extra bougie.

Add a little more plant-based milk to make a dip-like consistency. Perfect with little dippers made from leftover bread.