Totally vegan cream cheese? Heck yeah! It’s not only possible…it’s delicious too! This dreamy dairy-free cashew cream cheese will make you a believer!
There was a time when nothing made me happier than a big toasted everything bagel slathered in cream cheese. So good! I might even take a cream cheesy bagel over ice cream. That’s how much I loved it. And then there was a time when I cut out dairy and thought I’d never again be able to enjoy a bagel slathered in cream cheese. Such a bummer.
That was all before I started stockpiling cashews in my kitchen. Because, they’re pretty amazing when it comes to making vegan versions of all things dairy (cheese balls, cheesecakes, creamy sauces, and everything in between). So that’s what I used when I decided to try whipping up some vegan cream cheese.
It worked out great! Cashew cream cheese is delicious. It was way easier to make than I’d even imagined, it tasted just as good on a bagel as the dairy-based cream cheese I used to love, and it only requires three ingredients. Plus maybe water, and any stir-ins you like!
You start by soaking some raw cashews. This softens them so they blend up nicely.
Transfer your soaked cashews to the food processor, and add lemon juice and salt. Blend until creamy!
You can recreate your favorite cream cheese flavor by including some stir-ins. My favorite cream cheese flavor was always chive, so that’s what I used, but feel free to get creative.
Slather it on a bagel (or crackers, or veggies…whatever floats your boat) and enjoy.
Tips for Making Awesome Vegan Cashew Cream Cheese…
- Be patient when blending! It can take a while, especially if you don’t have a high-powered blending device. But it’s totally doable!
- In other recipes that use cashews in place of dairy I might suggest boiling the cashews if you don’t have time to soak them. I don’t recommend that here. Boiled cashews don’t blend up quite as smooth as soaked, and since this cheese is almost all cashews, the texture will be noticeable.
- I’ve had a lot of people ask me if cashew cream cheese can be substituted for dairy-based cream cheese in cheesecake recipes. The answer is maybe, but I wouldn’t risk it. You’re better off just following a recipe for vegan cheesecake. I’ve got a plenty of those here.
- 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.
- This stuff is freezer friendly! Stick it in a sealable storage container and freeze it for up to 2 months.
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Cashew Cream Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water 4-8 hours, drained and rinsed
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice, to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- Stir-ins of choice, such as chives, roasted garlic, veggies, strawberries, sun-dried tomatoes, or roasted red peppers
Instructions
Place the cashews, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and salt into the bowl of a food processor.
Blend until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add a tablespoon or two of water to thin the mixture as needed.
Taste test and add additional salt and/or lemon juice if you like.
Add any stir-ins to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped and well blended.
Serve immediately or store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 2 months.
My point here, I guess, is I'm wondering whether you think the long soak time is critical?
Thanks -- just found your blog today and looking forward to going back through the archives!
Thanks so much for checking out the blog - hope you enjoy everything!!
I'm tryibg to find unexpensive, common ingredients I can find in a market around the world, the more unprocessed the better.
- Why canola and not olive oil?
- Any substitute for cashews? Almonds, palm hearts, toffu, garbanzos, other beans?
- What's the use of yeast flakes? How can we substitute it?
Thanks!
I used canola oil because the flavor is pretty neutral. You could go with olive oil but it might change the flavor a bit.
As far as the cashews are concerned, I can't really suggest any substitutions without doing some further recipe development. Cashews work well because they have a neutral flavor and blend up nice and creamy.
The nutritional yeast flakes give the recipe a cheesy flavor. Cream cheese is generally pretty mild, so I only used a tiny bit here. For that reason, you could probably get away with omitting this ingredient, but your batch might turn out a little bland. If you want to try kicking up the flavor with other ingredients maybe add a pinch or two of onion or garlic powder - totally different flavors, but still pretty tasty.
Any significant deviation from the recipe is probably going to require some trial and error. Good luck if you give it a shot, and I hope my responses are helpful!
Sounds delicious, unfortunately, I'm allergic to cashews :((
Let us know, if you ever think of any substitute for that :)
https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/2013/06/super-easy-vegan-raspberry-chocolate.html
If you want to try something a bit more involved, here's another great recipe that I tried out a while back and had awesome results with:
http://chowvegan.com/2012/01/08/heavenly-cheesecake-from-vegan-pie-in-the-sky/
I've tried Cashew Cream Cheese at one of my favorite vegan restaurants and wanted to try to make it myself. Just as a FYI, I just tried this exact recipe in my short Vitamix 750 blender and it didn't have enough ingredients inside of the blender for it to really blend so it ended up being super duper chunky. So just as a warning to you Vitamix users with short containers, be sure to double the recipe or this really won't blend =/
Will have to soak 2x the cashews next time and give this another try. Thanks for posting!