Extra smooth with a subtle garlic flavor, this vegan cheese with cashews will make you forget about dairy. Guess what! You can make your own cheese at home! And you don’t need to live on farm with a bunch of cows and extensive cheese-making equipment (whatever that might be). In fact, this cheese is completely vegan (i.e. no cows involved) and much healthier than your regular cream cheese.
The Secret Ingredient? CASHEWS.
These protein-rich nuts can be turned into an extra smooth, cream-cheese-like paste which you can flavor with whatever you please. Soft and creamy roasted garlic for example. Yum!
But why should you want to do that at all? Most importantly, this cashew cheese is downright delicious. As a bonus, cashews are loaded with healthy fats, protein (36%!!!) and a ton of vitamins and minerals (see nutritional info below).
So How Do You Make This “Cheese”?
Step 1: Don’t be intimidated, it’s super easy.
Step 2: Get yourself some raw cashews. And don’t eat them all or you’ll have to go shopping again. I speak from experience.
Step 3: Soak your cashews for at least 6 hours. I typically do that overnight. If you don’t want to wait that long, use my quick soaking trick to speed things up.
Step 4: Drain them. See how they are nicely plumped up? That’s exactly what you need.
Step 5: Add nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt, olive oil and garlic and mix all that in a food processor until super smooth.
Step 6: Serve with pita bread, fresh veggies or anything you like.
Garlic Cashew Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (130g) raw cashews
- 1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- juice of ½ lemon
- ¼-1/2 teaspoon salt (depends on taste and dietary requirements)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil (or more if the mixture is too dry to blend, sub almond milk or water for an oil-free alternative)
- 4-6 garlic cloves, roasted at 350 (180 Celsius) for about 20 minutes (if that sounds like too much work to you, use 1 teaspoon garlic powder instead)
Instructions
- Cover cashews with water and let soak for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
- Drain, put in a food processor and mix with the rest of ingredients until smooth.
- For best results, chill before serving (the mixture cools off from the processing and the flavors blend together nicely).
- Enjoy!