When I first became vegan, the hardest thing for me to give up was cheese. The commercial options can be good in some dishes, but lets face it, if you’ve had the real thing recently, it doesn’t taste the same, and most of it is expensive and unhealthy. I knew if I wanted to stick with not eating animal products I had to find a solution. This recipe was inspired by my initial experimentation with cashew cheese from Miyoko’s Artisan Vegan Cheese cookbook. I highly recommend it if you want to get more into cheese making.
This cheese is just cashews, water, and salt, plus a fermenting agent, so it’s healthy and around the same price as the cheapest cheese, if you buy the cashews in bulk. Its neutrally flavored, similar to cream cheese or a very mild goat cheese, so its great for anything from spreading on bagels or crackers to cooking into pasta or making sour cream or creamy cold dressings. I like to make a batch around every two weeks so I always have some on hand. Many of the recipes on this blog will include this cheese, and while it can sometimes be substituted, you’ll get the best results with something naturally fermented, so its best to just adapt to the cashew cheese way of life and start eating it on everything.
This recipe works best with a high speed blender like a Vitamix or Blendtec (and no, the Ninja blender is not the same, its just an expensive low speed blender with a horrible blade design). It’s possible to make it in a food processor or lower end blender with soaked cashews, but the result will never be completely smooth and will have a texture more similar to a creamy ricotta. I’ve had some success making it in a Nutribullet, but it’s pretty annoying to keep taking the lid off when you’re blending something thick like this, and the size is limited. Vitamix blenders are expensive, but they do go on sale regularly and are more affordable if you get the space saving unit or buy a refurbished one.
PrintCashew Cream Cheese
- Prep Time: 8-24 hours
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 24 hours
- Yield: 3 cups 1x
Ingredients
3 cups raw cashews or cashew pieces
2 tablespoons sauerkraut juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Quick soak: place cashews in a saucepan and cover with a few inches of water. Bring to a boil (grey foam is normal) and then turn heat off and let cashews sit for 10 minutes (you may want to go longer if you have whole cashews and don’t have a high speed blender). Rinse cashews with cold water until they’re cold.
Long soak: soak cashews in cold water for 8-24 hours. Drain.
You can skip soaking if you have a high speed blender, but the taste will be creamier and more consistent if you use the boiling method.
Making the cheese:
Put cashews, salt, and sauerkraut juice in blender, then pour water about an inch under the top of the cashews. Start blending on low speed and gradually increase to maximum, blend at maximum speed for at least 30 seconds or until the cheese is smooth and glossy. Be patient, scrape down the sides and release any air bubbles that form. In a high speed blender you want to make sure you see a nice vortex. Add more water a little at a time if you still aren’t getting a smooth result. The cheese will be somewhat liquidy, but it will firm up with fermentation and refrigeration. Taste cheese and add additional salt if you like. Transfer to a mason jar or other container and ferment for 8-24 hours. Cheese will expand with air bubbles as the bacteria work, but the best indication of when it’s done fermenting is the taste. Cheese should be tangy and the sweet starchy flavor of the cashew should be gone.
Notes
Cashew pieces are cheaper but also more prone to spoilage. For best results, keep your cashews in the freezer and soak using the boiling method to get rid of any off flavors and kill fungi or bacteria that might affect the fermentation.