When I went vegan, I figured that cream cheese was just gonna be one of those things I lived without. I tried a couple of store brands, including Tofutti (umm, tastes like tofu to me), and Daiya (so chalky I can’t even get it down!), and Trader Joe’s Brand (I can’t remember why I hated that one, so I guess I blocked it from my memory). In short, commercial vegan cream cheese substitutes just do not do it for me. Nor did blending cashews with lemon juice. I mean, that tasted good, but it didn’t have that hip tang. I gave up for a while. Years, actually. I put hummus on my bagels and soyrizo in my jalapeno poppers. Then one day, I discovered that you can make easy cultured cashew cream cheese with nothing but nondairy yogurt and cashews. WTF? Was it seriously that easy this entire time?
Yes. Yes it was. It sure freaking was. I have wasted no time playing catch-up on all of the cream cheese I missed out on eating during those dark days. This stuff is so superior to anything else I’ve tried. It’s sublime. Not only is it delicious vegan cream cheese… it just IS cream cheese. It takes exactly the same as the cow-derived variety, with none of the cruelty or digestive sadness. One of my good friends eats dairy foods. I fed him this stuff and he was even more excited than I am. He asked me for the recipe and now slathers it on his bagels too. I may not have turned him vegan yet, but I’m pretty sure there’s one more happy cow out there thanks to this amazing vegan cultured cashew cream cheese.
I’m a little intimidated by fermented foods. I took a few stabs at making rejuvelac for the Artisan Vegan Cheese recipes, and it didn’t work so well for me. Beyond that, the process made me incredibly nervous. So take it from someone who is far from a whiz with culturing and fermenting things: this cashew cream cheese is extremely easy to make. And unlike rejuvelac, you will already know what the end product is supposed to smell and taste like! You know what yogurt is like, and you probably know what dairy cream cheese is like. You’ll be fine! If you’re nervous, start with a half batch (assuming your blender is small enough that it can blend that volume of ingredients smoothly).
Here is the super simple recipe! (Pictured on homemade bagels). Finally a vegan cream cheese that doesn’t taste weird or have a bunch of funky ingredients. Just cashew cream and a little patience :).
Simple Cultured Cashew Cream Cheese
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw cashews soaked overnight in filtered water (raw macadamia nuts also work - but will take a lot longer to blend)
- 2 tbsp plain, unsweetened non-dairy yogurt (see notes)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt (plus more to taste)
- filtered water as needed to blend
Instructions
- Prepare a clean and dry glass or other nonreactive container. I use a Pyrex container. It may not be strictly required, but it's best to sterilize all of your equipment with boiling water before getting started.
- Drain the liquid off of the soaked cashews. Add them to a blender or food processor and blend until completely smooth. If you aren't used a high-powered blender, it will take several minutes for the cashews to break down and release oils in order to become a smooth mixture. Stop to scrape down the sides as needed; you can also add filtered water a tablespoon at a time if you're having trouble blending.
- Note: if your blender has warmed the mixture very much, it's best to take a break now and wait for it to cool down (we don't want to kill the yogurt cultures with heat). Then, add the yogurt and salt and pulse to combine.
- Transfer to the clean container and cover. Let sit out at room temperature for 24 hours. Use a clean utensil to taste the mixture, and add more sea salt to taste; let it culture for another 12-24 hours if you want a stronger tang.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 weeks. (Note: length of storage time may depend on the culturing conditions and brand of yogurt used).
- (Optional step) This recipe makes cultured cashew cream cheese with a texture more like "whipped" dairy cream cheese. For a firmer texture like block cream cheese, press out the liquid using cheesecloth.
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe source: Miyoko Schinner via Your Vegan Mom
Other troubleshooting:
The cultured cashew cream cheese won’t actually culture at all: The ambient temperature in your kitchen may be too cool. Try moving the mixture to a warmer location, or adding a bit more yogurt.
The cashews won’t get smooth:Â You really do need to soak them overnight first, and use RAW cashews. And have patience: it can seem like all they’re doing for 5 minutes is getting grainy, but keep blending and they will eventually start to release their oils and get smooth. It’s basically the same chemistry as making nut butter.
The mixture doesn’t taste like anything, not even yogurt. More salt! This definitely needs plenty of salt to bring out the flavor.
I'm Shannon, the writer and photographer of Yup, it's Vegan! I'm a morning person based in Baltimore, USA. My mission is to create healthy plant-based recipes that anyone would enjoy, using seasonal produce with inspiration from global flavors.
RACHAEL WORLEY says
Now my brain is thinking about how I could use this to make a WFPB cheesecake.
April says
can you put it longer and turn it into aged cheese?
Lucas says
This is AMAZING! I thought I would never have cream cheese again after going vegan, but now I can! I might be a biased vegan, but I like this better than regular cream cheese.
Sandra says
I ‘be been keeping some cashew sauce I made last week in the fridge. It only had cashews, filtered water and salt in it but it’s fermented without any probiotics! It has lots of bubbles and smells sweet without any tang. Is it safe to eat?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
I would not be qualified to weigh in on that, sorry!
Leanna says
So I have this culturing now. I’m worried that my kitchen is too cold. Its winter here and I live in the mountains 😬 but it’s on hour 12 and I snuck a taste. Currently tastes like nutty cashews (which i love!) Excited to see the end result.
Melissa says
I used organic dairy yogurt, will this still work? Or should I be worried about it spoiling unrefridgerated?
Rachel says
What’s the point of using dairy yogurt when the whole point of this recipe is to avoid dairy???
britt says
recipe states to use nondairy yogurt like cashew yogurt..
Hadassah says
I’m using macadamia nuts and GT’s raw coconut yogurt. Wish me luck!
Julz says
Can I use milk kefir instead of a store bought yogurt? I’m not vegan, but I follow a diet for inflammatory bowel disease, so I’m looking for something without any emulsifiers or additives.
Johanna says
Julz, the yogurt adds the live culture to the cashews. Milk kefir should absolutely work just fine (which you probably already figured out since your question is 3 months old 🙂 )
Alex says
So I’m on day two of this process and I have a couple clarifying questions. For soaking the cashews, how long is ‘overnight’? I started this recipe yesterday at noon, soaking the cashews for four hours at room temp in a sealed sterile mason jar and then putting them in the fridge until 9am this morning. Just wondering for the future if I wanted to keep them out of the fridge ‘overnight’ what the minimum and maximum hours of soaking might be. The cashews processed up nicely – I added a couple T filtered water just to keep things smooth and moving. I’m using the So Delicious yogurt you recommended and currently have my cultured cashew cream cheese (wip) in a ceramic bowl covered in plastic wrap. Have you ever tried using cheese cloth? Would it dry out too much or inhibit the growth of cultures? One more question – I purchased a larger container of the yogurt and wondering if I could essentially portion in ice cube trays and store in the freezer (bagged) for future use or if that will ruin the texture or potency of the live cultures. Thanks for the recipe and notes, I’m excited to see how this turns out!
Khat says
I haven’t tried this yet but I make non dairy nacho cheese and I find boiling the cashews fire 15 minutes then soaking overnight works the best.
Cynthia says
The ingredients you list call for an unsweeted dairy free yogurt, however in your notes, you indicate you used an unsweetened coconut milk. Which is it? Dairy free milk or yogurt? Thank you.
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Yes, the type of dairy-free yogurt I used was coconut milk based. The recipe calls for yogurt.
Kristine says
Can I use probiotic capsules? Or regular dairy yogurt? To be GAPS approved for my son I cannot use ANY store bought yogurt
Floy says
Absolutely not. These are different enzymes entirely. Youll need to purchase enzymes for this type of dish. If you research around google a bit youll find a plethora of enzymes you can purchase for cheese making including cream cheese.
Stephanie says
I’ve used a couple of probiotic capsules (PB8 brand) with excellent results. Anything with live lactobacillus bacteria should work great.
Anna says
Excited to try this! I’m a die hard herb and garlic lover. At what point could I add some dehydrated garlic and herbs for flavour? Before or after fermentation?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
I would add those after fermentation!
Betty says
Could I culture this in my instant pot using the yogurt function? If so, how long?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Sorry, I haven’t experimented with using the Instant Pot for this yet. I’m sure it would work great, but I don’t know how long it should be cultured. If you try it, please write back here with your results!
Betty says
12 hours in the instant pot on yogurt function was perfect!
Lori Mcconnell says
Can I leave out the yogurt and use culture starter instead? Thanks
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Sure! I don’t see why that wouldn’t work.
Ken Rygwelski says
I used this recipe and had great success after some modifications. I used yogurt that I made from Westsoy organic unsweetened soy milk and vegan yogurt culture from Cultures for Health. Note that the fermentation temperature to make yogurt using their cultures requires a temperature of 110 degrees F. Using my yogurt in the cheese recipe, I had to adjust your step 4 in the recipe. I fermented the cashew cheese for 7 hrs at 110 degrees F. When I tried lower temperatures, nothing happened. I think it is important to know the desired temperature of the culture used in the yogurt, then use the same temperature for the cheese. The cheese had a nice tangy taste and I added some dried spices (garlic, onion, basil, oregano, and some white pepper) to the fermented product. Also, I blended the 2 cups of cashews in my Vitamix and kept pushing it down with the Vitamix tamping tool so that I could yield a viscous product. I then took 1/2 of the blended cashews and froze it for a future batch of cashew cheese, because a full batch is more than I can eat in a week. Thanks for the recipe!!!
Kelsey says
Mine didn’t work! I made this at the same time as cows milk yogurt and coconut yogurt, all in separate mason jars in the same instant pot and all using the same brand of probiotic. I did 8 hours, which wasn’t enough, so I added another 8 while I went to work. The two yogurts turned out great, but the cashew cream cheese hadn’t soured at all and had pink bacteria on top. Any tips?
Nancy says
I’m excited to give this a try! I understand about boiling the jar to sterilize, but how do you sterilize a Blendtec blender, or any blender for that matter?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
I recommend pouring boiling water over the blender jar/blades.
Jack D Serna says
I’ve tried the recipe and had delicious cashew cream cheese for a week! I was putting that stuff on everything. Goes great on tostadas, bagels, and sandwiches. After I finished the first batch I decided to experiment on the next one. Here’s where things went wrong…
I had my cashews mixed with almonds and walnuts, and so I didn’t bother to separate them and soaked them all. I like to believe in diversity, so that was my intention to create an even far tastier spread with an all-star line-up. The nuts were all raw, and after I soaked I even went through the trouble of pealing the skins of the almonds, because I know the skins would not do well for texture or flavor. However, not much to do with walnuts, they’re a tricky bunch. Perhaps pine nuts would have been a better choice.
A day into fermenting with an almond yogurt starter, I noticed purple coloring. I later looked up walnuts and their reaction to acids (or yogurt), which makes them turn purple. Not bad, however, I did see some spots of gray and maybe black on the top of the spread. It didn’t have an appetizing smell. After removing the top and stirring, a small taste test proved no good. I’m sad there’s nothing to be done. For future reference, I don’t recommend walnuts. I’m unsure on almonds… or other nuts not presented in this blog.
I’m curious to know why cashew yogurt resulted in mold, as stated in the blog. This leads me to believe that if the base consists of the same nut which is used in the yogurt there is negative effects. Perhaps if raw almonds with peeled skins after soaking, processed, and fermented with cashew yogurt could achieve a similar product?
My wallet doesn’t want to know, but I’m naturally curious to see what combinations work.
Does anybody have experience to draw on here? Another concern is, why risk it if this recipe is so good and reliable!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Thanks for sharing your results, Jack! This is really helpful to me and I’m sure to other readers too.
When I had a bad experience using cashew yogurt to culture it, I’m thinking that was more related to the yogurt brand/freshness as opposed to the fact that it was made of cashews, but it’s hard to say. So Delicious coconut yogurt continues to be the most reliable for me.
Diane says
Hello, thank you so much for this recipe. I am dairy free and just made this cheese over the last 2 days and it is amazing! Just to let you know, I used Kite Hill unsweetened plain almond milk yogurt and it worked perfectly. After fermentation, I added chopped chives and dill from my garden and refrigerated overnight. The result was better than dairy cream cheese! Did not leave that “Yack”! taste in the mouth that dairy does.Thank you again for the great recipe.
Bret says
Has anyone actually tried pressing the final product to purge water at the end? I have no clue how to do this. My first attempt at this is in progress and is culturing now. I think that I added one too many tablespoons water at the end of the initial blend especially since the yogurt I used is watery on it’s own. I really want the closest thing to the dense brick type as possible. I will post my results and hopefully someone can chime in that knows how to press.
Leah Hernandez says
How did it turn out, Bret? Here are the recommendations for pressing from the source recipe: “To make a firm, block-type cream cheese, press the cheese after it’s cultured. Line a small sieve or colander with a double layer of cheesecloth, using enough cheesecloth that hangs over the edges. Put the sieve over a bowl. Put the cheese in the sieve and wrap the ends of the cheesecloth over the top. Put a plate on top and put a 5- to 10- pound weight on the plate – a clean river rock, a container of water, a cast-iron skillet, or whatever you have handy. Let stand at room temperature for about 24 hours to press much of the liquid out of the cheese. (Discard the liquid.) The resulting cheese will be quite firm”
Anabel Solis says
Will this work if I use regular cashews? I got home and realized the recipe calls for raw!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hi Anabel,
This would most likely not work well with regular cashews, they have a strong flavor that is not neutral.
Judy says
You can wrap it in two or three layers of cheesecloth (tied up) and put it in a colander with a small plate and something heavy on the plate (like a 1 pound can of vegetables)
Andrea Witthoeft says
Amazing, super excited to try this recipe for my cream cheese icing!
If you dont mind may I tag your recipe in my recipe?
Thanks so much!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Of course!
Paige says
So I made your cheese 24 hrs ago. This morning I opened it and saw pale pink spots on the surface of the cheese….help……is this mold?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Yes the pink spots sounds like some bad bacteria got in and molded.
Emily says
Hello,
I’m excited to make this and try it for myself and my son, whom is dairy-free. I was wondering if this would hold it’s texture and flavor after being frozen. I would like to make some for freezer recipes for my whole family to enjoy.
Thanks!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hey Emily, I haven’t tried freezing this so I’m not completely sure. I think it depends on what recipes it is used within. Cashew cream in general usually freezes pretty well but it may lose some liquid when it thaws.
Vicki says
Can I use almonds instead of cashews? I’ve tried the cashews and they work great and was wondering if other nuts would work?
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hey Vicki! Almonds are less fatty and also less starchy than cashews. The cream cheese won’t be as rich and creamy, but you could make up for that by adding some refined coconut oil. Be sure to remove the almond skins for best results. This definitely works well with macadamia nuts but I haven’t tried it with others.
Ashley says
Hello!
Made this and it turned out great! And so easy, and not scary even though it uses fermentation. Hooray! I was wondering, could you add some coconut cream to up the creaminess? Would that mess with the fermentation? My favorite brand – Miyokos uses both cashews and coco cream so I wanted to try to recreate that.
Thanks!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Hey! So glad you liked it. I would recommend adding refined coconut oil (no coconut flavor) for a creamier/richer texture. You can add it to the mixture before culturing, or after if you melt the oil and whisk everything together.
Sophia Van says
Hello! Would this recipe work with almonds instead of cashews ? I don’t have any other nuts on hand except for a bag of almonds that’s why I hope it can work with almonds as well!
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
I haven’t tried this with almonds. On their own, they aren’t going to be able to create as rich and creamy of a texture – cashews are lower in fiber and higher in starch. Also, you’d definitely want to remove the almond skins. I think you could make a tasty cultured spread with raw almonds but I’m just not sure it would be as much like vegan cream cheese.
Donna says
Just tried the Cultured Cream Cheese and it was amazing! Thank you for a great recipe.
It does make a lot and I am the only vegan/gluten free person in my household. So, I had a brainwave and used it as ricotta in a lasagna. I have never tasted a better vegan lasagna. I mixed about 3/4 of the recipe with a handful of Daiya mozzarella, and a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast. (When I did eat dairy, I mixed ricotta, mozzarella, and parmigiano as the cheese filling for my cheese shells and lasagna.)
Thanks again! Another favorite!
Esha says
Hello dear.. Thank you for the lovely recipe.. I have just blended & put the glass jar aside for fermenting.. Doing this for the first time, really excited.. One quick question.. I used a steel spoon & my fingers to completely drain out the paste while transferring to the jar and used the fingers in the glass jar too to make it look neat & allowing it to become a whole proper portion rather then tits bits scattered around in the bottle.. So I am just thinking if using fingers would affect the fermenting at all & if it’s safe, they were extremely clean along with the utensils too.
Second question, what is one supposed to do with the soaked water.. I had rinse the cashews first and then soaked them so I didn’t have to clean the cashews after they were soaked.. Is this water reusable or anything.. Thank you for your help & wish you all the best for everything..!! 😊
Jose says
Hello Shanon!
Love your recipes! I know this defeats the purpose of “cultured cashew cream cheese”, but does it taste good with out fermenting ? Have you tried it straight out of the blender with maybe some chives or basil?? No time to let sit;)
Thanks, I appreciate your response
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
It tastes ok without fermenting but I would definitely add some herbs to give it more flavor.
Sabrina Ferguson says
Easy and tasty! Thanks for the recipe!
Mandy says
I think I may just have sensitive tastebuds or a too much of an intense love for cream cheese because when I made this the flavor didn’t come even close to the real thing. I followed the recipe exactly except I let it culture for 48 hrs instead of 24. I tried adding more salt. It just tastes like cashews with a sour aftertaste.
I’m not sure what I may have done wrong. Maybe I let it culture too long?