Hard, sliceable cashew cheese. It’s here! And I couldn’t be more excited!
We have guests coming next week and I have a full on cheese board planned, with this as the main event!
I have to admit it took me a fair few goes to get this one right. If you follow us on instagram then you might have seen in our instastories where I was proudly showing off each new attempt!
From the start though I was delighted with this. To think it can be so easy to make a super impressive block of vegan cheese!
I started off with just a basic recipe and then quickly saw that I needed to add more cashews to make it really rich and lots more spices to make that cheese flavor really stand out.
Some recipes recommend you cook it all up with the agar agar powder (which is what makes it set) on the stove and then pour it out into your dish to set, but this doesn’t work at all when you use more cashews to make a thicker/more robust cheese, because then it’s too thick to stir up properly with the agar agar.
And since the agar agar needs to boil for at least a minute for that agar powder to set up properly I found it a much better plan to do it separately.
So basically, you make up a batch of cashew cheese sauce in the blender, but you spice it up more strongly than you would usually, to the point that if you taste it, you’ll be thinking: this is too strong!
But then you boil up a cup of water with agar agar powder on the stove, let that boil for a minute then pour that mix into your cashew cheese sauce (conveniently still in the blender) blend it up again and then pour it all out into your dish to set.
The water and agar powder dilute the spiciness of the cheese and while setting it also dilutes it a bit so you have to start off strong to end up with perfectly spiced cashew cheese!
And it is simply fabulous! You can slice it into perfect slices and put them on crackers or bread or wherever you would eat a slice of cheese!
But you can mash it up too! It’s sliceable and hard enough to cut perfect slices, but you can also still smash it on a cracker if you want to!
It’s perfect for a vegan cheese board with some red grapes, jams, maybe some mixed salted nuts and a selection of crackers (and maybe some wine too!).
And let me just say, a slice of this on a cracker with some mixed fruit jam on top (but any jam would be awesome) was like the best thing ever! Jaye and I were in heaven! And we can’t wait to show it off to our guests next week.
This recipe is quick and easy and one of the things that makes it so quick is that you don’t need to soak the cashews first. You can just go right in and blend them up.
The reason it’s possible to do this is because you’re making a sauce to start off with, it’s not a super thick cheese right off the bat so it’s more easily blendable (I do have a vitamix though so that helps!).
But lately I have been questioning the assumption in a lot of recipes about soaking cashews. In my older recipes I often just did soak them because I thought they would be easier to blend, but provided your blender is strong enough I don’t really see any reason to soak them first.
I am also inclined to think that soaking them dilutes the flavor. So there is really no need in this recipe, even if your blender is a weaker model, I think you’ll be fine without soaking first.
You will love this delicious cashew cheese! It is:
- Sliceable
- Perfect for a cheese board
- Authentic looking!
- Ideal on crackers
- Quick
- So easy!
Keep it covered in the fridge where it lasts up to a week! This cheese can also be grated, the firmer it is the easier it will grate, and the longer it’s in the fridge the firmer it gets, so if it’s not ideally firm for grating on the first day it will likely be grate-able by the second day.
I also put a slice on a cracker and put it in the microwave for 15-seconds to see if it melted and it did! So it does melt! But it’s not what I would see as the primary use for this cheese as I think it’s best as is, but that’s personal preference. If you wanted to use it on a pizza or something I’m thinking it would work! Update: We tried it on pizza! And it was awesome! We tried it both grated on pizza and sliced, and either way was fantastic! Just to be clear we put it on the pizza before going in the oven, so it melted along with everything else, and it was really good.
So let us know what you think of this sliceable cashew cheese! And I hope you’ll be making it soon, and when you do, please rate the recipe and let us know how it turned out!
For more delicious cashew recipes, check out these recipes:
- Cashew Cheese Sauce
- Sweet Basil and Chive Cashew Cream
- How to make cashew butter
- Strawberry Cashew Yogurt
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Hard Sliceable Cashew Cheese
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Prep Time: 10 mins - Total Time: 10 mins
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Yield: 600g (21oz) block of cheese -
Category: Vegan Cheese, Savory -
Cuisine: Vegan
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Vegan cashew cheese that is sliceable and perfect for a vegan cheese board! It’s delicious on crackers and you can slice it into perfect slices and you can mash it up on a cracker if you like. Full flavored, authentic looking and quick and easy to make too!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (150g) Raw Cashew Nuts
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Water
- 5 Tbsp Lemon Juice (Freshly Squeezed)
- 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
- 1/4 cup (60g) Tahini
- 1/2 Medium Carrot, peeled (~30g)
- 2 and 1/2 tsp Salt*
- 1/4 tsp Paprika
- 1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder (or flakes)
- 1 cup (240ml) Water
- 1 Tbsp Agar Agar Powder (not flakes)
Instructions
- Add the cashews, water, lemon juice, coconut oil, tahini, carrot, salt, paprika, cayenne, dijon mustard, nutritional yeast and garlic powder to the blender and blend until very smooth. Leave the mix in the blender and set aside.
- Add 1 cup of water and the agar agar powder to a saucepan and heat, stirring regularly until boiling. Boil it for 1 minute (time it), stirring regularly and after 1 minute remove it from the heat and pour it into the blender on top of the cheese mix.
- Blend until smooth.
- Moving quickly, as it will start setting up very fast, pour the mix out into a round dish sprayed with non-stick spray.
- Refrigerate until set. To remove from the bowl, turn upside down onto a plate.
Notes
*This might seem like a lot of salt, but it works perfectly in this recipe.
*I used a regular round bowl, it was 5 inches round and 2 inches deep. I chose it because it was quite straight up the sides so created a nicer shape for the cheese. But you can really use any bowl or ramekin, and if your bowls are smaller, then just use 2 bowls for 2 smaller blocks of cheese.
*This cheese can be grated.
*I also put a slice on a cracker and put it in the microwave for 15 seconds and it melted! So yes it does melt! This isn’t really what I would call the main use for this though, as I think it tastes better as is, but yes it melts!
*We have also now tried it on pizza! And it was fantastic! We tried it both grated onto a pizza and sliced. Either way was great. We put it on with all our other toppings before going into the oven and it got nice and soft and melty along with the other toppings. It doesn’t spread or anything, but it’s very very good!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 Slices (approx 1 oz)
- Calories: 73
- Sugar: 0.6g
- Sodium: 304mg
- Fat: 6g
- Saturated Fat: 1.8g
- Carbohydrates: 3.8g
- Fiber: 0.7g
- Protein: 2.1g
Can this cheese be grated for moray sauce, sandwich fillings, grilling on toast etc.?
Yes it can!
Super genuine tasting vegan cheese! A delight to the palate
★★★★★
From someone who could sit down and eat a whole block of cheese before going vegan, this recipe makes me so happy!
So glad to hear Whitney! Hope this satisfies all those cheese cravings! We just had confirmation from 2 non-vegans that it tastes JUST like cheese, so we’re super pleased here! 🙂
Hey there! I’d love to try this recipe but I haven’t been able to find agar powder, or even flakes, anywhere. Is there any substitute that you know of for this ingredient or could I omit it from the recipe?
Any help is appreciated, I’m trying to find all the recipes I can to go vegan (or at least vegetarian)
Hi Meredith, in this recipe it’s crucial as it’s responsible for the cheese setting and becoming firm. You can definitely get agar agar powder at Amazon if you do any shopping online, otherwise there are other cheeses you can make without agar agar, it just won’t set up and become firm but it’s no less delicious, check out our cashew cheese sauce and our sundried tomato cashew cheese for examples. We also have a nut-free cheese sauce. So awesome that you’re going vegan/vegetarian, it’s heaps of fun! Hope our recipes will help! 🙂
Looks great! I am going to give this a try…
Did you chop up the carrot and leave it raw? 🌱
I don’t have a Vitamix or a powerful blender (yet). I find I need to soak cashews and/or boil them to get them soft enough. Otherwise, the cashews are too gritty.
Question: do you think I should cook the carrot along with the cashews to soften? Thanks for sharing!!
★★★★★
Hi Ann! I put the carrot into the blender in one piece, but of course it’s a vitamix so that wasn’t an issue. It might be a good idea since your blender isn’t as strong to chop it up into small pieces, you could even grate the carrot first. And then since you’ve tested cashews in your blender before and found they need to be soaked first, then you know best with that, you can cut down the soak time significantly if you soak them in hot water (after boiling in the kettle) and then around an hour is often enough. You could use cooked carrot, I don’t think that would be an issue, if you think it wouldn’t blend well even in grated form, then cooked would also be fine. Let us know how it works out! 🙂
Are there any substitutes for tahini?
You could try leaving it out, I’m not sure if there would be a suitable replacement.
Hi l tried this recipe but it didn’t set firm so l used it as a spread on crackers, l did use a vegan gel (queen trade mark Jel-it-in) Maybe that is why it didn’t work l used 2 sachet.
Hi Elizabeth, I assume you used the vegan gel instead of agar agar? I definitely think this would be why it didn’t set. I haven’t tried anything other than agar, and I think this is really a crucial ingredient for this to set.
Thank you Alison,
l will be looking out for agar agar next time to give it another go.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. My daughter in law has fibromyalgia. The pain specialist suggested go gluten, sugar, dairy free. Wow what a change. So we went gluten first, then sugar and left dairy till last as that was going to be the hardest. Now I don’t think it will be!! And the real neat thing is the men here are happy with your cheese as well so I won’t have to make separate meals yippee!! I added 1/2 tsp turmeric just to give it more depth of color, u can’t taste it. THANKS
★★★★★
Hi Charmaine! So happy everyone likes the cashew cheese! That’s awesome, and extra turmeric for color is not a bad idea at all! Dairy-free is definitely not hard once you get going with all the alternative choices. Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
Hi Alison,
So I gave this a go. My agar agar started setting very quickly and I wasn’t able to pour my mixture out of my processor, instead having to scrape it out with a spatula. I did forget to put in garlic flakes but doubt that’s had too much affect. Removed from fridge after around 5 hours I found that the consistency more of a very firm moose rater than hard cheese. This may be because I didn’t get all the agar agar mix in, I found a thin layer of solid jelly at the bottom of saucepan when cleaning up. My flavours too mustardy so I heed to experiment with proportions. Moulding is a bit rough, probably down to it not being pourable, so I need to figure out how to smooth it more, or get a better dish. On the whole, as stands, I have a pleasant savoury spread or addition to pasta. Needs more , practice, and attention from me 🙂
Hi Paul, thanks for sharing your experience, yes the garlic flakes wouldn’t have made a difference, the tricky part is definitely getting it out of the blender quickly as it does indeed start setting fast. So you need to blend it with the cashew mix and then immediately get it poured out before it starts to set. The jelly at the bottom of the saucepan is normal, that is the agar residue that has set there. I think if you try it again and are able to be fairly speedy with getting it out the blender, then the other issues should hopefully resolve. I’m glad it’s still edible though even if it wasn’t a complete success! Thanks for posting! 🙂
Oh it’s totally edible and very moreish 🙂 Just running out of things to put it on 🙂
I want to give this a try. In addition to eating exclusively plant-based, I don’t use refined oils. Do you think it will work if I omit the coconut oil?
Hi Crystal, I think you could try leaving it out, since we don’t use a lot of it in this recipe I think it might work out okay to leave it out! Let us know how it goes! All the best! 🙂
I love this recipe, especially the easy way to incorporate the AgarAgar right into the blender. My one-star ding is simply because of the overwhelming taste of mustard in the final cheese. I would cut it down to 1/2 a teaspoon just for kick. Also I swapped aqua fava for the 1/4 water just because I had some and am always looking for ways to cook with it. Adds a little protein to the mix. Thank you for these great vegan recipes!
★★★★
Thanks Angela! Glad to hear you like the recipe and about your adjustments! 🙂
Would I be able to sub coconut oil for olive oil?
Hi Jake, most likely it would be fine! You could also try just leaving it out.
Just wanted to chime in that I used a food processor instead of a blender, and it worked great. The ol’ Cuisinart was definitely strong enough.
★★★★★
Oh good to know! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Is this spicy after adding the cayenne pepper?
No it’s really not. It’s only a tiny bit of cayenne. It just tastes super cheesy!
I’m looking forward to trying this, but first a question…
How is it possible that with the main ingredients being cashews, coconut oil and tahini that there is only 6g of fat? Seems like it would be MUCH higher????
Hi Kendra, it’s due to the serving size being only 4 slices (1 ounce/28g). You don’t generally eat a whole lot of cheese in one go. At 6g of fat and 73 calories per serving this means that 54 of the calories are from fat – so most of the calories actually come from fat, which is in line with the ingredients used.
Thank you! That makes sense. Now to just make sure I don’t eat a lot of it is the challenge!
First time ever trying to make vegan cheese! I kind of wish I had soaked the cashews, since I have a food processor that works well but it still has a slightly grainy texture to it? Otherwise glad I heeded the warning to move quickly as yes the agar agar wants to set right away! This is nice, cheesy, but not much like storebought vegan cheese. I hope to try other recipes now, since this has opened the window to me, proving how simple cheese can be to make! This recipe makes a large wheel!
★★★★
Hi Tara, I haven’t made this in a food processor, only a blender, but in my experience with my food processor – I can’t ever get things super smooth. So a blender is preferable for this recipe. I think if you don’t have a blender then soaking might definitely help to get the smoothness. So glad you found the recipe nice and simple! Thanks for sharing your review! 🙂
Could I substitute the coconut oil for avocado oil?
I think it would likely be fine since it’s only 2 Tbsp so I don’t think it’s crucial that it be coconut oil, so avocado oil is probably fine. You could also try leaving out the oil if you have an issue with coconut oil.
Great recipe! I was wondering if the cheese could be frozen?
Hi Jessica, I haven’t tried freezing this, but I think it should be fine to freeze but might not be as good once defrosted.
Excited about trying this but have an abhorrence to the taste of nutritional yeast…is it identifiable in the finished product? If so may it be left out?
Hmmm, I’m not sure if it’s identifiable as ‘nutritional yeast’ it just gives it a nice cheesy flavor, but then I like nutritional yeast so I suppose I wouldn’t be inclined to notice it in the same way. I’m not sure how it would be if you left it out, it isn’t a huge amount so it might be fine, I guess you would lose some of the cheesy taste, but it might be that exact taste that you prefer to lose! So I think you could try leaving it out. Let us know how it goes if you do try it like that! 🙂
I will be trying this cheese tomorrow – thank you for posting the recipe. Do you think substituting some sauerkraut juice for part of the water would lend a “fermented” quality to the cheese – or maybe be too strong? I know some vegan cheese recipes use it….
Hi Lori, I think that could be super delicious! Let us know if you try it how it turns out! 🙂
Holy crap, lady. I wish I had found this sooner. I normally make the “American cheese” from the gentle chef but lost track of the days and wasn’t able to. His recipe requires 24+ hours of firming in the fridge. July 4th is tomorrow and we needed a cheese for our Gardein beefless burgers and fast. I’m so happy to have found you! I just finished getting it in the ramiken. Everything went smoother than I anticipated. I boiled the cashews for ten minutes since my Blendtec isn’t the best at pureeing nuts (Funny it still cost more than a vitamix). Since the cashews were hot the base mixture was also quite warm. This seemed to have prevented the agar from seizing too fast. I was able to get everything out with a rubber spatula with minutes to spare. It tastes amazing! I can’t wait to snack on it with crackers tomorrow. I’ve not eaten actual cheese in a while but this is the best tasting vegan cheese I’ve ever had. Love how simple it is too. THANK YOU!
★★★★★
Hi Lisa! Thanks so much for your great comment! And thanks for sharing your adjustments there with the cashews I’m sure that’ll help other Blendtec users when they come to making this. So happy you love the recipe! Thanks for the awesome review! 🙂
I did use the sauerkraut juice – just for the 1/3 cup water at the beginning of the recipe. The cheese has a wonderful flavor. Mine was not quite as firm or “authentic looking” as yours, but delicious nonetheless. I think your recipe is great as is but it can also lend itself to be a nice “base” recipe for a variety of additions and/or modifications. Again, thank you for sharing the recipe. It is so helpful to come across vegan dishes that are versatile, healthful, and tasty!
★★★★★
So glad it came out well! Thanks for updating us! I have found that the longer you leave it in the fridge the firmer the cheese gets as well, so it could be that yours will firm up a bit more. Thanks for sharing and your awesome review! 🙂
This is the first time I have made a vegan cheese and I love it! so far I have stirred it through a pasta sauce, baked a slice of it plain and added a lump to a veggie pastie. It behaved beautifully! I used a Thermomix and it was prefect. You do have to move fast with the agar but I managed to get it into a dish. I am going to give it a go freezing as there is too much for me to use in a week. I will only be using it for cooked dishes so I think it will be fine. Many thanks for the great recipe.
★★★★★
Wonderful! So glad you love it. I have never used a Thermomix so great to hear it works well there too. Thanks for your awesome comment and review. 🙂
WOW! I’ve tried many vegan alternative cheeses, and this one is by far the best! Taste and texture are both incredible. Thanks for sharing this recipe. It’s a game changer.
★★★★★
Whoop! 🎉That is the best praise for this recipe, thanks so much Steph! Thrilled that you love it. 🙂
I tried it yesterday and strictly followed the proportions and instructions as per your notes. I’m satisfied with the firmness and texture of this cheese however some things didn’t turn out as expected. My cheese has the grey-ish colour (kind of like tahini), not the nice yellow. It tastes very very lemony with juice from two lemons and mustard it feels very acidic and not quite like any cheese. To me it feels it should be more salty (its 2and 1/2 teaspoons of salt, correct?) Also we tried it on the pizza (sliced) and it did not melt :(. Can you advice?
Hi Aga, sorry to hear that it wasn’t a big success. I realized when receiving your comment that I should’ve been more clear in the recipe, since lemons can be such different sizes, the ones we tend to get here are quite small, so I have updated the recipe to say how many tablespoons. I wonder if your lemons were quite large, that would explain the lemon flavor being quite strong. You could try leaving the mustard out if you don’t like the taste of that, but I have found that flavor to really add to the cheesiness. I don’t know what might have caused the odd color, I have never had that happen. As far as melting, it gets ‘melty’ but it doesn’t melt like a regular cheese, it doesn’t spread or anything like that, it just gets soft and melty (but there’s no spread). If you want a different kind of melty vegan cheese that is good for pizza, you might like our vegan mozzarella recipe more.
Enjoyed making the cashew cheese. I added some liquid from kimchee for a more fermented flavor. I also used less salt and added some low sodium soy sauce and pieces of seaweed. The texture was good and the flavor was pretty good, but like others, I found that it had an overwhelming mustard flavor. Not bad, but next time I would leave it out. Thank you for posting this recipe.