Vegan cashew cheese that is sliceable and perfect for a vegan cheese board! Full flavored, authentic looking and quick and easy to make too!
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!
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.
And 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.
If you love making your own homemade vegan cheese then also check out our vegan brie, vegan camembert and vegan blue cheese.
How To Make Cashew 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 and 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.
A Vegan Cheese Board
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.
Ingredient Notes
The Cashews:
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!).
Provided your blender is strong enough I don’t really see any reason to soak them first in this recipe but I am not an expert on your blender. If you know your blender will have trouble with this, then you can soak them briefly in boiling water. Just place the nuts into a bowl, pour boiling water over the top and then leave them to soak for 15 minutes, then drain and use as normal.
The Agar Agar:
The crucial ingredient in this recipe is the agar agar powder. It is what makes the cheese set.
You get two types of agar agar, you get the powder version and the flakes. Use agar agar powder. The agar agar powder is much stronger than the flakes and is what we used in this recipe.
If you have no other option but to use flakes, then you will have to use 3 times as much of it.
Cashew Cheese Q&A
Can you grate it? 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.
Does it melt? I 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.
Can you put it on pizza? We tried it on pizza. And it was very tasty and it melted! But let me be clear, when I say ‘melted’ I do NOT mean that it spreads like dairy cheese. No it definitely doesn’t. It softens though and gets melty.
We tried it grated on pizza and sliced, and either way was fantastic. We put it on the pizza before going in the oven, so it melted along with everything else, and it was really good.
Storing and Freezing
Keep it stored in the fridge (covered) where it will last up to a week.
It’s also freezer friendly for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the fridge.
More Delicious Vegan Cheese Recipes
- Since this recipe was published, we’ve made another firm sliceable cheese, a delicious vegan cheddar cheese, so you definitely want to check that out.
- We also have a totally divine vegan cream cheese that is everything you want spread on your breads and bagels! Also check out our vegan cottage cheese and vegan feta.
- Our cashew cheese sauce is perfect drizzled over pizza or baked potatoes and our vegan parmesan cheese is wonderful sprinkled over anything and everything.
- Our vegan mozzarella is divine on some pizza and our vegan nacho cheese is divine on… you guessed it, some vegan nachos!
- And then there’s our vegan ricotta which is incredible just as is, but can also be baked into a vegan lasagna recipe or some vegan stuffed shells!
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Hard Sliceable Cashew Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 cup Raw Cashews (150g)
- ⅓ cup Water (80ml)
- 5 Tbsp Lemon Juice Freshly Squeezed
- 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
- ¼ cup Tahini (60g)
- ½ Medium Raw Carrot (~30g) peeled and sliced
- 2 ½ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Paprika
- ⅛ tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- ¼ cup Nutritional Yeast
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder or flakes
- 1 cup Water (240ml)
- 1 Tbsp Agar Agar Powder must be powder and not flakes*
Instructions
- Add the cashews, ⅓ cup 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.
Video
Notes
- It is crucial for the success of this recipe that you use agar agar powder and not flakes. Flakes are much less powerful and if you DO use flakes you will need to use 3 times as much (3 tablespoons).
- 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 but it tends to get firmer the longer it’s in the fridge. So it’s better for grating on the second day than on the day it’s made.
- It does also melt. We put a slice on a cracker and put it in the microwave for 15 seconds and it melted. So yes it does melt!
- We have also tried it on pizza. We tried it 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 good.
- This recipe makes one 21 ounce (600g) round of vegan cheese.
- Serving size is 4 slices which is approximately 1 ounce.
Kendra says
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????
Alison Andrews says
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.
Kendra says
Thank you! That makes sense. Now to just make sure I don’t eat a lot of it is the challenge!
Cindy says
Is this spicy after adding the cayenne pepper?
Alison Andrews says
No it’s really not. It’s only a tiny bit of cayenne. It just tastes super cheesy!
Hannah says
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.
Alison Andrews says
Oh good to know! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Jake says
Would I be able to sub coconut oil for olive oil?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Jake, most likely it would be fine! You could also try just leaving it out.
Angela Rae says
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!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks Angela! Glad to hear you like the recipe and about your adjustments! 🙂
Crystal says
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?
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Paul Sands says
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 🙂
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Paul Sands says
Oh it’s totally edible and very moreish 🙂 Just running out of things to put it on 🙂
Charmaine says
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
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Elizabeth Conlan says
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.
Alison Andrews says
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.
Elizabeth Conlan says
Thank you Alison,
l will be looking out for agar agar next time to give it another go.
Ali Dixon says
Are there any substitutes for tahini?
Alison Andrews says
You could try leaving it out, I’m not sure if there would be a suitable replacement.
Ann says
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!!
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Kathy Shaheen says
I was going to ask that same question about the carrot. Thanks for the advice. Trying this today. I just made a different cheese and found that boiling the cashews for about 15 minutes made them blend very smoothly in a regular blender. Will try the cooked carrots.
Meredith says
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)
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Whitney says
From someone who could sit down and eat a whole block of cheese before going vegan, this recipe makes me so happy!
Alison Andrews says
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! 🙂
Anna Andrews says
Super genuine tasting vegan cheese! A delight to the palate
Hugh says
Can this cheese be grated for moray sauce, sandwich fillings, grilling on toast etc.?
Alison Andrews says
Yes it can!
Vickie says
Do you use solid coconut oil or melted? I wasn’t sure if it was 2 tbsp of melted oil or solid. Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
I just used the solid form because it was going to be blended. But either/or is totally fine. 🙂