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.
Chiquita says
This was fabulous and now I’m hooked on making my own vegan cheeses. However, like someone else had mentioned, mine turned out more like a cheese spread. Maybe I let it blend too long? This definitely cannot be grated. It would be helpful to know how long to let it run in the blender. Otherwise, very tasty and still works nicely on crackers or as a spread in sandwiches. Thank you for positng.
Tess says
Hi Alison, If I soak the cashews do I need to reduce the 1/3 c. water that the recipe calls for? I want to be sure I end up with a firm ‘sliceable’ cheese.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Tess, yes you should reduce the water by a couple tablespoons if you soak the cashews.
Bev Appleby says
I was so excited to try this recipe. I made it yesterday, the flavour is delicious but the texture hasn’t worked as I expected. I can slice it but its quite mushy/ soft. I followed the recipe exactly so not sure what went wrong? Wonder if freezing it may help?!
Billy says
I looooove this cheese! Having been totally off dairy for a year I was really missing cheese and spreadable vegan cheese (which is more like a dip) didn’t really do it for me. I have also made this with chickpeas instead and cashews and it tastes just as good. I am looking forward to tinkering with the flavours to develop different flavour cheeses. I’d love some ideas. 🙂
Alison Andrews says
So glad you love the recipe Billy!
Ley says
You made it with chickpeas? Can I ask the proportions and any changes you made- I would love to try that.
Joanne G Murphy says
I have made this recipe twice. The first time I got the texture right but sorry, it was way too salty for me. the second time, I remembered to cut back on the salt but I think I underdid the agar-agar It still tastes great though. FYI, I was out of carrots so I used 1/2 a ripe banana mashed with some green onion, and it tasted marvelous! Thanks!
Haidy says
Very nice and tasty but I thought it was a bit salty which is easy to solve.
Shakura says
Only had roasted cashews and thought I still had nutritional yeast but I didn’t! Because I was already in the process of making it I googled ‘substitutes for nutritional yeast’ and so I used miso paste(1/3 of the 1/4th cup). Rest of the recipe I followed precisely but was afraid of the amount of salt. However, it’s GREAT! Also, it’s such a great big chunk of cheese that’s easily sliceable.
I was always afraid to make vegan cheese thinking it’d be a long process, but this was very easily made! Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
That’s awesome Shakura! Thanks for the great review!
Jagna says
Great recipe and thanks for sharing it! I made this cheese twice. The first time it came out too salty and too rubbery. Turned out my salt was more salty than Yours, so a word of warning to everybody – go easy on the salt, You can always add more later. The quality of the mustard and tahini are key in this recipe to get the right cheese flavor. The second time I tweaked the recipe and made it with cooked one small potato and carrot instead of the raw carrot, added turmeric for the color and health (never enough of this good stuff), onion powder and two teaspoons of light miso paste. That I believe brought the rubbery texture down. It keeps at least a week in the fridge. Great in cheese melt sandwiches!
Jennifer R says
I made this last night last minute for a dinner party. Everyone loved it and thought it was store bought. Great and easy recipe!
Alison Andrews says
Fantastic!
Greg says
I made this. Was friggin good…was awesome for a grilled cheese. Was great on a veggie burger. Was good on crackers. I recommend this.
Alison Andrews says
Thanks Greg!
Cindy says
I haven’t made this yet, but was wondering…we’ve cut oil completely out of our diet. Could this be made without?
Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
Yes you can leave it out.
Tâmara says
So I did it! It’s just super yummy!! Amazing flavours and super ‘sliceble’. I did it on a food processor since thats what i have and its true that it was a bit grainy so i transferred to another bowl and used the hand blender and then added the water/agar agar mixture. Got better ???? thank you for your work and sharings ????
Tâmara says
Heey Alison! This recipe looks like the one i was craving for and i’d like to make it right now ahah. But i ran out of tahini (it really disapears in my house, yuuum). Would it be a big mistake to leave it out? Or i might give a try on one of the reviews (adding sesame seeds and a touch of olive oil). Yup that’s what i’ll do ahah. Will come back to rate it
Have a beautiful day ????
Vivian says
I’m going to make tomorrow, I can’t wait, reading the recipe is very simple….Thank You so much
Joanne G Murphy says
Thanks so much for the recipe! I had hot Hungarian paprika so I used that and a bit of chili powder because I couldn’t find my cayenne (I know it’s here somewhere!). I followed the recipe exactly otherwise. It has a beautiful texture and I haven’t tasted it yet because it is still firming up in the fridge, but I am sure I will love it! Thanks so much and Happy New Year!
Paul says
Hi thanks for this amazing cheese recipe. Unfortunately mine hasn’t set completely. It’s sort of a paste but firm. What did I do wrong?
Heinz S. says
Love the taste, unfortunately it did not get as firm as it probably should have been. I will add more agar agar.
I also followed step #5 and put everything in the blender together and cooked it after.