This vegan camembert is so good you will hardly believe it. It’s super easy, no ageing required, and it tastes as good or better than the ‘real thing’. Enjoy on crackers or as part of a vegan cheese board.
You guys, there are vegan cheese recipes out there that will take you days (or sometimes even weeks) to make.
I remember buying cookbooks years ago for vegan and raw vegan cheeses and I would see recipes that required ageing of the cheeses and a timeframe of days to weeks. And I would just be amazed that anyone has that sort of patience.
Hats off to those that do! But it’s not me, so this is not one of those recipes.
This vegan camembert is something that you can make up super fast. You do have to soak the cashews first and that takes a little time (1 hour) but then it’s a case of blend, pour and bake (30 minutes), cool, slice and enjoy!
It’s a similar recipe to our vegan brie, which you will also love.
And if you love easy vegan cheese recipes then also check out our vegan cream cheese, vegan ricotta, vegan cottage cheese and vegan cheese ball.
Ingredients You Need:
Ingredient Notes
- Nutritional yeast. We used the flakes not the powder. This provides cheesy flavor. If you’re not a fan of nutritional yeast for any reason you can omit it. The recipe will still work without it, though it will lose some of the cheesiness.
- Vegetable stock. You can use vegetable stock or broth.
- Raw cashews. These are soaked in hot water for one hour. Place them in a bowl, pour over boiling hot water from the kettle and leave to soak for one hour. Then drain them and continue with the recipe.
- Ground rainbow peppercorns. We put ground rainbow/mixed peppercorns on top of the camembert to get that gorgeous look. You can also use regular ground black pepper.
- Distilled white vinegar. This is amazing for ramping up the cheesy flavor in recipes. Apple cider vinegar can work in a pinch but it’s not as good for flavor.
How To Make Vegan Camembert
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Place raw cashews into a bowl. Pour over boiling hot water from the kettle. Leave them to soak for 1 hour. Then drain and rinse.
- Add the soaked cashews, garlic, salt, nutritional yeast, distilled white vinegar, onion powder, dijon mustard and vegetable stock to the blender jug and blend until smooth.
- Prepare two oven safe ramekins (~3 inches round, 2.5 inches deep) by lining them with parchment paper. You can secure the parchment paper in place with a rubber band. Just don’t forget to take the rubber bands off before you bake.
- Pour the cheese mix into the ramekins, dividing it evenly between them.
- Sprinkle the top with ground rainbow peppercorns.
- Bake in the oven at 350°F for 30 minutes.
- Allow them to cool at room temperature until they’re cool and then place into the fridge to chill completely before removing them from their ramekins.
- Slice and serve on bread or crackers or as part of a vegan cheese board.
Vegan Camembert Success Tips
Ramekins. We used two small oven safe ramekins (3 inches round, 2.5 inches deep). If you have a bigger ramekin you can just use one. The exact size isn’t important, you just want to be able to fit your cheese mix into it. So if you have smaller ramekins maybe you will make 3 smaller cheese rounds, or if you have a bigger one (5-6 inches round), you can make a single cheese round. Of course make sure it’s oven safe so that you can bake it.
Let the cheese chill. It’s ideal to let the cheeses cool at room temperature until they have reached room temperature and then move them to the fridge to chill completely. You want them to be completely cold and feel firm to the touch before you remove them from the ramekins. This will make them easy to slice as well.
Storing and Freezing
Keep your cheese stored in the fridge and enjoy within a week. It is also freezer friendly for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and enjoy.
More Vegan Cheese Recipes
- Sliceable Cashew Cheese
- Vegan Cheddar Cheese
- Vegan Mozzarella
- Vegan Feta
- Vegan Blue Cheese
- Vegan Goat Cheese
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Camembert
Ingredients
- 1 cup Raw Cashews (150g) Soaked for 1 hour
- 2 Cloves Garlic
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast Flakes
- 1 tsp Distilled White Vinegar
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- ½ cup Vegetable Stock/Broth (120ml)
- Ground Rainbow Peppercorns
Instructions
- Place raw cashews into a bowl. Pour over boiling hot water from the kettle. Leave them to soak for 1 hour. Then drain and rinse.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Add the soaked cashews, garlic, salt, nutritional yeast, distilled white vinegar, onion powder, dijon mustard and vegetable stock to the blender jug and blend until smooth.
- Prepare two oven safe ramekins (~3 inches round, 2.5 inches deep, see notes*) by lining them with parchment paper. You can secure the parchment paper in place with a rubber band. Just don’t forget to take the rubber bands off before you bake.
- Pour the cheese mix into the ramekins, dividing it evenly between them.
- Sprinkle the top of the cheeses with ground rainbow peppercorns.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Allow them to cool at room temperature until they’re cool and then place into the fridge to chill completely before removing them from their ramekins.
- Slice and serve on bread or crackers or as part of a vegan cheese board.
Notes
- Nutritional yeast. If you’re not a fan of nutritional yeast for any reason you can omit it. The recipe will still work without it, though it will lose some of the cheesiness.
- Distilled white vinegar. This works wonderfully for adding cheesy flavor to recipes. Apple cider vinegar will work in a pinch but white vinegar is the best.
- Ramekins. We used two small oven safe ramekins (3 inches round, 2.5 inches deep). If you have a bigger ramekin you can just use one. The exact size isn’t important, you just want to be able to fit your cheese mix into it. So if you have smaller ramekins maybe you will make 3 smaller cheese rounds, or if you have a bigger one (5-6 inches round), you can make a single cheese round. Of course make sure it’s oven safe so that you can bake it.
- Let the cheese chill. It’s ideal to let the cheeses cool at room temperature until they have reached room temperature and then move them to the fridge to chill completely. You want them to be completely cold and feel firm to the touch before you remove them from the ramekins. This will make them easy to slice as well.
- Storing and Freezing. Keep your cheese stored in the fridge and enjoy within a week. It is also freezer friendly for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and enjoy.
- Serving size. This recipe makes 2 small cheeses or 1 larger round cheese. Nutritional information is calculated as 4 serves per small cheese, and 8 serves in total.
- Prep time is for hands on time only and does not include the time spent soaking the cashews.
Hi Alison, delicious 😋 And so easy to make.
Thanks 😊
Thanks so much Rose!
Hi there was wondering if I could use sunflower seeds instead of cashews? Thanks
Hi Pauline, I haven’t tried that but I think you could!
This was soooo good! Even my cheese connoisseur friends loved it! Thank you!
Awesome Chris! Thanks for the great review!
Hi Alison,
I used this recipe with dehydrated Portobellos reconstituted in the vegan broth. Afterwards, the mushrooms were chopped and added to the cheese mixture. When the ramekins were full I used another chopped Portobello cap and sprinkled it on top of the mix.
After baking and cooling the cheese had just a hint of the lovely mushroom flavour and the cooked pieces on top.
Again, your recipes are the best. I can’t wait to make your Wellington.
Will you be publishing a cookbook for sale?
Bruce
That sounds delicious! And thank you so much! No plans at the moment to publish a cookbook as we’re just so busy publishing on the blog! But who knows, that is always a possibility for one day! Hope you love the Wellington as well. 🙂
Alison,
I noticed that this recipe does not use agar agar versus the other cheese recipes you publish. Is that correct? Is agar not necessary in order to firm up this cheese?
Thank you. I love your recipes.
Bruce
Hi Bruce, yes we didn’t need agar agar in this recipe. It bakes up quite firm, but not ‘as’ firm as the cheeses that use agar agar.
Thank you Alison. I am making it today. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Your recipes are awesome. I have made the cheddar several times and it is incredible.
Thank you.
Bruce
Thanks so much Bruce! Hope you enjoy this one too! 🙂
WOW! I made this cheese yesterday and it tastes incredible. Not realizing I had run out of veggie broth I had to use white cooking wine in its place. The recipe made two nice little rounds but this morning only one is left. Next time I am going to try a diced Portobello cap in place of the pepper just for fun.
Thanks again for the terrific recipes Alison.
Bruce
Awesome Bruce! So happy to hear it came out great! Thanks for the wonderful review!
How long do you think I would need to bake this if I make one larger ramekin? Should it be set in the middle (similar to a pumpkin pie)?
I would bake it for the same time!
By far one of the best vegan cheeses I have made and I have made many. I made 3 because my ramekins are small and I ate a whole one while wrapping the other two. Thanks Alison for an outstanding recipe. The flavour is full and the texture perfect, no grainyness.
Wonderful to hear that Christine! Thanks a million!
We have cashew allergies in our house. What would you suggest I use as a substitute? Would almond flour be okay?
Hi Naomi, I wouldn’t use almond flour, but you could try it with slivered or blanched almonds. The texture will be a little different though.
I am new at making cheese. What are ramekins and where do I purchase them?
They are just small bowls, and in this case, oven safe small bowls. 🙂 You can use any oven safe small bowl. Depending on the size you may end up with one round cheese or two.
This was absolutely amazing! I have never had camembert cheese before, but this was delicious. It was easy to make with ingredients I already had on hand and came together perfectly. I served it with bread, crackers, halved dates, apple slices and bergmont marmalade and it paired beautifully with everything. I can’t wait to make this over and over again. Thank you!
Alison, this is gorgeous! Being French myself, I grew up eating Camembert. When I turned vegan, my main struggle was not eating cheese… knowing the health benefits of avoiding it, I managed the challenge. This recipe comes now as a blessing for the cheese eater I was… easy to prepare, tasting like a real Camembert… thank you Alison for such a great recipe once again.
This is awesome to hear Isabelle! Thank you so much for the amazing review!
Can we use regular mustard instead of dijon?
Hi Angie, yes you can. 🙂
This looks good. Does it have a soft consistancy of Brie?
It’s fairly firm once it’s chilled and sliceable as you can see in the pics, but you can still smash it up quite easily on a cracker.
I have a sensitivity to vinegar. Can I use lemon juice? I make a cashew sour cream and sub lemon juice for the vinegar and I like it better.
Can I use the food processor for this?
Don’t have a high powered blender and find the Cuisinart much easier to get it out of, and clean.
Thanks! Looks yummy!!
Hi Vicky, yes you could use lemon juice. The food processor will work, though the texture may not be quite as smooth as in the blender, but that’s fine. 🙂