Name: Vegan Cheddar Cheese
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: ~21oz (600g) Block of Cheese
Cuisine: Vegan
Ingredients: 1 cup (150g) Raw Cashews; 1/3 cup (80ml) Water; 5 Tbsp Lemon Juice; 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil; 1/4 cup (60g) Tahini; 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce*; 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste; 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar; 1 Medium Red Pepper (deseeded and chopped, about 3/4 cup); 2 and 1/2 tsp Salt; 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika; 1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper; 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard; 1/4 cup (15g) Nutritional Yeast; 1 tsp Garlic Powder; 2 tsp Onion Powder; 1 cup (240ml) Water; 1 Tbsp Agar Agar Powder (not flakes)

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Smoky red pepper vegan cheddar cheese. Firm and sliceable and totally delicious on crackers or sandwiches or grated on pizza.

This vegan cheddar cheese has a delicious smoky red pepper flavor and is truly divine.

It’s perfect for a vegan cheese board and you’ll absolutely impress all your guests if you bring this out at your next dinner party!

It’s also wonderful for any special occasions. Cheese and wine anyone?

This recipe is based on our sliceable cashew cheese recipe. That recipe is amazing, and if you’re going to make a cheese board, why not go all out and make both kinds of cheese? I recommend it.

I knew that I could intensity the flavors even more, make it a bit sharper and tangier for a cheddar flavored cheese. And that is exactly what we have here.

How to make vegan cheddar cheese

It’s so easy to make this. The majority of the ingredients are simply blended up in a blender as you see above.

Then you boil some water and agar agar on the stove, and once boiled you add that to the already blended ingredients in the blender and blend it in and then, working quickly because it starts to set super quickly, you pour it all out into a bowl, smooth it down and then place it into the fridge to set.

This is probably the easiest sliceable vegan cheese you’ll ever make. Unless you’ve made our other cashew cheese, then you already know how easy it is.

You don’t even need to soak your cashews first.

Really, the only tricky part to this recipe, is once you’ve boiled the agar agar powder and water together, and poured that into the blender to blend, you have to be really fast or you’ll have hard set cheese sitting in your blender jug.

You have to pour it in, blend it with the other (previously blended) ingredients really quickly and then pour it out into your prepared dish, all really quickly! Have I said the word ‘quickly’ enough? I’m not sure that I have. I really mean you have to do it quickly! Hahaha!

Agar Agar Powder

The crucial ingredient in making this vegan cheddar cheese set is the agar agar powder.

You get agar agar powder and agar agar flakes. Use the powder. The powder is much stronger than the flakes, and the flakes would require you to use a lot more (up to 3 times as much).

This recipe was made with the powder and not the flakes so definitely use that.

Cashews make up the base of this cheese recipe and to that we add all kinds of delicious things that create that sharp cheddar flavor.

Red pepper provides color and flavor and smoked paprika creates a mildly smoky flavor that works great here.

Ingredient Substitutions

I always get asked about ingredient substitutions so let me just say, the best results are going to come from following the recipe. We test everything thoroughly so that we come up with something really good.

However, if you want to leave something out that is there for flavoring, it is still most likely going to come out fine.

As mentioned above, don’t try and leave out the agar agar powder, it won’t work without that. Or the cashews, but aside from those crucial ingredients, if you want to swap the red pepper for a yellow pepper or you want to leave out the cayenne pepper because you don’t like it, this is all likely fine.

Provided it is in a small quantity and it is not a crucial ingredient, you likely can substitute it for something similar or possibly even leave it out altogether.

Can you grate it? Yes you can. It is firm enough to grate. It tends to get firmer the longer it’s in the fridge, so if it’s not ideal for grating when it’s just set, it will be the next day.

Does it melt? Yes it does. It is not the kind of melty cheese that is going to spread over pizza, but it does melt a bit and soften when heated. So you can absolutely grate some and use it on a pizza. It won’t spread, but it will still be delicious.

Can I mash it? Yes, it’s soft enough to mash over your cracker if you like it mashed. It’s soft enough to mash while still also being firm enough to grate. It’s good stuff.

How long does it keep? About a week in the fridge.

Can I freeze it? Yes you can.

More vegan cheese recipes

If you love making your own vegan cheese, then you’ll also love these recipes:

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