This vegan cheese ball is seriously delicious. It’s creamy, super cheesy and packed with flavor. Perfect as an appetizer!
This vegan cheese ball is so tasty and looks gorgeous too. It’s the perfect appetizer to serve at a dinner party or holiday get-together and it’s 100% approved by both vegans and non-vegans alike.
In fact if you want to make an example of how delicious vegan food can be to someone who is sceptical, you may want to consider leading with something like this.
It’s the kind of recipe that causes people to make a bit of a fuss. They’ll exclaim about how delicious it is while enthusiastically spreading another serving on a cracker and demanding that you give them the recipe right this minute! You may even become a bit of a legend. No really.
All this, and it’s so easy to make too. What’s not to love? And if you love putting together a good vegan cheese board then also check out our sliceable cashew cheese and our vegan cheddar cheese as well as our vegan camembert, vegan brie, vegan blue cheese and vegan pâté.
How To Make A Vegan Cheese Ball
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 and pour over boiling hot water from the kettle. Leave them to soak for an hour.
- Drain the cashews and add to the blender along with lemon juice, coconut oil, miso paste, salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, dijon mustard, nutritional yeast, crushed garlic and water and blend until smooth.
- Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and stir in fresh chopped basil and chives.
- Line a small bowl with plastic wrap and spoon the mixture into the bowl. Twist the plastic wrap to seal it, creating a ball shape.
- Place the bowl with your cheese ball into the freezer for 1 hour to set.
- While the cheese is setting, crush roasted and salted almonds and place them into a wide bowl.
- Add chopped chives and mix with the crushed almonds.
- After 1 hour remove the cheese ball from the freezer and gently remove the plastic wrap.
- Gently roll the cheese ball in the crushed almonds and chives, making sure the ball is evenly coated.
- Return the cheese ball to the small bowl that it set in and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until you’re ready to serve.
Recipe Tips
Soak the cashews: The reason you must soak the cashews for this recipe is because the cheese is very thick. We can’t add much water because we need a thick consistency so that it will set. Soaking the cashews makes it much easier to blend.
Fresh lemon juice: Use freshly squeezed lemon juice for the best flavor.
Coconut oil: You can use either virgin coconut oil or refined coconut oil (odorless). Don’t substitute a different oil, it must either be coconut oil or, if you have an allergy or avoid oils, then omit it entirely.
White miso paste: If you don’t have miso paste on hand then you can substitute this for tomato paste, tahini or soy sauce. Soy sauce provides similar umami flavors to miso paste.
Nutritional Yeast: This adds to the cheesy flavor but if you’re allergic or can’t get hold of it, then simply leave it out.
Recipe Q&A
If you’re allergic to cashews then you could try this recipe with slivered or blanched almonds. Soak them first just the same way you would the cashews. The texture will be different but it would still be delicious.
Sure. If you prefer not to use oil you can omit it. The cheese may be slightly softer though.
This is amazing to serve as an appetizer with crackers, melba toast or breads. It’s also great with raw veggies or tortilla chips.
Make Ahead, Storing and Freezing
This is a great recipe to make up ahead of time. Just make it and then keep it stored in the fridge for a day or two until you’re ready to serve.
Leftover cheese will keep in the fridge in a covered container for up to a week. It is also freezer friendly for up to 2 months. Thaw it in the fridge.
More Delicious Vegan Cheese
- Vegan Cream Cheese
- Vegan Mozzarella
- Vegan Feta
- Vegan Ricotta
- Vegan Queso
- Vegan Nacho Cheese
- Vegan Parmesan
- Vegan Cottage Cheese
Vegan Cheese Ball
Ingredients
- 1 cup Raw Cashews (150g) Soaked in hot water for 1 hour
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice Freshly Squeezed
- 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
- ½ Tbsp White Miso Paste
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Paprika
- ⅛ tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 1 Clove Garlic Crushed
- 1 Tbsp Water
- 1 Tbsp Fresh Basil Chopped
- 2 Tbsp Fresh Chives Divided
- ¼ cup Crushed Roasted Salted Almonds
Instructions
- Place the raw cashews into a bowl and pour over boiling hot water from the kettle. Leave them to soak for an hour.
- Drain the cashews and add to the blender along with lemon juice, coconut oil, miso paste, salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, dijon mustard, nutritional yeast, crushed garlic and water and blend until smooth.
- Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and stir in fresh chopped basil and 1 Tbsp of chopped chives.
- Line a small bowl with plastic wrap and spoon the mixture into the bowl. Twist the plastic wrap to seal it, creating a ball shape.
- Place the bowl with your cheese ball into the freezer for 1 hour to set.
- While the cheese is setting, crush roasted and salted almonds and place them into a wide bowl.
- Add the remaining 1 Tbsp chopped chives and mix in with the crushed almonds.
- After 1 hour remove the cheese ball from the freezer and gently remove the plastic wrap.
- Gently roll the cheese ball in the crushed almonds and chives, making sure the ball is evenly coated.
- Return the cheese ball to the small bowl that it set in and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until you’re ready to serve.
- Serve with crackers, breads, veggies or tortilla chips.
Notes
- Soak the cashews: The reason you must soak the cashews for this recipe is because the cheese is very thick. There isn’t much water added because a thick consistency is needed so that it will set. Soaking the cashews makes it much easier to blend.
- If you’re allergic to cashews then you could try this recipe with slivered or blanched almonds. Soak them first just the same way you would the cashews. The texture will be different but it would still be delicious.
- Coconut oil: You can use either virgin coconut oil or refined coconut oil (odorless). Don’t substitute a different oil, it must either be coconut oil or, if you have an allergy or avoid oils, then omit it entirely.
- White miso paste: If you don’t have miso paste on hand then you can substitute this for tomato paste or tahini or soy sauce.
- Nutritional Yeast: This adds to the cheesy flavor but if you’re allergic or can’t get hold of it, then simply leave it out.
- Make Ahead: This is a great recipe to make up ahead of time. Just make it and then keep it stored in the fridge for a day or two until you’re ready to serve.
- Storing and Freezing: Leftover cheese will keep in the fridge in a covered container for up to a week. It is also freezer friendly for up to 2 months. Thaw it in the fridge.
- Prep time: This is for hands on time only and doesn’t include time spent soaking the cashews (1 hour) and chilling in the freezer (1 hour) and fridge (30 minutes).
Hi, can I sub olive oil for coconut oil?
You can omit it if you don’t want to use coconut oil, but the cheese will be a bit softer.
This turned out delicious! Used it for a vegan charcuterie board and it was a hit, even with my omnivore family members. I substituted crushed pecans for the almonds for the outside of the ball.
So happy it turned out great! Thanks for the great review Lindsey!
I was wondering if pine nuts or hemp hearts would work for something like this? Allergic to most tree nuts, so both cashews and almonds unfortunately can’t be used. Recipe looks yummy!
Hi Jennifer, I’m not sure, pine nuts might work but I’m not sure how the texture would be. Sunflower seeds may be an option to try!
Do you think this could be dyed so it has a red hue to it? I want to make it for my Halloween party next weekend and put it in a brain mold!
Sure! I recommend red gel food coloring because it’s very concentrated so you won’t need to add too much of it. All the best!
A favourite!
Awesome! Thanks Denise!
Holy Moly this is so good. I followed the recipe exactly as written (minus the 1/2 hour too early I took it out of the freezer because I was dying to taste it. 😁) I just started Vegan a couple days after Christmas! This recipe will definitely help me to get my “cheesy” fix satisfied. Thank you so much! I am really looking forward to trying your other recipes!
Awesome! So happy you enjoyed it April! Thanks for the wonderful comment and review.
Wow! Made this for my annual NYE Cheese Ball and it is amazing! Only tweak was I used smoked paprika and 1/4 tsp Harissa (an Indonesian hot pepper seasoning) and about 3 T sautéed red pepper. Scrumptious! Thanks again for this great recipe!!!
So pleased to have found your website. Made a totally vegetarian buffet for my son for Christmas, including your cheese ball, bbq sauce and pulled jackfruit, caramel cheesecake. Everything worked out perfectly and he was so chuffed not to be offered just cheese and bread. Love how you answer people’s questions and give very helpful tips. Only been vegan for 4 months and really enjoying the variety. Will defo be a regular visitor, it’s really annoying when you’ve spent a lot of money on the ingredients and it doesn’t work out, which you obviously appreciate and your step by step approach is fab.
Thanks so much for the lovely comment and review Sherrie! That sounds like an amazingly delicious Christmas spread.
I made this recipe for my omni sister and we were both blown away by it. Between the two of us, we devoured it in one sitting. It’s definitely a keeper!
Fantastic! Thanks so much Geri!
This is the first thing I brought to our thirsty thursday sip and chat and it was delicious, economical, easy to make and DEVOURED !!! Thank you so much
Perfect! Thanks so much for the great review! 🙂
I would make this and my gf is vegan.. but I am allergic to cashews… any alternatives?
Hi Kevin, this is answered in the Q&A section, slivered or blanched almonds would work as a sub.
what brand/model of food processor do you use/ recommend? i have a small food chopper, will that work?
Hi Shurl, we used our Vitamix blender for this. We have the 5200 model and love it. I think this would work in a food processor but it likely wouldn’t come out as smooth.
Loved this!! I left out the oil and water, added 1/2 t. Onion powder and replaced the nutritional yeast with 1/2 t. Poultry seasoning (gives a cheesy flavor without the yeasty flavor). It was a hit with my vegan and non vegan family members! Even my 9 month old loved it!
All my guests loved it. I made 4 small balls as everyone needed their own cheese ball. Nobody knew it was vegan and all my guests gobbled up their cheese ball. It worked out just as planned. Thanks for a great recipe.
That’s wonderful Deborah! Thanks for the great review!
Absolutely delicious. I made two small cheese balls, so I could give one away.
Great for parties. Everyone loved it.
Thank you for all your hard work and wonderful recipes
Thanks Sue!
Looks terrific. My question is why do you sometimes soak the cashews and sometimes not? I have a Blendtec which is actually a more powerful motor than Vitamix. Would this cheese be firmer without the soaking? Just curious. Enjoying your site beyond words!
Thanks Deb, so glad you enjoy the site! We do explain in the post why the cashews need to be soaked in this recipe. In this case, there is very little water used in the recipe so without soaking it can be very hard to get it blended (we use a Vitamix). You can certainly try it without soaking and yes it would result in a firmer cheese, but it may just be that you would be forced to add more liquid than the recipe calls for, in order to get it to blend. 🙂
Can this be frozen in advance and not change the texture? I would like to make this for our Christmas meal, but make it ahead.
Thanks, it looks divine!
-Ashlee
You certainly can freeze it ahead of time like you have in mind but there can be some small changes in texture, with the fresh herbs etc. This is why I prefer making it only a day or two ahead of time and keeping it in the fridge.
Whoa! This looks scrumptious! I’ll be trying this cheese recipe out soonest
Thanks Anna!