Vegan Baked Spiced Cashew Cheese
I’ve been a fan of raw cashew cheese for quite a while now. Recently I decided to experiment with baking my cashew cheese to expand my library of nut cheese textures. Today I’m super excited to share a very successful experiment, Vegan Baked Spiced Cashew Cheese.
You can definitely make a delicious raw cheese with a spread-like consistency by simple blending the ingredients together or letting it sit overnight without baking it. What I enjoy about baking the cheese is that a harder outside “rind” is created and the inside is still super creamy. Simply put…YUM.
The recipe calls for an all-purpose seasoning blend. I used this one but feel free to get creative!
Vegan Baked Spiced Cashew Cheese
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Ilene Godofsky
Recipe type: appetizer
Cuisine: vegan, gluten-free
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked at least 4 hours
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbs tamari
- 1 tbs olive oil
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ground black pepper to taste
- water, added as needed
- paprika
- all-purpose seasoning blend
Instructions
- Drain and rinse cashews.
- Combine all ingredients (except paprika and seasoning blend) in blender or food processor until smooth. Add just enough water to help things blend smoothly.
- Line a strainer with cheesecloth. Pour cheese mixture over cheesecloth. Place in refrigerator and let sit overnight.
- Form mixture into round and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with paprika and seasoning blend.
- Bake for 40 minutes at 250°, until edges are firm and slightly darkened. Let cool before enjoying.
I have been trying to make a vegan chesee, this looks like a nice start. Pinned!
Yay! 🙂
Wow, this looks amazing! I also love cashew cheeses, but have never tried a baked one. The soft inside and hard outside sounds just so yummy! Thanks for this idea 🙂
I’m excited to try this as I’ve never made nut cheese. I have one question. After putting the mixture into the cheesecloth you say to put it into the refrigerator. Should it first be wrung out to remove any liquid?
Thanks for the recipe and your help.
If there’s a lot of excess liquid you can give it a squeeze but I wouldn’t worry about it! The liquid should drain while it sits overnight and you’ll be all set. Let me know how you like it! 🙂
I have this straining in the fridge right now! Mine did come out sort of thick. Your instructions said to pour over the cheesecloth. I had to scoop mine. I wonder now if I didn’t get it smooth enough and maybe should have used more water?
Having to scoop it out should be totally fine, as long as the mixture is smooth! It takes a little bit of trial and error to figure out the right texture, but honestly it should take good no matter what! 🙂
Ok, so it’s very tasty, but it came out much darker in color than yours. Any idea why? I cut down on the mustard, but that’s the only change I made. Yours looks much “cheesier”. :/
Something I’ve noticed about making nut cheese is that it tends to come out a little different each time! The difference could have to do with the amount of water or thickness of the “round”. For a creamier cheese you can try baking it for a shorter amount of time! 🙂
I JUST baked this!!! The best vegaqn cheese ever. I added 3 TBS water to blend and then baked for 50 min to make it harder inside (no water came out from the overnight draining and it looked wet and fine). It was absolutely amazing!!! Thank you! BTW: how long does it keep in the fridge?
So happy you enjoyed it! I like to bake the cheese for a little longer sometimes to harden up the texture as well. I would say it says fresh in the fridge for about 4 days. Enjoy!
I’ll post you a pic of it for you on FB if I can 🙂 THANKS!
Yes, please!! 🙂
This is really good! I was a super cheese lover in a past life (who am I kidding, still am). But I stay away from dairy these days. Only thing I miss is cheese. So glad I found this recipe. It satisfies my cheese craving and it costs a lot less than some of the really good vegan nut cheeses at Whole Foods.
I’m glad you enjoyed!! I also love that the ingredients cost way less than store bought bought nut! 🙂
What is in the seasoning blend??
I used this blend: http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Organic-All-Purpose-Seasoning-2-08-Ounce/dp/B000WR8TK4
Enjoy!
This was absolutely delicious. So good I had to hide it for the working boy to try 🙂
I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
This is by far the BEST cashew cheese I’ve ever had. THANK YOU!!
Awesome, that’s so great to hear!!
This is SO DELICIOUS! 🙂 Made the mix 2 days ago, only got around to baking it today and me oh my, I love this slight crisp ‘crust’ it has. So good. I can’t wait to bring it to get togethers/ afternoon teas/ dinners!
Some small changes I made: I used white miso paste instead of tamari (I’ve used tamari/ soy in these sorts of recipes before and I’ve not personally liked the taste) and added a tbsp of lemon juice.
(The unbaked, unseasoned taste is SOOOO GOOD straight from the blender, I did eat some with a spoon – would make a fab dip!)
I’m so glad you loved the cheese! I love this recipe too! Your changes sounds really delicious, I’ll have to try it with miso next time!
I have the cheese chilling in the fridge right now and am so excited to try it! As a european I do have one question though; do you mean degrees fahrenheit or celsius?
Amazing!! All of my recipe instructions are in Fahrenheit. I hope you love the cheese as much as I do!