Vegan cranberry cheese

21 Nov 2017

I have to say this is the best vegan cheese I've ever made. The flavours came out just perfect and the sweetness of the cranberries in combination with the savoury flavour of the vegan cheese is an absolute winner. This dairy-free cheese recipe is super easy and perfect for a vegan Christmas as well.

I made a vegan herb cheese before, which was amazing (recipe here), but I personally like this one even more. The flavours are perfectly balanced, a perfect treat in the cold time of the year.

And it's also super easy to make! I used agar to bind the cheese (it's a seaweed, a natural vegan gelatine!). I bought mine on Amazon (see link here). And don't worry, you won't just use it once, it's so versatile, you can use it in many different dishes, like in the jelly of my vegan jaffa cake, my vegan boiled egg or my strawberry cheese cake. And then there is also nutritional yeast which you can buy either online or in health food shops (like Holland & Barrat in the UK). Again, nutritional yeast is super versatile, you can add it to anything to give it some extra umami flavour or also add some eggy flavour to atofu scramble. It's really worth investing in both.

You can get all other ingredients in your supermarket. Then you blend them, heat up to activate the vegan gelatine, add cranberries, pour into a dish and let set in the fridge. You can make you own vegan cheese in less than 1.5 hours, so amazing! It's an easy vegan recipe to make for when you're entertaining guests and the flavours are perfect for the Christmas time.

And if you want to see a whole vegan cheese playlist then go to my youtube channel, subscribe and check out this and many other vegan recipe playlists:

www.youtube.com/c/exceedinglyvegan

My vegan cranberry cheese was absolutely amazing on rye bread. But you can also have it on crackers or crudités.

And it really looked like cheese as well. I let a few omnivore friends of mine taste it and they loved it as well.

This dairy-free cashew cheese is perfect for sharing at your vegan Christmas party.

Cranberries and vegan cheese are the perfect sweet and savoury combination in the cold months. Is your mouth watering yet? ;-)

VEGAN CRANBERRY CHEESE INGREDIENTS:

Vegan cheese base ingredients:

80g cashew nuts
150ml water
3 tbsp nutritional yeast (nooch)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
1/3 tsp garlic powder
5g agar powder (or 3 tbsp corn starch instead)

Other ingredients:

A handful of sweetened and dried cranberries
Black cracked pepper (optional)
Bread or crackers

Make cooking easier with my ingredient converter: Click to open

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METHOD:

Add all vegan cheese base ingredients to a smoothie blender and blend until you get a smooth consistency. I originally used agar powder for this recipe but if you don't have any then box standard corn starch will do just as well.

Blend well until you get a very smooth consistency. If you have a half decent blender there is no need to soak the cashews before.

Take a handful of cranberries and quarter them. You just want small cranberry pieces, not whole dried cranberries in your cashew cheese.

Pour the cheese base ingredients into a pan and heat up on high to medium heat (that's important to activate the agar powder). Make sure you stir all the time so it doesn't burn. After a few minutes it will turn into a thick paste and stick together. Then add the cranberries and mix in (check out the video for reference in regards to what the cheese base should look like).

Take off the heat and transfer into a dish. Spread and distribute evenly.

Let cool down in the fridge for at least 1 hour for it to set.

Serve with some bread or crackers. If you want you can also sprinkle some cracked pepper on top.

Keep in the fridge like cheese. My friends and I normally ate it within a day, so I don't know how long it would normally keep in the fridge. I reckon 2-3 days should be fine. But let me know your experience.

Enjoy!

And i you like vegan cheese recipes also check out my easy vegan cashew cheese slices.