Easy Vegan Cashew Cheese

Super easy and healthy raw vegan cashew cheese that you can whip up in 5 minutes! Paleo, dairy free and gluten free.

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Vegan cashew cheese is a ‘nut cheese’, made by blending raw soaked cashews with nutritional yeast, water or non-dairy milk, and sweet Dijon mustard. It’s an easy and perfect healthy snack for pot lucks, or even as morning or afternoon snacks in kids’ lunch boxes.

It’s so delicious and can be used to add texture and a creamy savory flavor to almost anything! I personally like it as a dip with baby carrots, cucumbers, avocados or crackers. I also like to use it as a replacement for ricotta cheese in vegan lasagna, in pasta sauces, salad dressings, soups, pizza base sauces and dips.

This classic cashew cheese base recipe is so versatile you can flavor it in many ways by blending it with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, avocados, lentils and even truffle oil or truffle sea salt.

I’ve also tried this recipe with macadamia, pistachios and almonds and they all taste great! I prefer to use cashews over the others because of its lower fat content compared to most nuts. Approximately 82% of their fat is unsaturated fatty acids, plus about 66% of this unsaturated fatty acid content are heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, similar to those found in olive oil.

The nutritional yeast is the secret ingredient that provides the nutty and cheesy flavor as well as a nutritional boost to whatever it’s added to. It is deactivated yeast made from Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. which contains a significant amount of B-complex vitamins including B12, as well as folic acid, selenium, zinc, and protein.