If you’ve been missing cream cheese in your dairy-free life, your suffering is now over. We’ve put our heads together to bring you the BEST vegan cream cheese made with recognizable ingredients! It’s thick, creamy, tangy, super spreadable, and ready to be best friends with bagels, frosting, and beyond.
Not only does it look, feel, and taste as good as the real thing, but it’s easy to make with just 1 blender, 8 ingredients, and 30 minutes required. Let us show you how it’s done!
How to Make Vegan Cream Cheese
This dreamy, savory spread couldn’t be easier to make! Simply soak, combine, and blend. Yep!
Each ingredient in this vegan cream cheese was carefully chosen and plays a unique and important role. First, we start with cashews for a thick, creamy, and neutral-tasting base. Thanks, cashews! We love ya.
Next, we add coconut yogurt, white vinegar, and lemon juice. The right balance of these tart and tangy ingredients is what makes this vegan cream cheese not just good, but the BEST.
Next, for savory, salty, and undeniably cheesy flavor, we add nutritional yeast, white miso paste, and a bit of sea salt. Lastly, we add melted coconut oil, which makes it ultra-creamy and also helps it become spreadable after chilling!
We hope you LOVE this vegan cream cheese! It’s:
Thick
Creamy
Savory
Tangy
Perfectly spreadable
& SO easy to make!
Use it on bagels, or in dips, frostings, cheesecakes, and beyond!
Love Vegan Cheese? Try these next:
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo @minimalistbaker on Instagram. Cheers, friends!
Servings 16 (2-Tbsp servings)
- 1 ½ cups raw cashews, soaked for 20 minutes in very hot water
- 1/3 cup water (plus more as needed)
- 2 ½ Tbsp unsweetened plain coconut yogurt (for store-bought, we prefer Culina or CocoJune)
- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
- 1 ½ Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 ¼ tsp white miso paste (or sub chickpea miso // learn about miso here)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup refined (odorless) coconut oil, melted (NOT virgin coconut oil or your cream cheese will taste like coconut)
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Add cashews to a heatproof bowl and cover with hot water by at least 1-2 inches. Soak for 20 minutes, then drain and discard the soaking water.
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To a high-speed blender, add the soaked cashews and all remaining ingredients except the coconut oil. Blend until very smooth, using the tamper as needed to encourage blending. You can add more water 1 tablespoon at a time as needed to help blend (avoid adding more than 1-2 tablespoons or it will become runny).
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Taste and adjust as needed, adding more lemon juice for acidity, coconut yogurt for brightness, miso paste or nutritional yeast for savory flavor, or more salt to taste. We added a generous pinch of salt.
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Once you’re happy with the flavor, blend in the melted coconut oil.
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Use right away, or for a firmer “cream cheese” texture, transfer to a container and chill for at least 2 hours. Enjoy spread on bagels or toast or as a dip for veggies and crackers.
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Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
*Prep time and total time do not include optional chilling.
*Recipe as written makes ~2 cups cream cheese. Depending on the size of your blender, it may have trouble blending a smaller batch.
*Using a food processor, you can get a thicker result (use only 1/4 cup water) but it definitely won’t have the same smooth texture. We prefer the silky smooth textureachieved using a blender. If using a food processor, blend for at least 5 minutes.
*Nutrition information is a rough estimate.
Serving: 1 two-tablespoon serving Calories: 108 Carbohydrates: 4.2 g Protein: 2.6 g Fat: 9.5 g Saturated Fat: 4.7 g Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.1 g Monounsaturated Fat: 3.2 g Trans Fat: 0 g Cholesterol: 0 mg Sodium: 90 mg Potassium: 99 mg Fiber: 0.6 g Sugar: 0.8 g Vitamin A: 0 IU Vitamin C: 0 mg Calcium: 5 mg Iron: 0.9 mg
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