Basic Vegan Cream Cheese

Cream cheese is a dairy product made from cream and milk. It is a soft, mild-tasting cheese that is meant to be consumed fresh. Being vegan or preferring not to eat dairy products does not mean you can’t have cream cheese. Vegan cream cheese can now be found in major supermarkets and health food stores but you can easily make your own at home. With this recipe, you can make a basic soy-based cream cheese with a few easy steps. What’s even greater is that this recipe uses only 2 ingredients; soy yogurt and salt. You can use this vegan cream cheese as a spread or in any recipe that calls for a regular cream cheese.

Ingredients:

• 1 17.5-oz tub of soy yogurt
• ½ tsp salt

Instructions:

This recipe takes about 10 minutes to make. The yogurt needs to strain for 18 hours. Serves 4.

Place a strainer in a bowl, then line it with a piece of muslin cloth.
Pour the soy yogurt into the strainer.
Fold excess muslin cloth over the yogurt.
Place the bowl in the fridge and let the yogurt strain for 18 hours.
Transfer drained soy yogurt into a bowl.
Add salt, then whisk until the salt has dissolved and the mixture is smooth.

Ideas And Tips:

Aside from soy yogurt, you can use other non-dairy yogurts such as almond yogurt, cashew yogurt, rice yogurt or hemp yogurt.

This vegan cream cheese can store in the fridge for up to 3 days.

As this is a basic recipe, you can enhance the flavor by adding roasted garlic, lemon zest or chopped fresh herbs such as oregano, parsley, thyme, dill or basil.

Aside from muslin cloth, you can use fine cheesecloth, gauze, or nut milk bag.

images – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS9UdTIuW7Y