Easy Dairy-Free Veggie Cream Cheese
This easy vegan cream cheese recipe has had me happy dancing around the kitchen every morning this week! Dairy free veggie cream cheese requires zero cashews, is bursting with flavor, has a soft creamy tofu based texture you have to taste to believe, and requires very minimal effort on your part. Roll up your sleeves and pour yourself a strong cup of coffee, my friend. We’re making vegan cream cheese!
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One day over holiday break, fueled by a healthy amount of good champagne and vegan cheeseball leftovers, it occurred to me that we could easily adapt our tofu cheeseball recipe to make cream cheese. Or, more specifically, veggie cream cheese with an epic flavor and luxurious texture that just begs to be generously smeared over allllll the bagels. Mmmm, bagels.
I was pretty certain this was a genius idea, and when I told T, he emphatically agreed.
Now, I feel I should probably note: I love the wide variety of vegan cream cheese options we have in our local grocery stores these days. But when you love cream cheese as much as I do, it’s pretty exciting to know you can make a kickass version right at home that’s 4xs the size and a fraction of the price. It makes me feel all empowered and excited to be alive.
As you can see, I had high expectations. 🙂
I’m happy to say the recipe we’re sharing with you today totally lives up to the hype in my head. It has totally transformed my breakfast time and sandwich time and really, any-time-I-want-a-snack time. And I’m confident it can do the same for you.
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How to Make Vegan Cream Cheese
So, let’s talk about how easy it is to make this vegan cream cheese: You’ll start by blending up some tofu with refined coconut oil, lemon juice, sea salt, and water.
After a few minutes on medium-high, the oil will start to emulsify, resulting in a creamy beauuutiful texture. This part is key. I actually had a few test versions that I didn’t let emulsify fully, and they were…not great. So, practice patience with this step and stop to scrape the sides as needed.
Next, you’ll stir in one of those dry veggie soup mix packets. Many of the brands we find at our local grocery store are vegan, but a few have some weird add-ins like chicken fat (seriously…whyyy *shakes fist in air*), so be sure to read ingredients here. I got the soup mix tip from T; it’s always been his favorite easy way to liven up cream cheese!
Once the soup mix is well-incorporated, you’ll let it set in the fridge overnight. This allows the coconut oil to solidify, giving this vegan cream cheese the purrrfect spread-able texture. When you wake, it will be almost as exciting as Christmas morning felt when you were a kid. At least, that’s how it felt for me.
More Tofu Cheese Recipes:
- Vegan Cheese Ball
- Dairy Free Goat Cheese
- Vegan Champagne Cheesecake
- Tofu Feta Cheese Block
- How to Make Tofu Cheese (guide!)
We totally hope you give this vegan cream cheese recipe a try! It would be such a great idea to add to your weekly meal prep if you’re into that sorta thing. Make one big batch that you can throw on bagels, toast, sandwiches, pinwheels, whatever all week long!
And when you do make this recipe, we’d really love to hear about it! In case you haven’t noticed, that’s kind of our favorite thing. 🙂 You can rate the recipe and leave a comment below or tag us in your awesome photos on Instagram. If you’re not already following along, we’re @theplantpowercouple with the “the”.
Until next time, friends. Enjoy!
Easy Dairy-Free Veggie Cream Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 16- oz block extra firm tofu
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp refined coconut oil melted
- 3 Tbsp lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp water
- 1.5 tsp sea salt
- 1 1.4- oz package dry veggie soup mix
Instructions
- Open the tofu package and use your hands to crumble it into the blender or food processor. Add the oil, lemon juice, water, and salt. Cover and blend until the oil emulsifies and the mixture is smooth and creamy. This part is key, so be patient. It can take several minutes for the mixture to go from grainy to smooth. Stop to scrape the sides as needed and use a tamper if you have one.
- Pour the mixture into a large air-tight container and stir in the soup mix. Once incorporated, cover the container and place it in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight to set.
- When the mixture has set, taste and adjust seasonings as you see fit. Then, spread it on bagels, toast, sandwiches, ALL. THE. THINGS. You can store leftovers in the fridge for a week or the freezer for a month.
Watch our Creamy Vegan Vegetable Spread web story.
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