Sliceable Vegan Beer Cheddar

I love vegan cheese. All kinds of vegan cheese.

I also love beer. All kinds of beer.

In the summer months when I am too hot and lazy to cook, I could live off of vegan cheese and crackers, and maybe some raw veggies and fruit for good measure. Ya know, just so I don’t feel guilty and all that.

In the past I have made a beer cheese dip, and a beer cheese and potato soup so that I could combine my two of my favorite things. But its far too hot right now in Florida for soup.

So that got me thinking, why not just make a sliceable vegan beer cheese so I could eat it as a summer meal or snack, with a nice cold beer. Like, seriously, what took me so long for this one.

So I did just that. I made an easy quick set, agar cheddar, with cashews and my favorite light lager, Yuengling Flight. And don’t judge my love of light beer, at 95 calories, I’ll take it. It’s crisp and delicious, AND it’s still swimsuit season, so gotta watch it. I eat a TON so can’t be drinking all my calories.

This vegan beer cheese is good on cracker, nachos, in beer cheese soup if its not summer and as hot as the surface of the sun where you live, it would make a tasty quesadilla, grilled cheese, and would probably be good on pizza, too.

Agar firms up starting at room temp and will firm up more once cold. It also melts back down once it gets warm as does coconut oil, and that’s why we use it. I am often asked if another oil will work in these cheese recipes, and they will not. You need an oil that solidifies once cold to help the cheese set up nice an firm. Agar on its own has a more gelatinous texture. So it needs a little help from its coconutty friends. If you use filtered or refined coconut oil, there will be NO coconut flavor. So make sure you do that.

Also if you can not eat cashews or want to save a few bucks, sunflower seeds will work in this recipe as well. Same measurements, same instructions!

So if you love cheese and beer, then just go ahead and make yourself a batch of this magic! And just go ahead and drink the leftover beer while you wait for the cheese to set up. No judgments here!!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons dry cashews (or sunflower seeds)

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 2 teaspoons paprika

• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup lager beer

• 3/4 cups unsweetened plant milk

• 2 tablespoons agar powder

• 1/4 cup triple filtered coconut oil

• 2 tablespoons sauerkraut

INSRUCTIONS:

1. In a food processor add the cashews and pulse until broken down. Next add the nutritional yeast, salt, garlic, paprika, sauerkraut, oil, and turmeric. Blend until the ingredients are combined. DO NOT OVER PULSE. You don’t want to end up with cashew butter.

2. In a medium sized sauce pan, combine beer, milk, agar, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. You want the mixture to thicken to a thin pudding like consistency. Because of the beer, the mixture is going to pretty foamy and bubbly. Thats ok. As long as it simmers for about 5 minutes it will be fine. Just keep stirring with rubber spatula.

3. Add the liquid mixture to the nut mixture in the food processor and blend. Mix for a few minutes until all of the ingredients are well incorporated, and smooth.

4. Pour the cheese mixture into 2 - 3 ramekins or small bowls, and let cool uncovered in the refrigerator for serval hours to firm up.

5. Store in an air tight container for up to one week in the refrigerator.

If you like this recipe, then try these:

Vegan Pimento Cheddar with Coconut Milk

Vegan Beer Cheese Potato Soup

Sliceable Smoky Garlic Cashew Cheese

Vegan Smoky Sunflower Cheddar

Hard vegan cheeses are easier than most people think. Agar is vegan gelatin that you can easily find online or in your local asian food market that helps the cheese to solidify. You can find it in powdered or flake form.

Because so many people have allergies to tree nuts and coconut, I wanted to include a seed cheese option. You can easily swap out sunflower seeds in most nut cheese recipes with great success! You can just exchange equal amount of seed for nuts and follow the recipe as written!

I love this recipe because you can slice and even shred this cheese. If you are not a fan of smokey cheeses, just eliminate the liquid smoke and you will still be left with a tasty cheddar, perfect for sandwiches, cheese plates, tacos, and more.

Also this recipe uses triple filtered coconut oil. I buy mine at Trader Joe's. Triple filtered coconut oil does not have a coconut flavor like regular coconut oil, so if you choose to use regular, you may find the cheese will have a hint of coconut flavor to it. It may also be labeled as refined coconut oil. They are the same thing!

So if you are allergic to nuts, or have not been a fan of coconut milk cheese, I hope you will enjoy this option!

This cheese is also perfect for sending in school lunch boxes to avoid any allergy issues with you kids friends! I always worry about our kid’s friends with nut allergies when they visit our house, and am so glad I have an option to serve them and still keep it vegan!

Sunflower seeds are also relatively inexpensive! This cheese will cost you easily less than half of what you would pay for vegan cheese in the store. I use small snack size bowls to mold this cheese and can yield three wheels of cheese for around $4-5! If that is not a reason to start making your own cheese, I don’t know what is!!

So let me know what you think of this inexpensive, allergy friendly vegan cheese! I hope you love it and it becomes a staple in your house like it has ours!

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INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cups raw sunflower seeds

• 1 and 1/2 cups plant milk (we used almond milk)

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

• 1/4 cup sauerkraut without the liquid

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons tapioca starch

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika

• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke

• 2 tablespoons agar powder

• 1/4 cup refined or filtered coconut oil

• Juice from 1/2 lemon

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Soak sunflower seeds in hot water for a few hours, or cover in water in microwave safe container and microwave on high for 3 minutes

2. Drain seeds and them add along with coconut oil, sauerkraut, nutritional yeast, starch, and seasoning to a food processor or blender. Blend for about a minute .

3. Add the milk and agar powder to a medium sauce pan. Heat over medium heat, whisking continuously unit the mixture comes to a boil and begins to thicken. Once thickened allow the mixture to simmer for a few minutes, but keep whisking.

4. Add the milk and agar mixture to the food processor or blender and mix on high for several minute, unit the mixture becomes creamy smooth.

5. Transfer the mixture to several small bowls or cheese molds. Place in the refrigerator uncovered for serval hours to allow the cheese to firm up.

6. Store firm cheese in an air tight container in the fridge for about a week.

If you like this recipe, then try these:

Sliceable Smoky Garlic Cashew Cheese

Smoky Coconut Milk Chile Cheddar Cheese

Easy Vegan All Purpose Cheese Sauce

Vegan Pimento Cheddar Cheese with Coconut Milk

I love experimenting with different vegan cheese flavors and bases. I really love using coconut milk because it’s easy and affordable.

I am often asked if these cheeses have a strong coconut flavor and the answer is, not really. I always used refined coconut oil which has little to no coconut flavor at all, and all of the spices and other ingredients in the cheese mask the flavor of the milk very well.

I love to make homemade pimento cheese and often do! I have always just made a vegan cheddar using coconut milk to make it, or in a pinch have bought some vegan cheddar shreds. BUT, how much more delicious is my pimento cheese spread now going to be when I use this vegan pimento cheddar to make the spread!! Double pimento and double delicious.

We added jarred red peppers to our recipe and can be used interchangeably with pimentos if you do not have any on hand. I normally have one or the other and just use what I have.

This is a quick set cheese and is so simple to make, there is no reason to keep overpaying for store bought vegan cheese! You can have delicious vegan cheese, start to finish in about 2 hours, and for a quarter of the grocery store price!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 can full fat coconut milk

• 2 tablespoons agar powder

• 2 teaspoons light miso paste

• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

• 1 teaspoon turmeric

• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika

• 1/4 cup diced red jarred red peppers or pimentos

• 1/4 cup refined coconut oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. If using a jarred red pepper, remove a piece from the jar and pat it with a paper towel to remove some of the liquid. Next coarsely chop the pepper. If using pimentos, line a bowl with paper towels and put the 1/4 cup pimentos in the bowl to try and draw out some of their liquid.

2. In a food processor or high speed blender, add all of the ingredients EXCEPT the milk, and agar and peppers/ pimentos.

3. Pulse a few times to mix it all up.

4. Add the milk, and agar to a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until mixture thickens to the constancy of a thin pudding. This only takes a few minutes.

5. Add the milk mixture to the ingredients in the food processor, and mix for about a minute.

6. Drop the peppers/ pimentos int the mix and process for a minute until they are all chopped up and incorporated. The mixture will quickly begin to thicken as agar begins to solidify at room temperature.

7. Transfer to the mixture to several small bowls or cheese molds. I can fill three small bowls with this recipe.

8. Allow the cheese to harden in the refrigerator uncovered for a few hours.

9. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week or so.

10. This cheese will shred and make a pretty tasty pimento cheese spread!

If you like this recipe, then try these:

Sliceable Smoky Garlic Cashew Cheese

Vegan Pimento Cheese

Coconut Milk Colby Jack Cheese

Vegan White Stilton with Peaches

I make a lot of vegan cheese. It’s easier than most people think, fairly quick, and really affordable to make your own.

All you need are some basic ingredients that you can find at your local super market, plus some agar agar powder. Agar is a vegan gelatin make from seaweed and what is used to solidify the cheese. You can find agar on amazon, or your local Asian food store. It is also pretty inexpensive for the amount of cheese you will get from one bag!

Although vegan cheese options have come a long way over the years in super markets, I can still only find flavors like cheddar, mozzarella, and a few varieties of cheese slices.

If you are like me and miss more artisan style cheeses, you best bet is to start making your own! Like this vegan peach stilton!! I used to impatiently wait for Trader Joe’s to put out their seasonal stilton’s, peach being my most favorite. Traditional Stilton is a milder cheese and a little crumbly. It often is made with different fruits. I personally love the subtle sweetness of the peaches mixed with the tanginess of the cheese. Its perfect for snacking with crackers or adding to a salad.

Recently my friends Brad and Mike ( you will be learning more about them very soon as we have a super fun project in the works for the site) gave us a a jar or homemade spiced peaches. I think there was some kind of booze in the jar along with some delicious fall spices. I was told not to open them for several more weeks, so they found their way to the back of my pantry and were forgotten about. So when I finally found them again recently, I knew exactly what I was going to make with them!!

You can use any canned or jarred peaches you can find. You just need two halves. They are normally canned that way. You could also substitute the peaches with pears very easily if you are not a fan of peaches.

Listen, don’t let a new or unfamiliar ingredient intimate you! This cheese is so quick and easy to make and pretty fool proof! You will be so amazed at how easy it was to make and how delicious home made vegan cheese is! And if you are on the fence about making a fruity cheese, don’t be. It is soooooo good!! Hooray for Stilton and thanks Trader Joe’s for your never ending inspiration!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 can of full fat coconut milk or cream

• 2 tablespoons agar agar powder

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

• 2 teaspoons miso paste

• 1 teaspoons of salt

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

• 2 tablespoons tapioca starch

• 1/4 cup sauerkraut (no juice, just cabbage)

• 1/4 melted cup refined coconut oil

• 2 halves of jarred or canned peaches ( we used homemade canned spiced peaches)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a food processor or high speed blender, add all of the ingredients EXCEPT the milk, agar, and peaches.

2. Pulse a few times to mix it all up.

3. Now add the milk and agar to a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until mixture thickens to the consistency of a thin pudding.

4. Add the milk mixture to the ingredients in the food processor, and mix for about a minute. The mixture will quickly begin to thicken as agar begins to solidify at room temperature.

5. Use a paper towel to pat off as much liquid from the peaches as you can. Finely dice the peaches and fold them into the cheese mixture with a rubber spatula. Don’t blend them! It will mince them up too much.

6. Transfer to the mixture to a few ramekins or small bowls. You should be able to fill 2 or 3 small bowls.

7. Place bowls uncovered in the fridge for a few hours, or until the cheese has fully hardened and is a sliceable consistency.

If you like this recipe, try these:

Sliceable Smoky Garlic Cashew Cheese

Vegan Herb Almond Goat Cheese

Coconut Milk Colby Jack Cheese

Vegan Coconut Kimcheese (Kimchi Cheese)

I can eat an entire jar of kimchi by myself in a week, and often do.

I can also eat my weight in vegan cheese if given the chance. So for me, mixing the two was a no brainer, and so I introduce to you KIMCHEESE!

I often add sauerkraut to my vegan cheese recipes to give them that cheesy zip, and kimchi works just as well!

This cheese is tangy, spicy, quick and easy, but most importantly it is DELICIOUS! Even my husband who swears he does not like kimchi, inhaled this one!

Vegan cheese making is really so easy, especially quick set agar cheeses like this one. The mix up in minutes and are set in a few hours.

There is not a replacement for the coconut oil in this cheese, however. It is a key ingredient in helping solidify this kimchee vegan cheese. Agar is a vegan gelatin and on its own, the texture is not firm enough for my liking. The coconut milk solidifies once cold and helps get a nice firm texture, and aids in the remelting of the cheese once cooked.

This vegan cheese will shred, slice and melt, so It will work beautifully for snacking, salads, or even the best grilled cheese you may ever eat! If you can not find agar powder locally, check our pantry staples for a link to order on amazon prime!

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Ingredients:

• 1 can of full fat coconut milk or cream

• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

• 2 teaspoons miso paste

• 1 teaspoons of salt

• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

• 1/4 cup triple refined coconut oil, melted

• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon agar powder

• 3 tablespoons arrow root or tapioca starch

• 3/4 cups vegan kimchi

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Instructions:

1. In a food processor or high speed blender, add all of the ingredients EXCEPT the milk, agar, and kimchi.

2. Pulse until everything is all mixed up.

3. Next, add the milk and agar powder to a medium sauce pan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 2 minutes, until mixture thickens to the consistency of a thin pudding.

4. Add the milk mixture to the ingredients in the food processor and mix for about a minute. The mixture will quickly begin to thicken as the agar begins to solidify at room temperature. Once everything is well mixed, add the kimchi and just pulse a few times to get it all chopped up, and mixed in.

5. Transfer to the mixture to a few ramekins or small bowls. You should be able to fill 2 or 3 small bowls.

6. Allow the cheese to harden in the refrigerator uncovered for several hours.

7. Once the cheese is set, store in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week.

Vegan Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

Who doesn’t miss cheese sticks?! Half of my kids had never even had one, so I knew I needed to try and create a vegan cheese stick recipe so I could share this snack joy with them!.

These dairy free, vegan mozzarella cheese sticks are super simple to whip together.

They are made with coconut milk, making them more allergen friendly for kids to pack in their school lunches, because the last thing we want to do is exclude anyone with a nut allergy from this tasty treat!!!

They are also made with a vegan/plant based gelatin called agar agar powder. You can find agar at Asian markets or online at amazon. I prefer Living Jin brand but use whatever brand you can find or like.

Agar is activated when heated and will solidify pretty quickly once it begins to cool. So the result is a quick set vegan cheese. It only takes minutes for the mixture to come together, and a few hours for your cheese to set.

I am often asked if the oil can be left out, and in this recipe it can not. Agar solidifies and tends to have a gelatinous texture on its own. The filtered coconut oil helps get you a firmer cheese with a more palatable and cheese like texture. There are recipes out there for agar cheese without coconut oil, but they include extra starches and typically xanthan gum to help thicken and set the cheese.

If you are not into cheese sticks, you can mold this cheese in some small bowls and slice it for sandwiches or shred it for pizza.

So don’t be afraid to try and make your own vegan cheese at home. Its super easy, and really affordable. You know every ingredient that is going into it and can feel good about what you or your family is eating!

Happy cheese snacking, y'all!

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INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups of full fat coconut milk or cream in a can (make sure it's at room temp, and shake the can very well first. You need the liquid as well as the creamy part, and since they tend to separate, a good shake will help mix it back up)

• 1/3 cup vegan plain yogurt

• 2 tablespoon of lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons miso paste

• 1 teaspoons of salt

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

• 1/4 melted cup triple refined coconut oil

• 2 tablespoons agar powder

• 1 teaspoon onion powder

• 3 tablespoons tapioca starch

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COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a food processor or high speed blender, add all of the ingredients EXCEPT the milk, and agar.

2. Pulse a few times to mix it all up.

3. Now add the milk, and agar to a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until mixture thickens to the constancy of a thin pudding.

4. Add the milk mixture to the ingredients in the food processor, and mix for about a minute. The mixture will quickly begin to thicken as agar begins to solidify at room temperature.

5. Transfer the mixture to an 8x8 pan.

6. Allow the cheese to harden in the refrigerator uncovered for about 2 hours.

7. Once the cheese is set, remove from the pan and cut into sticks. Store in an air tight container for up to week.

*You can also pour the mixture into small bowls to mold if you just want a shreddable, sliceable mozzarella that will melt!

Smoky Cashew Cheddar

Hard vegan cheeses are easier than most people think.

Agar is vegan gelatin that you can easily find online or in your local asian food market that helps the cheese to solidify. You can find it in powdered or flake form.  

I love this recipe because you can slice and even shred this cheese. If you are not a fan of smokey cheeses, just eliminate the liquid smoke and you will still be left with a tasty cheddar, perfect for sandwiches, cheese plates, tacos, and more.

 Also this recipe uses triple filtered coconut oil. I buy mine at Trader Joe's. Triple filtered coconut oil does not have a coconut flavor like regular coconut oil, so if you choose to use regular, you may find the cheese will have a hint of coconut flavor to it.

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INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons dry cashews

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon onion powser

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 2 teaspoons paprika

• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

• 1 teapspoon liquid smoke

• 1 and 3/4 cups almond or coconut milk

• 8 teaspoons of agar powder

• 1/4 cup triple filtered coconut oil

• 2 teaspoons light miso paste

• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

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COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a food processor, combine cashews, nutritional yeast, onion powder, salt, garlic, paprika, and turmeric. Pulse until the nuts are well ground. DO NOT OVER PULSE. You don’t want to end up with cashew butter.

2. In a medium sized sauce pan, combine milk, agar, and oil, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. You want the mixture to thicken to a thin pudding like consistency.

3. Add the liquid mixture to the nut mixture in the food processor, along with the miso, liquid smoke, and vinegar.

4. Mix for a few minutes until all of the ingredients are well incorporated, and smooth.

5. Pour the cheese mixture into 2 - 3 ramekins or small bowls, and let cool uncovered in the refrigerator for serval hours to firm up.

6. Store in an air tight container for up to one week in the refrigerator.