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:

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.
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.
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.
Pour the cheese mixture into 2 - 3 ramekins or small bowls, and let cool uncovered in the refrigerator for serval hours to firm up.
Store in an air tight container for up to one week in the refrigerator.

If you like this recipe, then try these:

Traditional beer cheese soups are normally creamy, but I like some bite in my soup.

So for this recipe we decided to add potatoes. They makes the soup a little more hearty and add a nice texture.

If you still prefer your beer cheese soup creamy, then you can blend the soup after it has finished cooking! Easy Peasy! Now everyone is happy:)

This vegan beer cheese soup recipe calls for 2 cups of our beer cheese sauce. I never have trouble finding ways to use up our beer cheese!

We also have a recipe for a shreddable, sliceable beer cheese that would be perfect for garnishing this hearty soup!

We also baked up some of our Soft Challah Pretzels to dip in the soup, but made them into cute little bites instead of giant pretzels.

And just think, you can dip the leftover pretzels into the leftover beer cheese.

EEEKKK!! The recipe that just keeps giving! Beer, cheese, potatoes, soft pretzels….all I can say to that is CHEERS!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups Vegan Beer Cheese Sauce
3 cups dairy free milk
2 tablespoons vegan butter
4 cups vegetable broth
2 russet poatoes, peeled and diced
1 yellow onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 teaspoons dried parsley, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup all purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 can/ bottle of beer, I used a lager
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
optional: 1/2-1 cup vegan beer cheese cheddar shreds

INSTRUCTIONS:

Heat butter in a large pot, or dutch oven over medium /high heat. Once the butter has melted, add the onions, garlic, and celery and cook until the onions become translucent. Sprinkle the flour over the onion and celery, and allow it to cook for several minutes.
Pour in the milk, broth, and beer cheese sauce. Add the potatoes, mustard, salt and pepper.
Add in the cream cheese, using a whisk to make sure it breaks up and mixes into the soup. Finally add the beer.
Let the soup simmer for about half an hour to 45 minutes over low heat so it can thicken. Be sure to stir a few times to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. If you taste the soup and feel like you want more cheese, you can add in the vegan cheddar shreds. I personally like it without the added cheese, but some prefer it extra cheesy. You can also just add sherds to the bowls when serving!

You can serve the soup with Soft vegan challah pretzels. We took our Soft challah pretzel dough and formed little pretzel bites to go with this soup! But you could also make soft pretzel sticks or a traditional pretzel shape. To make the bites, follow the instructions for the regular pretzel recipe, but instead of forming them into a pretzel shape, pinch off golf ball sizes of dough and roll them into balls. Continue with the recipe process. Your bake time on the bites will be shorter, so just keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven once they are nice and golden brown.