Vegan Coconut 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!

Vegan Pimento Cheddar Cheese with Coconut Milk

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

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.
In a food processor or high speed blender, add all of the ingredients EXCEPT the milk, and agar and peppers/ pimentos.
Pulse a few times to mix it all up.
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.
Add the milk mixture to the ingredients in the food processor, and mix for about a minute.
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.
Transfer to the mixture to several small bowls or cheese molds. I can fill three small bowls with this recipe.
Allow the cheese to harden in the refrigerator uncovered for a few hours.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week or so.
This cheese will shred and make a pretty tasty pimento cheese spread!

If you like this recipe, then try these:

When I was a kid my step mom always kept a tub of pimento cheese in our fridge.

It completely grossed me out. Not that I ever once tried it, I just somewhere along the line decide I didi’t like it and that was that.

Flash forward to becoming an adult, and it is now one of my absolute favorite things. And now I want to cry for all those lost years where I could have been and should have been eating one of my most favorite foods.

I make a lot of homemade vegan cheese. Often I make a quick coconut cheddar to whip up a batch of pimento cheese and recently posted a recipe for an easy coconut milk pimento flavored cheddar to make the most perfect batch of pimento cheese spread even. If you are feeling frisky and want to try your hand at cheese making, I have over 30 cheese recipes for you to try! You can also any pre made store bought vegan cheese you like.

The secret ingredients to a perfect pimento cheese are onion and vegan cream cheese! The onion adds a new element of flavor and the cream cheese adds more cheese goodness while lending some more creaminess to the spread.

If you like you pimento cheese a little spicy you can add a few splashes of hot sauce to the mix to add some heat as well.

So go forth and make the most delicious vegan pimento cheese. And if you have some preconceived notion that its gross, trust me and just try it. You don’t want to be like me with all those years wasted not eating the most delicious cheesy spread. You just can’t get those years back, y'all!