Easy Vegan Cheese Log

Elevate your holiday spread with this effortless vegan cheese recipe! Whether you’re putting together a festive cheese board or just want to try your hands at making your own plant-based artisan cheese, this wholesome and incredibly delectable recipe is sure to delight you and your guests.

While we’re big fans of aged, cultured gourmet cheeses made with probiotics, we also understand that sometimes you’re in a hurry, and waiting for cheese to mature isn’t an option. Sometimes, you just want cheese pronto! If the idea of waiting days for your cheese to age doesn’t tickle your fancy, then this recipe will become your new best friend.

This vegan cheese recipe is not only a breeze to make, but also ready in under an hour! This creamy, herb-infused delight is both versatile and a crowd-pleaser, perfect for your holiday gatherings.

For this homemade vegan cheese, all you need to do is blanch some almonds in boiling water and blend all the ingredients together until they form a silky-smooth mixture. Afterward, pop it into the oven for a quick 20-minute bake. Once it’s done, allow it to cool slightly, shape it into a log, coat it with your favorite fresh herbs, and let it chill until you’re ready to serve.

How to Serve This Vegan Cheese

This versatile vegan cheese has been a World of Vegan favorite for years, with a wide range of delectable serving options. For the holidays and for entertaining, you can make a fancy charcuterie board and serve it with crackers, fresh veggies, bread, olives, dips, grapes, vegan meats, and more. You can also add it to sandwiches and various dishes.

• On Crackers: Keep it simple and spread this on your favorite crackers.
• Cheese Board: For special occasions and entertaining, create an impressive cheese board. Pair the cheese log with an assortment of crackers, fresh veggies, bread, olives, dips, grapes, vegan meats, and more for a delightful spread that will impress your guests.
• Hummus Board: Dish up this cheese on a fun hummus board which is a great snack idea for kids and adults alike.
• Pasta: Add a generous dollop of this creamy vegan cheese to your favorite pasta dishes for a rich and flavorful twist.
• Salads: Drizzle it over salads as a delicious dressing alternative or mix it in for an extra layer of creaminess. Sandwiches: Elevate your sandwiches by spreading this delectable cheese log for a gourmet touch.
• Bagels or Avocado Toast: Spread it on your morning avocado toast or vegan bagels (instead of cream cheese) for a creamy and flavorful breakfast. It would be especially delicious topped with this carrot lox!
• Tofu Scramble: Surprise your taste buds by incorporating this vegan cheese log into your tofu scramble; the flavor infusion will leave you amazed.

This can be used as a substitute for soft cheese or goat cheese in any recipe where their creamy goodness is desired. Enjoy the versatility and deliciousness this cheese log brings to your meals and gatherings!

Key Vegan Cheese Ingredients

Explore the essential components that come together harmoniously to create this luscious vegan cheese. These ingredients combine their unique qualities to produce a creamy, flavorful, and plant-based alternative to traditional dairy cheese.

Raw Almonds: These nutrient-packed nuts provide the base for the creamy texture of your cheese log. They bring a very subtle nutty flavor and a creamy consistency when blanched and blended. If you don’t have a high-powered blender like a Vitamix, opt for slivered almonds instead of whole raw almonds for easier blending.

Lemon Juice: The zesty lemon juice adds a refreshing tang that mimics the brightness of traditional cheese, enhancing the overall flavor profile.

Nutritional Yeast: A pantry staple for vegans, nutritional yeast contributes a savory, cheesy flavor without dairy, enriching your cheese log with depth and umami.

Garlic Powder: For those who love an extra kick of flavor, garlic powder can be added to give your cheese log a subtle, aromatic hint of garlic. This ingredient is optional—the cheese is still delicious without it!

Salt: A touch of salt elevates the flavors, balancing the sweetness of almonds and enhancing the overall taste.

Fresh Chives: These vibrant herbs, such as fresh chives, infuse your cheese log with a burst of color and a burst of freshness. You can experiment with other herbs of your choice to customize the flavor to your liking.

These carefully selected ingredients work in harmony to create a creamy, flavorful vegan cheese log that’s both delicious and versatile. Enjoy the natural goodness of plant-based ingredients in this delightful recipe!

How to Make Vegan Cheese

Blanch Your Almonds

If you’re new to blanching almonds, it’s easy and only takes a minute! Here’s how to blanch almonds.

1. Add water to a small pot.
2. Bring the water to a boil.
3. Add the raw almonds and allow them to cook for just one minute.
4. Drain and rinse the blanched almonds with cold water so they’re not too hot to handle.
5. Remove the skins by hand, by simply squeezing each almond and sliding the skin off.

Blend Your Cheese Mixture

In a high-powered blender, combine the blanched almonds, water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and salt. Blend until you get a soft slurry-like consistency. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth.

Bake Your Cheese

First, line a loaf pan. If you don’t have a loaf pan, that’s ok! Any baking dish can work here, just lay the mixture down about one-inch thick in your parchment lined baking dish.

Once you’ve filled your loaf pan, it should look something like this!

Place the loaf pan in the oven (preheated to 350 degrees F) and bake for the first 10 minutes. Pull it out, mix well with a spoon, and place back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove, mix, and bake for the final 5 minutes. Remove it from the oven, mix one final time, and allow to cool for five minutes.

It should now be a thicker consistency and look like this.

Shape Your Cheese

Shaping your cheese is the fun part! You can follow the directions to shape this into a traditional cheese log, or get creative with your own shape.

1. Cool your cheese before handling after you take it out of the oven (and make sure you’ve mixed it well first).
2. Pull the edged of the parchment paper lining to gently lift the baked cheese out of the pan and onto a countertop. Using the parchment paper, pull one side over the other to fold the cheese into a log shape, and use your fingers to tuck the parchment around the log and pull it into an even log (this method is similar to shaping sushi with a sushi mat). Use your hands to pat the end of the log to flatten.
3. Peel back the parchment and if needed, finish shaping using your hands.

Coat Your Cheese Log With Herbs

The beauty of this cheese is that the flavor of the cheese meshes beautifully with any herb. We chose chives, but any finely chopped herbs can work here.

Finely chop your choice of herbs on a cutting board. Spread the herbs in a layer large enough to roll the cheese log. Roll the cheese log in the herbs, pressing them in as needed, and voila! You’re cheese is done!

Cover the cheese in tin foil and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

More Vegan Cheese Recipes

• Feta: Explore our Vegan Tofu Feta Guide for brands and an easy recipe for plant-based feta!
• Cheese Dip: Whip up a batch of these Soft Vegan Pretzels With Cheese Dip.
• Cream Cheese: Find the best dairy-free cream cheese options in our Vegan Cream Cheese Guide.
• Macaroni and Cheese: Discover store-bought mac brands or make your own Vegan Mac & Cheese!
• Vegan Cheese Guide: If you’re new to plant-based cheese, study this Guide to Vegan Cheese to familiarize yourself with all the kind cheese options available to you.

Vegan Cheese Cookbooks We Love

Hungry for more? Check out these two wonderful vegan cheese cookbooks by Miyoko Schinner (vegan cheese aficionado and founder of Miyoko’s Kitchen) and Julia Piatt. Those who love to get crafty in the kitchen rave about these cookbooks!

• Artisan Vegan Cheese: From Everyday to Gourmet by Miyoko Schinner
• This Cheese is Nuts! by Julie Piatt
• Super Easy Vegan Cheese Cookbook by Janice Buckingham
• Vegan Cheese by Jules Aaron

And if you can’t be bothered making your own cheese and want to explore what stores have to offer, check out our vegan cheese guide, gourmet cheese round-up, and the battle for the best vegan cheddar cheese. Needless to say, you don’t have to give up cheese to go vegan!

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Easy Vegan Cheese Log

Author: Kathy Chrzaszcz | World of Vegan

5 from 7 votes

This vegan cheese recipe is the easiest you'll ever make—and a perfect addition to any cheese board! It's made from blanched almonds, which only takes a minute, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and spices, and then rolled in fresh herbs. That's it! You can form this cheese into a log, a cheese ball, or any other shape and impress your friends with this delicious, almond-based vegan cheese log full of herbs and flavor!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 8 people

Equipment

• ▢
  1 Blender
• ▢
  1 Loaf Pan
• ▢
  Parchment Paper

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup raw almonds or almond slivers
• ▢ ½ cup water
• ▢ 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• ▢ 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, optional
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
• ▢ ¼ cup fresh chives (or other herbs), finely chopped

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, pressing a single sheet of parchment into the bottom of the pan allowing the sids of the sheet to hug up against the side of the loaf pan. No need to be perfect here. Set aside.
• Blanch almonds: In a saucepan, bring water to a boil, add the almonds, and boil for 60 seconds. Drain the water and rinse almonds with cold water. Then squeeze each almond to remove the skin. Discard (compost) the skin.
• In a high-powered blender, add the blanched almonds, water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and salt, and blend. Continue blending, stopping to push the mixture down toward the blades as needed, until the mixture forms a soft slurry (it doesn't have to be perfectly smooth).
• Transfer the mixture to the parchment lined loaf pan and spread in an even layer. Place the pan on the center rack of your oven and bake for 25 minutes, pausing to stir the mixture well after 10 and 20 minutes. Ensure you mix all the way to the bottom to prevent the bottom layer from browning.
• After 25 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and transfer the parchment to your counter. Stir it well and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.
• Pull the parchment paper with the cheese out of the loaf pan and use the parchment paper and your hands to form a log shape. This should feel similar to rolling sushi with a sushi mat.
• Finely chop the chives or herbs on a cutting board and flatten into a layer of herbs big enough to roll your cheese log in. Place the cheese log onto the herbs and roll the cheese into the herbs to coat, using your hand to press in herbs as needed. Store the cheese in an airtight container until serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 105kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.003g | Sodium: 77mg | Potassium: 170mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 56IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 39mg | Iron: 1mg

Course — Appetizer

Cuisine — French

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