Vegan Almond Spreadable Cheese
Prep. Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
5 minutes
Servings
3.5oz/100g
Difficulty
Easy
Gluten-Free, Soy-Free, dairy-free, egg-free
Stovetop
Cooking required:
Most days, I use store-bought plant-based sour cream as a soft spread, or for baking. It’s practical, it’s consistent, and it saves time. But the options are mostly pricey, and this recipe doubles as sour cream or even yogurt (without the culture). It starts with blended almonds and becomes a thick yogurt through gentle heating and straining. There’s no culturing here and no complicated steps. The almonds provide the richness, the acid firms the texture, and the final drain controls how thick it gets. Strain it less and you have a spoonable yogurt. Strain it longer and it edges into sour cream territory. Leave it even longer and it behaves like a soft cream cheese. It’s flexible, clean in ingredients, and adaptable depending on how you plan to use it. The only caveat is its shelf-life, but it's totally worth it!
Ingredients
1 cup silvered almonds
2 cups filtered or pre-boiled (cool) water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp sugar
Instructions
Pour the strained almond milk into a small pot.
Add salt, sugar, vinegar and lemon juice.
Bring to a gentle boil, and cook for about 5 minutes on simmer.
Cool the cheese mixture entirely before moving to the next step. As it cools, it should start to look a little separated/curdled.
Pour the cooled mixture through the yogurt filter again. Let it drain while refrigerated for at least 2 hours, or preferably, cover and refrigerate overnight to set up (longer = thicker result).
Notes
If you have a specific preferred flavor in mind for the end-result, adjust the result while it's cooking. For example, add more sweetener or none at all, as preferred/needed.
I used a yogurt filter for this process, but it can certainly work with a cheese cloth as well. The difference is technical only - if you are using a cheese cloth, be sure to place it hanging above a fitted clean container, so that the milk can drip into it, and that you have a container or a mold to place the yogurt thereafter, to let it form.
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