Vegan Cheese: Learn How to Make Your Own Vegan Dairy
- Vegan cream cheese: Make vegan, sustainable cheese from just a few ingredients: fermented fruits, nutritional yeast, and salt.
- The key ingredients for vegan cheese: high-fat fruits, water, salt, and microbes.
- Learn how vegan dairy products are made in my vegan cheese workshop.
Eating vegan is on trend, and for good reason. More and more people are looking for tasty alternatives to classic dairy products and vegan cooking classes, whether for health, ethical, or environmental reasons. When it comes to cheese in particular, many people wonder: is there a truly delicious alternative? The answer is a clear yes.
Whether creamy vegan cream cheese or an authentic-tasting vegan camembert, the variety of cheese alternatives is impressive. In this article, you'll learn everything about making plant-based cheese, which ingredients you'll need, and how you can easily make your own vegan dairy alternatives at home. Get inspired and discover just how delicious dairy-free cheese can be.
How Is Vegan Cheese Made?
To make vegan cheese, you essentially need four ingredients and a good blender.
- High-fat fruits: stone fruits, quince, or berries
- Water
- Salt
- Microbes: microbes are microorganisms found in soil, in the air, and even in the human body.
These ingredients are blended into a smooth, homogeneous mixture and then left to sit in a container or cheese cloth at a warm room temperature for one to two days. During this time, the mixture ferments and takes on a tangy, cheese-like flavor. To make a firm, dairy-free cheese, the remaining water needs to be removed. A food dehydrator works best for this. To do this, pour the plant-based cheese mixture into cheese molds and let it dry until it reaches the consistency you want.
What Can Go Into Vegan Cheese?
Vegan cheese is made using a wide range of nuts, seeds, and kernels. Cashews create an especially creamy cashew cheese, while cheese made from walnuts has a bold, savory flavor. The most important ingredient is the microbes, various lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, which drive the fermentation.
Adding nutritional yeast flakes gives dairy-free cheese a distinctly "cheesy" flavor. A wide variety of spices and herbs can be used to add extra flavor. Your creativity has no limits here.
How Is Vegan Camembert Made?
Cashews, for example, can serve as the base for camembert. These need to be blended with water into a smooth, homogeneous mixture. Additional microbes from a Penicillium strain create the camembert's signature rind. Since this cheese alternative can't be dried, you'll also need transglutaminase, which bonds the proteins together and firms up the cheese.
Making vegan camembert is a bit more involved, since proper temperature control plays a key role in success. The result is wonderfully delicious and holds its own against "real" camembert in every way.
How Is Vegan Cream Cheese Made?
Vegan cream cheese is the simplest way to get started with making vegan dairy products. As with any other cheese alternative, high-fat fruits are fermented and then just need to be seasoned with nutritional yeast flakes and salt. It's essentially the first step in vegan cheesemaking.
Of course, you can also add herbs here or shape small cream cheese balls and coat them in fresh or dried herbs. Almonds work especially well for the vegan cream cheese alternative, since they give a slightly grainy, not overly creamy texture after blending. But here too, you can experiment creatively with any nuts, seeds, or kernels and discover what tastes best to you.
Join one of over {nrEvents} vegan cooking classes and discover the right option for you.
