This homemade vegan cashew cream cheese is the perfect dairy-free spread for any bagel and tastes even better combined with a red onion marmalade.
As I mentioned recently, I was invited to become part of the BBC Good Food Show Spring blogging community. One of the most exciting parts of this is getting to discover new independent producers from around Yorkshire who offer wonderful vegan-friendly food.
The first item I’ve been testing is Mercers of Yorkshire‘s red onion marmalade. The company has been making marmalade and other preserves for other brands for over thirty years, but it wasn’t until 2007 that they became a brand of their own. Mercers only use quality ingredients (local, where possible) and natural flavours. Everything is hand crafted in small batches and notably they only use real sugar, not glucose fructose syrup, and I think that really showed in this Mercers of Yorkshire red onion marmalade.
Don’t forget, you can bag a 20% discount off BBC Good Food Show Spring tickets here! Mercers of Yorkshire will be exhibiting at the BBC Good Food Show Spring in Harrogate on stand Q80.
To sample Mercers of Yorkshire’s red onion marmalade, my immediate thought was how well this sort of flavor goes with a thick creamy cheese. I’ve been wanting to experiment with homemade vegan cheeses for a while so it was the perfect opportunity to create a dreamy weekend brunch: homemade vegan cashew cream cheese and red onion marmalade on bagels.
The vegan cashew cream cheese is exceptionally easy to make: just pop all of your ingredients into a high powdered food processor (I used my Vitamix) and blend until creamy. How long you need to blend for will depend on your equipment – this took less than a minute in the Vitamix – so keep checking as you go. If it comes out too thick, adding a little water should get you to your desired consistency.
I decided against adding nutritional yeast to the cashew cream cheese since I sometimes find it can taste a little bit plasticky uncooked. I expect some of you will be pleased to discover a vegan cashew cream cheese that is made with readily-available ingredients too and I’ve consciously tried to make it so. The recipe calls for a little oil-infused garlic but this can be substituted for a plain oil and one small clove of garlic, though the resulting flavor will be stronger.
Fortunately, most bagels (as far as I’ve seen in the UK) are accidentally vegan so you should have no problems picking some up ready-made. Of course you could take this vegan brunch to the next level and make your own bagels!
- 60g plain cashew nuts, soaked in hot water for at least an hour
- 1tbsp garlic-infused oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- Pinch of dried rosemary
- Drain the cashews and add into a high-powered blender along with the oil, lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. Blend until it has formed a smooth, thick paste that resembles cream cheese. If it is too thick, then add a little warm water.
- Transfer to a small dish and sprinkle over the dried rosemary. Serve on a hot bagel with red onion marmalade or use as a substitute to cream cheese in any other dish!
Mercers of Yorkshire sample kindly provided by the BBC Good Food Show
