Cashew cheese is a fermented cream-cheese-like spread that is perfect for sandwiches, appetizers and dips. It is vegan, gluten free, keto and paleo! Best of all you can flavour it any way you want: herbs, sun dried tomatoes or garlic.
Cashews are ideal for dairy-free, probiotic snacks. My kids love creamy cashew yogurt. Cashew and miso cheese is a protein-packed, healthy snack.
Flavours
The best part of a creamy cashew cheese spread is the flavours! Here are a few of my favourite ways to flavour this spread:
- Herb Blend: 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp dried oregano, salt to taste.
- Sun-dried Tomato: 1/2 cup finely diced sundried tomatoes.
- Olive: 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 cup diced Kalamata olives.
- Roasted Garlic: 1 whole head of roasted garlic pureed into the cheese, add salt to taste.
- French Onion: This vintage flavour is a real favourite with my kids. Add in 1 package of reduced salt onion soup mix (about 3 tbsp.)
Cashew Cheese
Cashew and miso cheese is a dairy-free cheese spread that can be flavoured with garlic, herbs or sun-dried tomatoes. See the section above five different ways to flavour this creamy cashew spread.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups 1x
- Category: Side dish
- Method: Fermented
- Cuisine: Vegan
Ingredients
- 2 cups of raw cashew
- 3 cups of water, to cover (chlorine free)
- 2 tbsp miso
- Add flavours (see above)
Instructions
- Cover the cashews in water and soak for 24 hours.
- Drain the water and blend the cashews into a smooth paste. If you need to add water to help with blending, that’s fine. However, adding extra water will result in a slightly softer cheese spread.
- Stir in the miso, and pack the cashew cheese into a glass container. Leave on the counter to ferment for 12-48 hours.
- After fermenting, mix in the additional flavours. You may need to add salt depending on the saltiness of your miso.
- Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Notes
- The miso needs to be alive in order to ferment the cashews. Live miso will be in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. You can also find it online
(affiliate link) or make it yourself.
- I use an ordinary blender
so my cashews aren’t super smooth. A Blendtec
or a Vitamix (affiliate links) will make a super smooth cheese.
- It’s easiest to store cashew and miso cheese in glass container as a spreading cheese. However, you can also make cheese logs by rolling the cashew spread into a log-like shape and wrapping it with wax paper or plastic wrap.
- If you want to turn the cheese into a dip, then just add in more water during the blending.
so my cashews aren’t super smooth. A 
or a Keywords: keto, paleo, gluten free, dairy free, probiotic, cheese spread, dip, sandwich filling, garlic, herb, olive, sun-dried tomato
Hi, during the 12-48 hour countertop fermentation, should the cheese be covered or not? Is this supposed to be anaerobic or no? Thank you!
Either is fine. Miso is mostly anaerobic, so it can be tightly covered. Enjoy!
Hello! I love the blog, and I’ve been making your cashew yoghurt a lot lately – yum! I’m wondering, have you tried this recipe with other nuts? I’m wondering whether walnuts might work… Thanks!
I haven’t tried other nuts, since cashews seem to be the creamiest. I’m currently working on a cookbook, which will include cultured walnuts and cultured sunflower seeds recipes, so I know they will ferment! I think walnuts and pecans would be my second choice for this spread as they are also very creamy when soaked and blended. Let me know how it goes!
hi emillie, do you think it would be ok to experiment with some other starter? I don’t have any miso ready right now…
★★★★★
Yes! I’ve done it with whey… but it wasn’t very good. Maybe try cultured ACV, vegetable brine or unflavored kombucha?
This is such an easy and fun recipe! I was short about 1/2 cup of cashew and so I sub’ed in walnuts. I was worried it would ruin it, but it didn’t. Still tastes great. I used chickpea miso and added chives and herbamare after the fermentation stage. Delicious! Will make again for sure!!!
★★★★★
Sounds delicious!