Wednesday 18 February 2015

Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese

Vegan Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese - can also be made whipped style for a dip!
Yay! It worked!! *sigh* I've been wanting to make a vegan garden vegetable cream cheese for so long now, styled after Philadelphia's. Since the Baked Almond Feta recipe works so well I decided to base it on that but tried to remove the 'feta' elements from the cheese, mainly the extra salt and the garlic and then I added quite a bit of nutritional yeast to give it a more "regular" cheese flavour. I then drained and baked it off as normal then blitzed it with some veggies. For those I went with what was listed in the ingredients for Philadelphia's Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese - mainly green and red peppers, cucumber, celery and carrot.

Now, I loved the flavour but I was left with more of a dip or spread more akin to houmous in texture. Not really a problem but it was a bit too runny for my liking. I put it in the fridge thinking well, we'll use it as a dip instead when in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep as usual I thought, hmmm, what if I drained it off AGAIN in cheesecloth?

So the next day I did that and left it overnight. In the morning I was saddened to see very little liquid had drained off but the cheesecloth itself was heavy with liquid, it had simply absorbed it from all around and when I removed it I had a ball of "cheese"! 
Vegan Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese - can also be made whipped style for a dip!
This is still soft of course as it is supposed to be like cream cheese and it is just the texture I was originally after - soft and spreadable. I was also happy that doing a second draining did not affect the flavour in any way, it just helped the texture.
Vegan Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese - can also be made whipped style for a dip!
This does add another day to the process of course but you can just stop after blending and use it as a dip. Both versions are just packed with flavour - this stuff is so fresh tasting, you can taste all the gorgeous veggies in there and makes for an awesome sandwich spread - especially with flavours that are not in there - avocado, tomato and lettuce :-)

As usual, my Froothie 9400 high performance blender did an amazing job here, from the first stage of making the cream cheese to adding the veggies. I wanted it smooth so blended them fully in but with the froothie you can just pulse the veggies to have a chunkier texture - it's wonderfully versatile that way!
Vegan Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese - can also be made whipped style for a dip!

Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese:

1 x recipe almond cream cheese, baked and cooled (recipe below)

1 shallot, peeled and chopped
1 whole small carrot, peeled and sliced
½ stalk celery, sliced
4" cucumber, de-seed but leave skin on
¼ whole red bell pepper, chopped
¼ whole green bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic

½ Tbsp chopped chives

Almond Cream Cheese:
150g ground almonds
¼ cup lemon juice
½ cup water
½ cup nutritional yeast
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt

First make the cream cheese: Place everything in a blender and blend until really smooth. Transfer to cheesecloth, tie up and place in a sieve over a bowl; refrigerate overnight to drain and set. Transfer to a greased dish and bake at 180C for 30 min. Let cool.


Note: there are step by step photos of this process in the Baked Almond Feta post.

Place all the veg except the chives into a blender and pulse blend until finely chopped. Crumble in all of the almond cream cheese and pulse blend some more until well blended and pink-ish/orangey in colour. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the finely chopped chives. 

You can chill it now and have....
Whipped Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese Dip - vegan recipe.
Great for use as a dip, especially with an assortment of veggie crudites and breadsticks....

.....or, transfer the mixture again to 3 layers of cheesecloth, tie up and place in a sieve over a bowl and place in the fridge overnight. Remove the cheesecloth and place the ball of cheese smooth side up on a plate for a spreadable Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese :-)
Vegan Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese - can also be made whipped style for a dip!
It's also great at breakfast simply spread on a toasted wholemeal bagel alongside a cup of coffee.
Vegan Garden Vegetable Almond Cream Cheese - can also be made whipped style for a dip!
Enjoy!



Disclaimer: This post contains affiliated links with Froothie UK.

Nutritional Information: per 100g

Calories: 358
Protein: 11.5g
Fat: 29.4g
Sat Fat: 3g
Fibre: 6.2g
Carbs: 14.5g
Sugars: 3.1g
Sodium: 602mg

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Three Almond Cheeses

Baked 
Almond Feta


8 comments:

  1. Are you a fan of shop-bought vegan cream cheeses?

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    1. Ah, I have no problem with them, not sure I'd call myself a fan of them though ;-) I do buy them now and again but this may be down more to convenience and lack of options! I tend to use them more in recipes than eating them straight, like I find them great as a base for dips, that kind of thing....although I am partial to some thinly sliced fried smoked tofu on a bagel with plain store-bought vegan cream cheese.... :-)

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  2. This looks amazing!! I love that it's so healthy - I will definitely be trying this, thank you for sharing!

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  3. That looks amazing! I cant wait to try it. I miss vegetable cream cheese.

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  4. This sounds sooo good! Especially with all those veggie flavours in it! :) I'd never heard of nutritional yeast though.. I think it's going to be a new life goal; trying to find that somewhere around here..

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  5. I always find it difficult to find good vegan cream cheeses (or cheeses in general!), This looks fantastic! Thank you for sharing. I am hoping to make this soon, it looks very tasty.

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