Sesame Free Vegan Cashew Cream Cheese
Creamy, tangy, and surprisingly rich, this plant-based spread delivers everything you love about classic cream cheese — without a drop of dairy or a trace of sesame. Soaking the raw cashews is the real secret here: it transforms them into a silky base that blends down to an impossibly smooth, spreadable texture. Lemon juice and apple cider vinegar bring that signature tang, while a touch of onion powder and optional nutritional yeast add savory depth that makes it taste genuinely complex. Store-bought vegan cream cheeses can be a minefield of hidden sesame-derived ingredients or shared-facility warnings, so making your own from scratch puts you fully in control of every single thing going into the jar. The coconut oil helps it firm up beautifully in the fridge, giving you that thick, scoopable consistency that holds up on a bagel, a cracker, or a charcuterie board. It keeps well in an airtight container, so you can make a batch ahead and reach for it all week long.
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Learn more →Ingredients
8 servings
- 1 ½ cups raw cashews
- 3 tbsp lemon juice (from about 1 large lemon)
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp refined coconut oil, melted
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- 2–4 tbsp cold water, as needed
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Place the cashews in a bowl and cover with cold water by at least 2 inches. Soak for at least 4 hours at room temperature, or overnight in the refrigerator, until the cashews are plump and noticeably softened.
- 2
Drain and rinse the soaked cashews under cold running water.
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