Herbed Raw Vegan Cashew Cheese

Herbed Raw Vegan Cashew Cheese

In my effort to find fun snacks for special occasions, I've grown quite fond of this raw vegan cashew cheese.  I confess, it has some salt in it, so it's not truly 'nutritarian', but so far I've cut the salt content in half.  If I can get it down to 1/8 of a teaspoon, I'll be happy.  After all, it's not intended for regular consumption considering it mostly consists of nuts!

My favourite thing to spread this on is cauliflower "crackers", which are simply slices of raw cauliflower.

I found this recipe at Healthy Blender Recipes, and did a half-batch (more affordable and helps with moderation!).  You can find the recipe with variations here: Raw Vegan Cashew Cheese.

Herbed Raw Vegan Cashew Cheese [Adapted]

1 cup soaked cashews* (2-4 hours)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/16 tsp onion powder
1/16 tsp ground thyme
1/8 tsp ground rosemary
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried parsley
2-4 Tbsp water

*Almonds work too, I usually use half and half (1/2 slivered almonds, 1/2 raw cashews).

Place everything but the water into a food processor.  Start with 1 Tbsp of water and process.  You'll have to scrape down the sides multiple times throughout the process.  Keep adding water, teaspoonfuls or less at a time, until desired consistency.  You want it to work like a spread.

Refrigerate for a few hours to let the flavours meld, or dig in right away if you just can't wait!

It's very nice spread onto slices of veggies, like zucchini or cucumber.