This morning was my first attempt to make vegan cream cheese. Zoe has been pretty happy with my getting Tofutti from the grocery store. The last three trips, however, they have been out of Tofutti. So we have tried another brand, but it did not meet Zoe’s desire for bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, her favorite. Last night, they were out of Tofutti again, so I decided I would try to make vegan cream cheese, something I had read was pretty easy to do. Yes and no.
Last night, I did as everyone suggested, well almost everyone, and I soaked my cashews over night. This morning they were uber soft and I could tell it would be fairly easy to blend them in my blender. So I began. I followed the direction that had the highest rating which had me add 1 tsp organic apple cider, 3 tablespoons lemon juice and a pinch of salt. I was supposed to add 1 tsp of water at a time to help it blend, but I thought I would add cashew milk instead as needed.
So the first tasting with Zoe and she thought it was not creamy enough. So I had it blend several more minutes. It was creamy enough for her, but I could tell by her face it was not cream cheesy enough to please her palette. Other then it not being Tofutti, it did not taste fatty enough. So back to the cookbooks.
I was looking for a suggestion on how I could make it good enough she would want to smear it on her morning bagel. Two suggestion. One was some plain soy yogurt and another was coconut oil. I had the latter and I only had blueberry yogurt. Then I remembered the soy yogurt I had was not blended. So it was plain on top and blueberry on the bottom.
My instinct suggested I start by adding some coconut oil, which I did. After one tasting, she said it was almost there, so I added a bit more and kept blending. One more tasting and it had that fatty taste she liked but was missing the dairy taste. So back to the blender and I added some of the top part of the yogurt and rewarded myself for my hard work with the blueberry part.
Now I just have to figure out how to make it garden vegetable and I will have achieved perfection. It actually tastes pretty good. I do not like cashews, so to discover that I like them transformed into cream cheese was interesting. It reminded me that sometimes it is just how things are presented to us. It also reminded me that I have not because I ask not. It never dawned on me to search for recipes for vegan garden vegetable cream cheese. LOL. So this afternoon I will be chopping up some red onion, red pepper, carrots, and adding some chives, dill, and parsley. Prayers answered.
I remember hearing Louise Hay at one of her conferences say that we were going to hear the same message from numerous speakers. A few of them would present the message in a way that resonated with our souls. Vegan cream cheese has helped me find a way for cashews to resonate with me and work their way into my diet.
So what did I learn. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Hmm. Isn’t that something my mother taught me?