Vegan 5 Ingredient Strawberry Cream Cheese

Oh boy, do I have a delicious and healthy treat for you all today! I grew up eating bagels and cream cheese and they have honestly always been one of my favorite breakfast ideas or snacks. But, eating cream cheese once I became vegan was a bit more challenging. I do not like the commercial brands...they are not good and taste off to me.

Well, this isn't my first cream cheese recipe on the blog. In fact, I have 3 other ones...Blueberry, Smoky Black Pepper and also a Strawberry one! You may be thinking, then why another strawberry one? Well, all 3 of those cream cheese recipes are to die for and have been super popular with you readers, but they take about 2 days from start to finish...mostly just chilling time. But still, sometimes when I want cream cheese and if I haven't started my prep time already, then it will be a couple days before I can truly enjoy the yumminess.

Soooo, as always, my goal is to make delicious recipes that are also easy and as much as possible, quick! So, I took my strawberry cream cheese recipe and changed it up a bit and WOW, it may even taste better and it only takes 10 minutes to make!! There is a recommended chill time, but you can still totally eat it straight out of the food processor if you wanted to. It is better after it's cold, chilled and firmed up a bit, but still incredibly yummy immediately too.

So, how did I make the original easier? Well, instead of using raw cashews that need a really long time to soak, I swapped it out for cashew butter and then to really amp up the cheesy flavor, I added yogurt and it was incredibly enhancing to the cream cheese flavor. I removed the water because of the added yogurt and it was incredible. Incredible. Did I say it was incredible?? I couldn't get over the intense strawberry cheesy flavor. My daughter and I were both eating it out of the food processor.

This recipe uses freeze-dried strawberries and before anybody asks, NO, you cannot sub with fresh strawberries. The dried strawberries have a much stronger strawberry taste and fresh have way too much moisture in them and results in a runny, bland cheese. It doesn't work. I find dried strawberries at most grocery stores these days, Krogers...HEB..Sprouts, Trader Joes, etc. so you shouldn't have a problem finding them. Otherwise, you can always order them off Amazon. Just make sure you are getting freeze-dried, not just simply dried. Freeze-dried are very dry and crunchy and what you need for this recipe.

THE RECIPE

Ingredients:

28 grams FREEZE DRIED strawberries, fresh will not work so don't even attempt (I buy the Simple Truth brand 1 oz, 28g bag from Krogers but many stores sell them, just make sure you are using 28 grams)
1/3 cup (85g) raw cashew butter (I make my own, see Note below or buy store-bought)
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons (115g) non-dairy plain yogurt (I use soy from the Silk brand and get it at Krogers)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Heaped 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt (optional, but DOES improve the flavor)

Instructions:

Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and process until it gets wet and chunky. Scrape the sides and bottom well and process again for a couple of minutes or so until completely smooth and well mixed. I had to stop a couple of times to scrape.
Add to a container and chill for a couple of hours or overnight. You can eat it right away if you like, as it is yummy and thick, but it will have the classic firm cream cheese texture after it has chilled in the fridge for awhile. Not to mention, it tastes better when chilled and firm.

Source: thevegan8.com