one ingredient vegan cheese
a simple yet tasty cheese that anyone can make
When I first tell people I make vegan cheese for a living one of the most common responses is “but how do you make a cheese without milk?!”
The answer is: Quite easily!
You can make a dairy free cheese out of all sorts of ingredients, including many plant milks, nuts, seeds, soy beans, and even vegetables (I’m not entirely convinced by the latter).
But the simplest vegan cheese to make is a humble yogurt cheese, also known as labneh. Making a vegan labneh is exactly the same as making a dairy labneh. It’s made by straining yogurt to remove the excess water and the result is a thick, creamy and spreadable cheese.
This method has been around for hundreds of years, and I’ve found it works really well with a soy yogurt. If you’ve got the patience to wait a few days the result is a cheese that’s firm enough to shape into a ball and serve on a cheeseboard.
If you’d rather have a spreadable cheese you can drain for 12 hours (or overnight) and you’ll have a high protein cream cheese ready to spread liberally on your morning bagel.
I’ve left the recipe plain, save for a sprinkle of seasoning on top, but you could easily adapt it to any flavour. Any combination of fresh herbs/garlic/lemon zest is always great in soft cheese so see what grabs your fancy. I’ve added a list of flavour suggestions below the recipe.
One Ingredient Cream Cheese
Aka yogurt cheese, aka Labneh
Ingredients:
1 large pot (approx 400g) Unsweetened Vegan Yogurt, I like this one
Salt
Method:
Line a sieve with cheesecloth and place over a large mixing bowl. If you don’t have a cheesecloth, you can use a thin, clean tea towel or even a baby muslin or muslin facecloth. At a real push you can use kitchen roll but be gentle with it so that it doesn’t tear once wet, as it will go very soggy.
Pour the whole container of yogurt into the lined sieve and stir through 1/2 tsp of salt. Cover loosely with a tea towel and leave to drain for 12 hours. If you are in a very hot climate put the whole thing in the fridge.
After 12 hours check the consistency of the yogurt. It should be thicker and a cream cheese consistency. If you’re aiming for a spreadable cheese then it’s ready. You can eat it straight away or it can be stored for a few days, in a container in the fridge.
If you’d like to make a firmer cheese continue draining for another 12 hours.
After 12 hours (24 hours total) check the texture again, it should be looking like the cheese in the second picture below. Again it’s your choice, you can stop here to eat your cheese, or continue for a firmer texture that can be shaped.
If opting for firmer you can now remove the sieve and bowl set up and switch to what I’m coining the “lined mug method” (image 3 below). Gather up your muslin full of cheese, place a few squares of kitchen roll around the base of it and pop the lot in a mug in the fridge. This helps to absorb any remaining liquid.
You can leave it like this for another day, check the kitchen towel and change
for fresh sheets after a few hours if it’s very damp. The result is a lovely little cheese, which holds it’s shape. You do have to be quite delicate with it, it’s a ball of cream cheese rather than a bouncing cheddar. In the pics below I carefully flipped it over onto a serving board, smooth side up, and then sprinkled some everything bagel seasoning and thyme leaves over the top.
Best eaten straight away but you can also store the cheese for up to 4 days, covered in the fridge.
Recipe Tips:
I’ve tried drying out the cheese further to give a really firm texture and it was like eating claggy rubber, awful! So I wouldn’t recommend longer than 2 days in total.
Substitutions:
You could use plain coconut yogurt or any other kind of unsweetened vegan yogurt. I’ve averse to coconut in anything cheese based - but if you fancy it then give it a whirl.
If you wanted to make a sweet cream cheese then you could use any kind of sweetened yogurt. I haven’t tried this but would be interested to hear how it turned out!
Flavour suggestions:
Za'atar and a drizzle of olive oil over the top
Crushed garlic, dill, and black pepper
Basil and sun-dried tomatoes
Sumac, Aleppo pepper, and mint leaves
Smoked paprika and chilli flakes
Preserved lemon and oregano
I hope you’ll give making vegan labneh cheese a try, it’s such an easy but tasty method. Any questions about this or another cheese leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you!