This vegan blue cheese is tangy and rich with a deliciously mild flavor and creamy smooth texture. It’s super easy to make and divine served on toasted bread or crackers.
So let’s just clear something up quickly, this vegan blue cheese recipe is NOT one of those recipes that takes weeks to make. So it’s not anything close to real blue cheese since it’s not aged or anything like that.
But when you want an easy to make vegan cheese that tastes (and looks) incredible – then this vegan blue cheese recipe is your best friend.
It’s a soft cheese with plenty of tang that can be served as an appetizer with toasted bread or crackers, grapes, nuts and jams. It has the beautiful green/blue lines going through it, thanks to spirulina, and it tastes simply amazing.
It’s also extremely easy to make and can be made in a blender or a food processor.
So basically this is a vegan cheese recipe with a lot going for it. And if you love super easy vegan cheeses then try our vegan brie, vegan camembert, vegan goat cheese and vegan cheese ball too.
What Goes Into This Cheese:
Ingredient Notes
- Spirulina powder – this just creates those lovely green/blue lines that we get through this cheese. If you’re not worried about having those lines, you can omit it.
- White miso paste – is often not white at all in color as you can see above! It can be various shades of beige or even brown(ish) like ours was. This is a really important ingredient in this recipe adding heaps of flavor.
- Raw cashews – are soaked first in hot water for 1 hour. It’s essential to soak them (no matter how powerful your blender) because there is not a lot of liquid added to this recipe at all. It would be very hard to blend if they were not soaked first.
- White vinegar – distilled white vinegar is also a very important flavor component in this recipe. I don’t recommend switching for a different vinegar.
- Refined coconut oil – we use refined coconut oil because it’s had the coconut flavor removed, so it has all the properties of coconut oil but without the coconut taste. If you want to use regular/virgin coconut oil you can, but you’ll likely find a coconut after-taste.
How To Make Vegan Blue Cheese – Step By Step
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add cashews to a bowl. Pour over boiling hot water from the kettle so that the cashews are submerged. Leave them to soak for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour drain and rinse the cashews.
- Add soaked cashews, white vinegar, refined coconut oil, white miso paste, salt, onion powder, garlic powder and water to a blender jug (or food processor) and blend until smooth.
- Divide half the mixture between two 4.5 inch round springform pans (or bowls, or ramekins).
- Sprinkle the top of each with spirulina.
- Then divide the remaining mixture between the two springform pans placing it on top of the sprinkled spirulina.
- Smooth down and sprinkle more spirulina on top.
- Use a butter knife to gently and briefly swirl the spirulina through each cheese. You want to spread the spirulina through the cheese to create green/blue swirls. But don’t mix it in, otherwise your whole cheese will turn green/blue.
- Smooth down the top of each cheese.
- Place it into the freezer to set overnight.
- Then let it sit in the fridge for 1 hour before removing from the springform pans and serving.
Recipe Tips
Springform pans. We used two 4.5 inch springform pans. You can use springform pans or bowls or ramekins.
Make it in the food processor. This recipe also works great in a food processor. The texture initially may seem less smooth, but once it’s set you won’t notice any difference. If you don’t have a powerful blender then I recommend to make it in the food processor instead.
Fridge or freezer. This cheese will tend to get quite soft out of the fridge. Even straight from the fridge it can be fairly soft. So if you ever want to firm it up more, you can always place it back in the freezer for 30 minutes and let it set up more firmly and then serve.
Storing and Freezing
Keep it stored in the fridge and enjoy within a week. You can also store it in the freezer for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Cheese Recipes
- Sliceable Cashew Cheese
- Vegan Cheddar Cheese
- Vegan Nacho Cheese
- Vegan Cream Cheese
- Vegan Feta Cheese
- Vegan Halloumi
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Blue Cheese
Ingredients
- 2 cups Raw Cashews (300g) Soaked in hot water for 1 hour
- 2 Tablespoons Distilled White Vinegar
- 4 Tablespoons Refined Coconut Oil
- 2 Tablespoons White Miso Paste
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Onion Powder
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 2 Tablespoons Water
- ⅛ teaspoon Spirulina (Optional)
Instructions
- Add cashews to a bowl. Pour over boiling hot water from the kettle so that the cashews are submerged. Leave them to soak for 1 hour. After 1 hour drain and rinse the cashews.
- Add soaked cashews, white vinegar, refined coconut oil, white miso paste, salt, onion powder, garlic powder and water to a blender jug (or food processor) and blend until smooth.
- Divide half the mixture between two 4.5 inch round springform pans (or bowls, or ramekins). Sprinkle the top of each with spirulina.
- Then divide the remaining mixture between the two springform pans placing it on top of the sprinkled spirulina.
- Smooth down and sprinkle more spirulina on top. Use a butter knife to gently and briefly swirl the spirulina through each cheese. You want to spread the spirulina through the cheese to create green/blue swirls. But don't mix it in, otherwise your whole cheese will turn green/blue.
- Smooth down the top of each cheese. Place it into the freezer to set overnight.
- Then let it sit in the fridge for 1 hour before removing from the springform pans and serving.
Notes
- Refined coconut oil – we use refined coconut oil because it’s had the coconut flavor removed, so it has all the properties of coconut oil but without the coconut taste. If you want to use regular/virgin coconut oil you can, but you’ll likely find a coconut after-taste.
- Spirulina powder – this just creates those lovely green/blue lines that we get through this cheese. If you’re not worried about having those lines, you can omit it.
- Springform pans. We used two 4.5 inch springform pans. You can use springform pans or bowls or ramekins.
- Food processor. This recipe also works great in a food processor. The texture initially may seem less smooth, but once it’s set you won’t notice any difference. If you don’t have a powerful blender then I recommend to make it in the food processor instead.
- Fridge or freezer. This cheese will tend to get quite soft out of the fridge. Even straight from the fridge it can be fairly soft. So if you ever want to firm it up more, you can always place it back in the freezer for 30 minutes and let it set up more firmly and then serve.
- Storing: Keep it stored in the fridge and enjoy within a week. You can also store it in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Servings: This recipe makes two 4.5 inch rounds of cheese.
- Nutritional information is based on 8 servings (¼ round of cheese per person).
Is there a substitute for coconut?
You could try leaving it out. A different oil may make the cheese too soft.
One major problem with this cheese! I cannot stop eating it. Meant to to do a tiny taste test and landed up eating a quarter of one round just standing at the kitchen counter. It really is delicious and creamy. It took a while to blend until smooth but worth it. I had some activated charcoal powder and decided to try that instead of spirulina which I did not have on hand so please forgive me from deviating from your recipe. The activated charcoal worked a treat. Thanks, Alison, for another great cheese recipe – I have made most of your cheeses and they really are the best.
That’s awesome Christine! Thanks for the wonderful review. So glad to hear that activated charcoal also works great instead of spirulina. 🙂
Mild,creamy smooth cheese, very simple to make. Rich and tangy and delicious.
If this becomes that soft can’t the water be left out? I’ll try this without water and see the result.
God bless
joe
You could try leave it out for sure, but it may be a very difficult blend. Also we find the texture to be really good (not too soft at all).
I did this today and left out the water. Result? Quite like real blue cheese.
But messed up at the end. To make those blue streaks I had blue culinary type powder which we used in days gone by. Gave it a try but used a bit too much and the whole lot became blue!! Doesn’t matter since the taste is excellent.
So glad it was a success even if it was entirely blue! 🙂
Wondering if a sprinkling of wheat grass powder would work for the “vein”.
I think parchment paper in a bowl or ramekin would work instead of spring form, right?
Thanks!!
Hi Vicky, sure, any green edible powder would work! And definitely a bowl or ramekin (or two of each, depending on size) will work fine too.