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cream cheese, food photography, food porn, healthy, healthy food, healty eating, lego, playful, recipes, soy milk, tofutti, vegan, vita-mix
Time to get some cream cheese on your sandwich!
Vegan cream cheese, homemade! It’s just like tofutti… with some extra awesomeness, of course!
Making your own cream cheese is really easy. I always though that it must be really complicated, or at least a big mess, but, well, lets say… the mess wasn’t bigger than usual. It’s okay when you can tell from a glance in the kitchen that you just prepared something delicious!
Plus, it’s really fun to see the milk curdle. It makes cream cheese making really special. Cream cheese is not just cream cheese anymore. You’ll actually know how it’s made… and how to make it, too! And it’s cheaper than tofutti…
So, here’s how to make your own cream cheese!
- 4 1/4 cups (1 liter) soy milk (NOT low fat!)
- 4 Tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp oil
- white vinegar
- Salt
- Optional: dried tomatoes, herbs, spices…
- Optional: 1 pinch guar gum
Put the soymilk in a big pot and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, stir in the lemon juice. Wait for the curd and the whey to separate. This could take a few minutes… Line a strainer with a dish towel or cheese cloth. Once the whey and curds are completely separated put everything in your strainer and let the whey drain off. It’s tofu now!
Put your homemade tofu in a food processor or blender, add the oil, vinegar, salt, and any spices, herbs or optional ingredients you want. You can make any cream cheese flavor! Use guar gum if you want your cheese to be less smooth. I like the texture when you add just a little guar gum, but you don’t have to add it. Blend until smooth (if it’s not smooth enough add some whey, oil or soy milk)
Do NOT use low fat soy milk in this recipe, it won’t work! Check for the protein content in your soy milk, it should be at least 3%, otherwise the recipe won’t work!
Let your cream cheese cool down before you use it. Store in the refrigerator.
Yummy. Homemade cream cheese. If you leave it plain and just add salt it will taste like tofutti cream cheese! I used sun dried tomatoes (from a jar, otherwise you might have to soak them), pepper, oregano and basil for this version.
Edit: As I caused some confusion by using the words whey and curd for this non-dairy cream cheese: It’s soy curd and soy whey… quite the same thing except for that it’s from soy! I use the words whey and curd rather functional. When making the cream cheese, the soy protein (curd) firms up and separates from the liquid soy whey (which might be greeenish, that’s normal). You can pour the soy whey away and make your cream cheese from the curd. (Tofu is nothing elso but soy curd! 
)
One photo of the plain version:
Playful and hungry 
That picture with the “Viking” is the cutest thing ever! Haha! :-)
Bonnie
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I’m so intrigued. But as this is soy milk, what is the “curd” and what is the “whey”..is it like the soy solids separating from the liquid?
Oh, I will specify this! It’s soy curd and soy whey… quite the same thing except for that it’s from soy! And yes, the soy protein firms up and separates from the liquid soy whey (which might be greeenish, that’s normal). You can pour the whey away and make your cream cheese from the curd. (Tofu is nothing elso but soy curd! ;) )
That looks absolutely amazing, what a cool process. I must try it out.
Also love the viking.
It’s so easy, too! Thank you!
This is pretty cool. What do you do with the “whey,” and do you think you can use any other non-dairy milks? We try to avoid soy too often.
Mostly, I simply pour the whey away and feel slightly bad about it ;) . You could use it in milkshakes if you like… I’ve read that whey is great for cleaning dishes but I don’t know if that counts for soy whey, too. You can use it the same way you’d use the non vegan equivalent. My problem: I never used non vegan whey… so I don’t really know what to do with the vegan one, too ;)
(On avoiding soy: I guess there’s no problem with eating it moderately. But think that counts for most foods ;) )
wow very cool, I didn’t even know you could do that! I love that the ingredients are super easy to get my hands on too =P sounds great
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never thought soy curd can be this yummy..!! personally i always stay off soy product.. i dont know why..!! guess i should start using it as earliest..!!
That’s an awesome idea!! I will definitely test it out with some other milks, as well– maybe some flax seed milk for the nut allergic set. :)
Does making it this way come out any differently than just starting out with tofu?
I’ve never tried. It would depend on the kind of tofu you use… Silken tofu might be too soft. When I mix the kind of tofu I always get in a blender or food processor, it’s still a little “greasy” and not entirely smooth (even when using a vitamix!), so I guess doing it from scratch leads the best results. However, if you try it with store-bought tofu – let me know how it turned out!
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