(upbeat music)
- All right, so I did a
video a couple months ago,
turning tofu into
different types of cheeses.
I kind of inspired myself
when I did that video,
and started experimenting
with a couple different
cheese recipes using tofu.
So today, I'm gonna show you how to make
the cheapest vegan cream
cheese you'll ever eat.
Hey guys, I'm Candice, The Edgy Veg,
welcome back to my channel.
I make new videos every
Tuesdays and Thursdays,
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So I loved cream cheese
before I went vegan,
I love cream cheese now that I am vegan.
There are some really, really, really,
really amazing brands out there,
but the price point is
just a little ridiculous.
So if you buy the ones that
you know are gonna be the best,
they can get really expensive
depending on where you live,
or you don't have access to it whatsoever.
So I wanted to create a cream cheese
that gives you that nostalgic feeling,
but doesn't cost $12.
So, using tofu, which is in my tofu press,
and then some deodorized coconut oil,
I'm going to whip up
a really, really nice
easy vegan cream cheese
with ingredients that most likely
you already have in your home,
or ingredients that you
probably, as a cooking person,
already have on hand or
pick up on the regular.
All you need is a blender,
tofu, deodorized coconut oil,
lemon juice, miso, vinegar, some spices,
and nutritional yeast.
All right, to start with this tofu,
the first thing I'm going
to do is press my tofu,
so I have done this.
You don't need to press
it for a long time,
just make sure if you're
using something like this,
pour out the liquid on the side here.
I just, this is my tofu press,
you don't need something like this,
it's not a huge deal,
because the moisture actually
helps with the blending,
I just try to get out as
much water as possible.
So I have just pressed this for like,
I don't know, 15, 20 minutes.
But there's a bunch of
different tofu presses
you can order online, or you know,
you can stack a bunch of stuff
on top of it to get it out,
I just find that every time
I do that it topples over,
and I end up smashing
something in my kitchen,
so that's why I got this guy.
So this is our tofu.
We're going to stick that in here.
I mean, if you have a high speed blender,
that's definitely
preferred for this recipe,
but you don't need it.
You could just blend it for longer
until there's no chunks or anything in it.
I like using tofu for these recipes
because first of all, it's nut-free,
which is great for a
lot of people out there.
Also tofu has virtually no fat in it,
which is also great because
we're adding coconut oil,
which is a fat.
And it's stupid cheap, this
block of tofu was like, $2.
We are going to add miso paste.
So again, miso, if you
buy it in the container,
you may see it as like
an expensive ingredient,
but given how little you
use in most of your recipes,
it lasts a long time,
and we're using just a little bit for it.
And chances are, if you
are cooking vegan food
on a regular basis or just
cooking on a regular basis,
chances are you have this.
You don't absolutely need it,
but I definitely feel that it adds
a really, really nice
Umami flavor to the cheese,
and a lot of vegan
cheeses lack Umami flavor,
so I like to add it.
We are going to add
nutritional yeast, again,
if you are cooking on a regular basis,
chances are you already have this.
But nutritional yeast is
also like, stupid cheap.
For spices, we are going
to use some onion powder,
garlic powder, salt, and
a little bit of dill,
now this won't make it super dilly,
it just adds a nice tang to it.
If you really hate dill,
I can never taste this
as dill in the cheese,
but if you really, really hate it,
you can leave it out.
And then of course you need
some tang in your cheese,
so along with the tang of the miso,
we're also going to add lemon juice,
as well as apple cider vinegar.
If you don't have apple cider vinegar,
you can use a white wine vinegar
or a rice vinegar as well,
just any sort of neutral vinegar will do.
And this makes a ton of cheese,
so it's gonna last for a while,
and it freezes nicely and you
can use it as different type,
you can add different ingredients to it
and even make it like
a dip or bake with it,
you can use it the same way
you would use any other cream cheese.
We are going to start blending this,
and while it's blending,
we are going to pour in our oil,
this is a little bit more than half a cup.
I'm gonna start pouring in
a quarter of a cup first,
and see the consistency
and then keep going.
You just need your Vitamix stamper
or like a spoon to push things down,
just don't get the spoon
caught in the blades,
and then you'll have a mess on your hands,
but use this guy to
really smush things down.
To help it mix a little bit,
if you're finding that it's
just not mixing quick enough,
you can always add a
little bit of soy milk,
I wouldn't add more than
one tablespoon at a time,
and I would add it while the
blender is still running,
so we're going to do that now.
So we have our cream cheese here.
Now it is a little bit of a yellow tinge,
which you will notice because of the herbs
and also the nutritional yeast,
so if you really want it
to be super, super white,
you can definitely leave those out,
but I end up always mixing
mine with herbs and things.
And it's going to firm up
even more in the fridge,
which is great.
But there you go.
So this is totally customizable
to whatever flavor you wanna make it.
I really like to also make
like a strawberry flavored one,
so you would obviously leave out the herbs
and then add, don't come at me,
but I like to add powdered sugar
because it's nice and fine,
so while you're blending
it you add powdered sugar,
and then afterwards you can smush in
some mashed strawberries,
and it's like a breakfast,
oh sorry, a dessert cream cheese,
which is really, really tasty.
When doing this,
your blender's going to
warm it up a little bit
because of the motor and the mixing of it,
especially if you're using a Vitamix,
so put it in the fridge right
away to cool down, definitely.
I probably should have
addressed this earlier,
but deodorized coconut oil
is also known as refined coconut oil,
all that means is that the
coconut flavor and smell
is taken out of it.
If you can't find it,
you can definitely use
regular coconut oil,
but if you're really sensitive
to the coconut flavor and smell,
your cream cheese is gonna
smell kind of coconut-y,
and maybe you'll be able to taste it.
I haven't really ever noticed,
but I'm not sensitive to coconut.
All right so, I've toasted a bagel here,
and I think that we should
just go ahead and spread it on.
Super light and fluffy,
and it's only going to get
nice and whipped and fluffier
once it hardens up a little bit.
And pair this with the carrot lox
that I made the video
on a couple months ago,
the recipe's on my blog,
and some of your favorite herbs,
and you have just a super boujee
but easy breakfast or brunch.
(upbeat music)
That is how you make the
easiest cream cheese,
the cheapest cream cheese, but vegan.
It's so good.
The perfect amount of tangy,
and the texture is so whipped,
it is a flawless do.
Like I said, there's a
couple different variations
you can do with this.
So if you do wanna cut back on
the kind of herby-ness of it,
just take the dill out,
I would go half on the garlic and onion.
You wanna make it sweet,
you can leave all that
out except for the salt,
and then add some powdered
sugar and some berries
and then you have a nice
dessert cream cheese,
and you can also make
the tastiest and cheapest
cream cheese icing.
All right guys, I'm Candice, The Edgy Veg,
and you made it to the end
of another video, amazing,
good for you, good for me, we like food.
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how you like to make your cream cheese,
or do you like to buy it,
or what recipe you wanna see next.
Okay, bye.
