This creamy, tangy, and nut-free Vegan Goat Cheese is absolutely delicious and quick! Make it up in just 10 minutes and throw it on some salad, crackers, or crostini if you’re feeling fancy. It makes the perfect quick high protein snack.
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Hey Internet, I’ve got yet ANOTHER vegan cheese for you! This one is a vegan goat cheese, and it’s absolutely awesome.
I made it for a new salad I just published: Vegan Goat Cheese Salad with Strawberries and Pecans that features a new sauce I came up with as well: Vegan Strawberry Tahini Salad Dressing, both of which are super tasty and fresh.
I’m just so excited I made vegan goat cheese. I’m still working on a goat cheese recipe that melts AND crumbles (I can’t seem to nail down both), but this one tastes so good that I just had to share it with you.
This dairy free goat cheese is essentially flavored tofu, but the flavor is so close, and goat cheese in all its creamy tanginess, was one of my favorite cheeses before I went vegan.
To be fair, it also made me sick. Even though it wasn’t as high in lactose as other cheeses (being made from goat’s milk instead of cow’s milk), my body just did not like being sickened by and addicted to the casein, which is a dairy protein that is chemically addictive for your brain (no wonder cheese is so good!).
This is a GREAT substitution for goat cheese.
So I have been experimenting with vegan goat cheese for a while. And here’s the non-melting version I came up with, but it’s so creamy that unless you’re trying to melt it on pizza, you don’t even notice.
The tofu crumbles are not dry at all and actually taste super creamy and moist (sorry for those of you that hate that word).
Let’s talk about the ingredients quickly so we can get into the actual cheese making!
What You’ll Need
You’ll definitely need some tofu for this dairy free goat cheese. For other options, please check my substitutions section below.
I used firm tofu, but medium or extra firm will work too. It will help you to press out as much water as you can for this recipe!
To get that super tangy flavor, I used a combination of lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. I’d HIGHLY recommend using both of these, as it helps achieve that perfect tang that goat cheese is known for.
To get a nice cheesy flavor, I used some unfortified nutritional yeast. Unfortified yeast has none of the added vitamins that the fortified version, meaning it’s not yellow.
Fortified nutritional yeast WILL work for this recipe, it will just color your vegan goat cheese slightly yellow. If you’re OK with that, then by all means!
You’ll definitely need some salt because goat cheese--or rather, all cheese--is pretty dang salty. You may reduce the amount of salt in this recipe as you see fit, and according to your taste buds’ desires.
Finally, these are optional, but I added a little onion and garlic powder and found that to be a really delicious way to flavor this cheese.
What Substitutions Can I Make?
Tofu
As mentioned above, you can use firm, medium firm, or extra firm tofu for this recipe, just make sure to press out as much water as you can. I pressed my firm tofu for a few minutes in a great, inexpensive tofu press but you can also press it between two cutting boards or plates and a heavy weight. You can also just wrap it in paper towels or a clean kitchen cloth and squeeze out as much water as you can.
If you’d like to use cashews or sunflower seeds instead to make cashew goat cheese, please see below as I have a special section on it!
Lemon and Apple Cider Vinegar
I really like this cheese with the combination of those two flavors. Apple cider vinegar is sweet and tangy, while lemon juice is citrusy, bright, and sour. Together they make a very authentic-tasting vegan goat cheese.
However, you can experiment with other acids like lime juice, white or white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, or even citric acid powder (also called sour salts).
Nutritional Yeast
I explained the difference between unfortified and fortified nutritional yeast above. If you want your goat cheese to be light in color, use unfortified nutritional yeast.
If you don’t want to use nutritional yeast at all, don’t. It will still taste really good, just less of a cheesy flavor. I’d make up for it by using a bit of extra onion and garlic powder, to taste.
How to Make Vegan Goat Cheese
This section is an overview of the recipe instructions for the TOFU goat cheese. For the cashew goat cheese, please go to the next section.
First, take your tofu and squeeze out as much water as possible. You may choose to press your tofu with a tofu press or just wrap it in a kitchen towel or a few paper towels and squeeze it until your tofu starts to break apart.
Now use your hands to crumble the tofu into little pieces over a large bowl. It’s OK to have some larger crumbles and some smaller ones.
Next add your lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. Mix it well with a spoon or your hands so it gets very well incorporated into all the crumbles.
You can now mix in the spices and nutritional yeast. Toss it well. The nutritional yeast also helps to absorb any extra liquid from the lemon juice and vinegar.
That’s it!
You can now add it to any salads, eat it with crackers, or put it on top of toasted bread slices (crostini) with jam like I did :)
I loved putting my homemade strawberry chia jam on it, but Mr. Zardyplants always has many open jam containers in the fridge so we also experimented with raspberry and apricot jam.
Refrigerate leftover goat cheese in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
You can freeze it, but when thawed tofu seems to get a bit chewier (making it great for cooking as a meat replacement), so it may not be as soft if you decide to freeze it.
Can I Make Cashew Goat Cheese?
Good news: this dairy free goat cheese can absolutely be made with cashews!
Here’s what I would do:
Soak a cup of your cashews overnight in room temperature water OR overnight in boiling water.
Drain the liquid well and transfer your cashews into your blender. Blend it up with everything listed in my recipe and then add the cashews to a large cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel.
Gently rub the cheese until most of the liquid is drained out and you’re left with kind of a crumbly mess. There’s your substitution for goat cheese!
The sweetness of the cashews is great. I almost used cashews for this recipe but I know that people appreciate when I make nut-free vegan cheese so I decided to stick to that.
How to Serve Vegan Goat Cheese
My current favorite way to eat this delicious vegan goat cheese is with jam on toasted bread. So delightful, tasty, and just as easy as avocado toast (travels better too!)
But equally tasty is just throwing it any salad I can think of. I made it specifically for my vegan goat cheese salad with strawberries and pecans but I throw it in other salads all the time.
It’s perfect in anything from quinoa salad, to pasta salad, to just a simple green salad.
Though this goat cheese doesn’t melt (I’m working on one that does!), you could still throw it on top of pizza or pasta. You won’t even notice it doesn’t melt because it’s so dang good and creamy!
Want More Vegan Cheese?
I don’t blame you. Vegan cheese is awesome! Did you know I have a whole section on vegan cheese on my site?!
I even made a whole list of my favorite nut-free vegan cheese recipes!
Here’s a few of them:
Nut-Free Vegan Cheese - This one’s a fan favorite as well!
Vegan Feta (also nut-free!)
Nut-free Soy-free Vegan Cheese Sauce
Queso (part of a nacho fries recipe, but you could just scroll down to the sauce section!)
If you’d like to sign up for my free newsletter so you don’t miss any cheese recipes (I’m not gonna stop anytime soon!), please fill out the below form!
And if you're looking for more tofu dishes, check out this post I made with all my best tofu recipes.
Anything Else?
As always, I hope you love this recipe--I know I do, and Mr. Zardyplants does too.
This vegan goat cheese is:
- Cheesy
- Tangy
- Salty
- Light
- Satisfying
- And great in any dish or just as a side to bring to a barbeque or party--even meat eaters will enjoy it! It makes the perfect addition to any cheese or charcuterie board, too.
Let me know in the comments below if you make this recipe or tag me @Zardyplants on Instagram so I can see your beautiful recreations! If you tag me on IG, I will share your post in my stories :)
Also, one quick request: if you love how this recipe looks or tastes, please leave me a 5-star rating and a nice comment–ratings help more people find my recipes which helps me keep providing them! Thank you!
<3 Liz
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Vegan Goat Cheese
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This creamy, tangy, and nut-free Vegan Goat Cheese is absolutely delicious and quick! Make in just 10 minutes and throw it on salad, crackers, or crostini.
Ingredients
- 1-16 oz block (about 396g) firm tofu (see note 1)
- Juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup unfortified nutritional yeast (see note 2)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder, optional
- 1 tsp onion powder, optional
Instructions
- This section is an overview of the recipe instructions for the TOFU goat cheese. For the cashew goat cheese, please see the article above the recipe for special instructions.
- First, take your tofu and squeeze out as much water as possible, using either a tofu press or a clean kitchen towel or paper towels.
- Use your hands to crumble the tofu into little pieces over a large bowl. It’s OK to have some larger crumbles and some smaller ones.
- Next add lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. Mix well with a spoon.
- Finally, add salt, spices and nutritional yeast. Toss it well.
- Add it to any salads, eat it with crackers, or put it on top of toasted bread slices (crostini) with jam.
- Refrigerate leftover goat cheese in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Note 1: As mentioned above, you can use firm, medium firm, or extra firm tofu for this recipe, just make sure to press out as much water as you can. I pressed my firm tofu for a few minutes in a great, inexpensive tofu press but you can also press it between two cutting boards or plates and a heavy weight. You can also just wrap it in paper towels or a clean kitchen cloth and squeeze out as much water as you can. If you’d like to use cashews or sunflower seeds instead to make cashew goat cheese, please see the article above as I have a special section on it.
- Note 2: If you want your goat cheese to be light in color, use unfortified nutritional yeast. Regular fortified nutritional yeast will work fine, but your goat cheese will be more yellow. If you don’t want to use nutritional yeast at all, don’t. It will still taste really good, just less of a cheesy flavor. I’d make up for it by using a bit of extra onion and garlic powder, to taste.
- Note 3: You can freeze this vegan goat cheese if you’d like, but I’ve noticed that thawed tofu seems to get a bit chewier (making it great for cooking as a meat replacement), so it may not be as soft if you decide to freeze it.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Vegan Cheese
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
Kristi
Hi Liz. I don't see how many cashews to use for the cashew version of your goat cheese.
💚 Liz
Add a cup of soaked cashews. I'll be sure to add it to the post!
Eti
I just made it. There is NO WAY I can only eat 1/4 cup... I'm gonna eat the whole thing!! That is sooooo good and easy to make. Yum!