The secret is out: you don’t need dairy to make delicious, crave-worthy cheese. So many vegan cheese recipes are easy enough to tackle in the comfort of your home kitchen, and all they require is a bit of foresight (and a powerful blender or food processor).

The following vegan almond and dill cheese recipe is a savory and fragrant version of vegan cheese that combines the healthy fats and fiber inherent in almonds with the tartness of lemon and vinegar, the natural sweetness of maple syrup, and the uncanny cheesiness of nutritional yeast. The result is a cheese spread that is a great go-to dish for when you want to indulge in the density and flavors of cheese without the dairy.

While this vegan cheese recipe calls for dill, you aren’t limited to the herb. You can significantly alter the recipe’s flavor profile by changing up the herb component – try rosemary, thyme, or marjoram for a change and see what suits your fancy.

Baking means that this vegan cheese recipe is not raw. However, you can skip the straining and baking step and just enjoy the cheese as it is after blended. It will be considerably thinner and thus be best featured as a dip or spread. However you have it, you won’t be disappointed!

Vegan Almond and Dill Cheese Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup almonds
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup
• Dash of sea salt
• Dash of black pepper
• Handful of fresh dill

Directions

Soak the almonds overnight in water. The next day, drain and rinse them and place them into a food processor. Add in the lemon, vinegar, garlic, nutritional yeast, syrup, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth. You may have to add 1-4 tablespoons of water in order to blend the mixture properly until smooth and creamy. Add the dill and then pulse 2-3 times, just enough to distribute the dill evenly but not completely break the dill up so that the mixture turns green.

Pour the mixture into a cheese cloth and place the cheese cloth into a strainer that is set over a bowl, which will collect any water that drips from the almond mixture. Place in the fridge. Let it sit there for at least 8 hours.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Shape the mixture into 2-3 balls and place onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet that is lightly greased with olive oil. Flatten the top lightly.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the surface of the rounds are golden brown.

Serve hot with toasted pita bread or vegetable crudites.

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Recipe: Vegan White Cheese Party Dip

 Almonds in Brown Bowl Image from Shutterstock

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