DF Veggie "Cream Cheese" Spread [RECIPE]

I've been craving a bagel with cream cheese, but there are some obvious hurdles: dairy allergy, and lack of goof fluffy bagels. My favorite bagel & cream cheese combo is from a little place in Marquette, Michigan called Third Street Bagel. They have the best veggie cream cheese ever, and their bagels are so light & fluffy, so they don't sit like stone weights in your stomach ;)

Locally, I've found 2 very good options for equally good bagels, Jake's Bagels & Deli in Aurora, IL and County Farm Bagels in Winfield, IL & Wheaton, IL. I had even figured out how to duplicate Third Street's veggie spread, but now I had to translate it to a dairy-free version. So I found a few recipes online, combined different pieces that I liked, adn the result is pretty good! I'm not sure I would like this spread without the veggies added, but as a whole it is delicious! It also works well for crackers!

Dairy-Free Veggie Cream Cheese Spread
1 cup raw cashews
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1½ Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast (or to taste)

1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper½ medium carrot, shredded
1 medium scallion (or small yellow onion), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ medium red bell pepper, diced
1 fresh dill sprig (or ½ Tbsp dried)


Soak cashews for at least 4 hours, or overnight. You could start with boiling water to speed up the soak time to 1-2 hours if you are in a rush. Rinse and gently dry cashews with paper towel  to remove excess water.

Using a high speed blender or food processor, blend the nuts, oils, lemon juice, and spices. This takes a while, and you will probably have to stop ans scrape down the sides of your blender or food processor a few times. Continue blending until you get a smooth consistency. Your mix may be a bit warm at this point, and personally I was not super impressed with the flavor, but don't be discouraged!

Add in your veggies. You can do this by hand or add to your blender/food processor (personally, I chopped everything up fine, but still added to my food processor). Allow to chill in refrigerator before eating, as the cold helps the texture set up and improves the flavor. The longer you can wait, the better it will taste as all those flavors meld together!

I've heard this type of mix lasts for about 1 week in the refrigerator. To be honest I'm moving into week 2 right now and have not notice any spoilage, but trust your instincts. This makes a hefty amount of spread, so you may want to cut the recipe down or freeze half of it for later (I haven't tested freezing it yet, but I've read some success stories & have frozen other cashew based creamy items such as mini cheesecakes).

Kite Hill: Ricotta & Soft Fresh

So I'm torn on Kite Hill. I've been bragging about them for a while, but really I think the brie is where it stops. I've tried out both the ricotta and soft fresh (truffle, dill & chive), and I'm not nearly as impressed as I was with the brie. I'll still give them another try, as it may have been my applications, and I will still try their other offerings, but my current opinion of these 2 is "meh."

Kite Hill Ricotta
I have tried this cheese twice now, with mixed results. My first attempt was in a lasagna. I mixed the ricotta with egg, parsley, salt and pepper per the recipe. I also added some almond milk as I personally found the ricotta too dry. I snuck this into a low carb version utilizing eggplant instead of noodles, but I do want to note I left in the mozzarella and parmesan (baby steps, especially in convincing the 2 guys I live with). I noticed the ricotta tasted differently, but neither guy did, so I am attributing this to my prior knowledge and nervous anticipation. It wasn't bad, although I got sick of it after a while. But since the boys didn't notice I think I will try again without failure in my mind.

My next and most recent attempt over this past weekend was flatbread white pizza. We make a pizza (really an appetizer, but you know how that goes..) using naan as the crust, seasoned olive oil, and a mixture of ricotta and mozzarella. This time I went 100% dairy free and replaced the mozzarella with nutritional yeast to up that cheese taste. Prior to baking, it was alright. Again I found it too dry and added olive oil. After baking I was not happy. Keep in mind, these were over baked, but the dairy versions did not dry out. The dairy-free version dried out and had a weird aftertaste. Part of that was probably the over baking, but the cheese was crumbly and I couldn't get over that aftertaste. The brie had one too but it was easy to get used to. I haven't totally nixed the ricotta, but if I try this recipe again I need to keep a close eye on it and find a better way to add moisture and replace that missing mozzarella (I thought about Trader Joe's shreds which are supposed to melt and don't taste bad, but they really do taste like almond so would not have added to the flavor).

Kite Hill Soft Ripened (Truffle, Dill, Chive)
This I bought to use as a replacement in chicken in pastry (basically seasoned, seared chicken breast and garlic chive Alouette cheese wrapped in puff pastry). I will be honest and say I never got to using this in the recipe. The cheese smelled just right, although I found the texture odd. At first I liked the taste as well, but again there was an aftertaste I just did not like. Maybe I am just not refined enough to enjoy truffle? Also the texture just was not right for this recipe, so between the two I never got any farther. I'm not sure in what application I would use this cheese, but I may come back to the original later.


Now I will say, some of my experience may have been trying to recreate dairy-heavy dishes. I honestly do think trying to make no dairy dishes and/or dishes specifically designed for these alternative cheeses may provide better results. I have also heard that it is better to cut out all dairy for a few months before bringing in these subs as you will compare to the real thing too much and not be able to enjoy them. Given the boys could not tell the difference and only found out about the sub after the fact, I will say there is some rationale behind this idea.

Trying out Some Cheese Subs

I was making a bagel today and decided it was a good opportunity to try out some cheeses. Like many, I enjoy cream cheese on my bagels. However, my go to is actually a toasted bagel with butter and cheese (slightly melted). It's like an open face grilled cheese on a bagel. So, you get 3 reviews today!

Chao original slices

This smells fine, kind of like cheese (not bad in any regard). Texture-wise it's a little harder than actual sandwich cheese slices. It melted fine with some heat, but got a bit gummy. It also gets gummy w/ moisture. Flavor-wise, it was meh. I'm not sure what the original flavor is supposed to be, but it was pretty bland. Not bad, just didn't do much for me.

Follow Your Heart American slices

These smelled fine too, more like cheese than Chao. The texture again was a little harder than actual cheese, although not as hard/tough as Chao. Like the Chao, it melted well enough with some heat, although still gummy (not quite as gummy as Chao though). The flavor was a bit better, but that might because they were going for an actual flavor. Kind of like American, although not quite there.

I gave my dog a little piece of each of these. She was like WTF! So...definitely did not fool her. They weren't anything great or special, but I'll probably still give them a chance and see how I feel about them over time. Remember: I was using real cheese just this weekend lol

Overall, they weren't particularly disappointing or anything, and I'm interested in trying the other flavors. They are a bit pricey, and you don't get much in a pack though. I'm also unsure how they would use for sauces etc, but I'm guessing other options might be better

Daiya plain cream cheese

This was the best of the 3 cheeses I tried today. It smelled like cream cheese, had a really great texture, and a pretty good flavor. My only complaint is that I found it a bit sweet. If you've ever had the Philadelphia cheese cake flavored cream cheese, it was more like that than plain. Still good, and would be wonderful in baked goods and desserts, but not quite what I was looking for on my bagel today. I will definitely be using this in the future, for a variety of things from sandwiches to desserts, and I am looking forward to trying some of the other flavors.