Amy's Vegan Day: Apricot Goat Cheese Spread

Whole Foods sells a super-tasty Apricot Goat Cheese spread. Now I don't like cream cheese (even as a vegetarian I never ate it), but this spread is amazing - a cream cheese and goat cheese mix with apricots in it. Creamy, sweet, tangy, delicious, and most excellent in the morning on toast. I originally stopped buying it because it was too expensive but now as a vegan the cost is a moot point. What's a girl to do but make it herself?

Note: This recipe takes 24-36 hours start to finish, so plan accordingly. I've given suggested times for each step of the recipe but plan this based on your own schedule.

Apricot Goat Cheese Spread (makes 10-12 ounces)

1 cup raw cashews, coarsely chopped

1 Tbls. + 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

3 Tbls. + 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice (unless you have a juicer, getting this much fresh lemon juice is quite laborious. I say get what you can out of one lemon and use the rest from the bottle.)

2 Tbls. + 2 tsp. canola oil

3/4 tsp. salt

1-2 Tbls. water (as needed)

In the morning, soak your bowl of cashews in cold water in the fridge. They need to soak for at least 12 hours. When they are done, the water will be a bit cloudy and they will have a purplish-grayish tinge, like this:

After at least 12 hours (nighttime now!), drain and rinse your cashews well. Combine the cashews with the remaining ingredients (except for the water) and blend for several minutes, until the mixture is ssssuuuuppppeeeerrrr creamy and smooth. If it is too thick to blend properly, gradually add a bit of water, though you shouldn't have to add more than 2 Tbls. total. It should be a little bit thinner than cream cheese, but not soupy.

Dump the mixture out onto a single-ply cheesecloth. (No cheesecloth? You can also use a coffee filter, panty hose, or a thin t-shirt or pillowcase. Just make sure whatever you use is clean :)

Gather the cheesecloth at the top and tie it closed. You will have to suspend it from something with a bowl underneath it. I tied it to the post in between the kitchen cabinets, but you can also tie it to a long spoon or other utensil and suspend that like a bridge over a tall glass or vase (so the bundle is hanging inside the glass but not touching the bottom. Make sense?).

Clearly this was pre-placing of the bowl underneath the bundle...

Let it hang out (pun intended) for 12-24 hours (so at least until the next morning). The mixture won't drain too much, but moisture will evaporate out of the cheesecloth. Untie it and marvel at your bundle of cream cheese/goat cheese.

You could be done with it now and just stick it in a tupperware in the fridge, but don't you want to add apricots? Chop up one ripe apricot into tiny pieces and stir in. If your apricot isn't mushing a little bit when you're slicing it, it ain't ripe enough. If you're not a fan of apricots just add whatever you want. I bet a butter/brown sugar/cinnamon mix would be amazing too.