Easy recipe for a raw vegan cheese made from sunflower seeds. Sunflower cheese slices, grates and melts so you can use it in place of regular cheese in most recipes. Heart-healthy cheese that tastes great, is cheap to make and doesn’t take long – what isn’t there to love about this recipe? This seed cheese is one of my staples that I often have a batch of in the fridge.

I use fresh garlic and onion as these are widely available and have the most nutrients. You can replace with garlic and onion powder if you prefer, about tsp of each gives the same flavour.

Turmeric gives the sunflower cheddar a bright yellow colour and adds valuable nutrients. You really don’t taste the turmeric in this recipe so do add it even if you don’t like the taste. As it’s mainly sunflower seeds in this vegan cheese it is grey without at least a pinch of turmeric.

The natural and heart-healthy fats in the sunflower seeds are great for giving optimum absorption of the turmeric goodness.

This is a quick and easy vegan cheese recipe as it isn’t fermented so it can be made in a few minutes and sets quickly.

Play Vegan Cheese Video Recipe on YouTube

In the sunflower cheese recipe I usually double the amount of cayenne pepper as I like a bit of a kick. Also you may want to add half a tsp of salt into the recipe, I tend to just have the saltiness from the miso but some might find it a bit bland without it.

The miso is just to give the salty and umami flavour to this vegan seed cheese. Miso paste is added after cooking so that none of the nutrients are destroyed. If you can use fresh unpasteurised live miso as it’s the most nutritious.  It works great without miso if you don’t have any – just add some salt instead.

Sunflower vegan cheese is great on a cheese board along with smoked cashew cheese and pistachio cheese. If you are allergic to nuts or on a budget this seed cheese recipe is perfect!

This vegan cheese can be frozen if you like. I recommend to freeze in wedges and enjoy within 3 months. Just defrost at room temperature for a few hours or overnight in the fridge.

I often call this a vegan sunflower cheddar as it has a mild cheesy taste similar to the popular cheddar. Some may not like calling this vegan Cheddar but I actually live next to Cheddar in Somerset so this vegan cheese is way more cheddar than most cheddar cheese!

This vegan “cheese” uses sunflower seeds as the base. This means that it is significantly cheaper than using nuts such as macadamia or cashew. It’s actually raw as most sunflower seeds will sprout whereas most nuts will not.

The agar agar is cooked in this recipe, but this is just the thickening agent and nutritionally void. The rest is raw and all the nutrients of the seeds and other ingredients are intact so I would still consider this a raw dish, but some purists raw foodists may disagree.

This is a sprouted sunflower seed cheese as the seeds are soaked in water to start to germinate and activate. It makes it much easier for the body to digest all of the goodness.

Yield: 10 servings

Sunflower Cheddar Cheese

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This is an easy recipe for a raw vegan cheese made from sunflower seeds. A great vegan cheese that slices, grates and melts so you can use it in place of regular cheese in most recipes to make them plant based. Heart healthy cheese that tastes great, is cheap to make and doesn’t take long

Prep Time 10 minutes

Additional Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup / 140 g Sunflower seeds
• 1 Lime, juiced
• 3 tbsp Nutritional yeast
• 1 clove Garlic
• 1 slice of Onion
• ½ tsp Turmeric
• ¼ tsp Cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp Miso, white is best but don’t worry if you only have brown
• 1 tbsp Agar agar powder, a veggie alternative to gelatin
• 1½ cups / 360ml water

Instructions

1. Soak the sunflower seeds in water for at least 10 mins, overnight is best if you have the time.
2. In a pan mix together the agar agar with some water until dissolved. Then mix in 1 cup / 240 ml of water.
3. Bring the agar agar mixture to a boil and simmer for 5 mins stirring constantly to prevent any sticking at the bottom.
4. Take the pan off the heat and allow to cool for a few mins and continue with the recipe.
5. Drain and rinse the sunflower seeds.
6. Place everything in a blender, apart from the agar agar mixture, with half a cup / 120 ml of water and blend until smooth.
7. Whisk together the sunflower seed cheese mixture and the agar agar until it’s all combined.
8. Pour into a dish, about 6″ in diameter, and then place in the fridge for an hour to set.
9. You may want to oil your dish, but I tend to use a shiny ceramic dish and the seed cheese comes out easy enough without any oil.
10. Take the sunflower cheese out of the dish once set and enjoy this vegan cheese in place of normal cheese. It will last a few days in the fridge.

Recommended Products

Links maybe affiliated, meaning I earn a commission from purchases but at no extra cost to yourself.

• 
  Nest and Glow Recipe Book
• 
  Agar Agar
• 
  Nutritional Yeast

Nutrition Information

Yield

10

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 65Total Fat 5gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 0mgSodium 611mgCarbohydrates 4gFiber 2gSugar 1gProtein 3g

If you like this recipe check out my courgetti with a sunflower seed cheese sauce.

Looking for some crackers to go with a vegan cheese wheel? Check out my oil free five seed oatcakes recipe. Gluten free and full of goodness.