Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter

December 30, 2017
Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter

What better way to bring in NYE than with friends and food? This Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter is the perfect platter board to please your guests and your stomach!

Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter

I’ve been busy in the kitchen testing out nut/seed cheese recipes the last few days and I’m really happy with the two I’m about to share with you! I think they deserve their own blog post somewhere down the track too!

Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter

I made a seed cheese for those that can’t eat nuts, it’s made with sunflower seeds and pepitas and it’s really easy to make. It’ll harden up in the fridge but soften as it’s left out. It’s really yummy and flavourful. You can choose what crust you put on this cheese once it’s ready for serving. On one I used a mix of white and black sesame seeds and on the other I used crushed pistachios and a purple pepperberry salt that we got from Tasmania. You could use a dried herb mix, poppy seeds, cracked pepper etc! Get creative!

Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter

I also made a baked cashew cheese that we both absolutely loved. It had a lovely baked crust on it and it was soft on the inside. Before I baked it I just sprinkled some cracked black pepper on top. So so so yum! You could also try out our Macadamia Dill Cheese on the platter – that would also work very well!

Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter

You’ll also find on this platter a yummy dip that I’ve been making lately – Chickpea, Walnut and Carrot Dip. It was a perfect accompaniment to the platter. If you don’t have time to make a dip, then just buy a vegan one. Or you could try our Caramelized Onion and Chipotle Hummus!

Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter

For the additional decoration we used strawberries, blueberries, cherries, apricots, pears, nectarines, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, walnuts, almonds and dried figs. Feel free to mix it up a bit, perhaps use cashews or brazil nuts, sprinkle some seeds around or use grapes, apples or fresh figs. There’s so many delicious combinations!!

Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter

We hope you’re inspired to make a Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter for New Years Eve or sometime soon in the New Year and share it with your family and friends. Wishing you all a very happy and fruitful 2018!

Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter

This Vegan Cheese and Fruit Platter is perfect for your New Years Eve gathering, or your next dinner party as an entree! Packed full of amazing food, including some homemade nut cheeses, your guests will be amazed and satisfied! 

Serves - 4 to 10 people, depending on how big your platter is! 

Ingredients
For the Seed Cheese:
  • 1/2 cup sunflower seeds soaked
  • 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds soaked
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • sprinkle of white pepper
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 2 tsp soy lecithin granules
  • 4 Tbsp water
For the Cashew Baked Cheese:
  • 1/2 cup cashews soaked
  • 70g firm tofu
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • sprinkle of white pepper
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 2 tsp soy lecithin
  • 2 Tbsp filtered water
  • 1/2 tsp powdered agar agar
  • 1/3 cup water
For the Chickpea Walnut and Carrot Dip:
  • 1 can chickpeas drained
  • 1/2 cup walnuts soaked
  • 2 carrots peeled and grated
  • pinch of chilli flakes
  • 1/4 tsp black salt or himalayan sea salt
  • 1 clove garlic crushed
  • sprinkle of white pepper
  • 1 Tbsp savoury yeast
  • 1/4 tsp cumin powder
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
Additional ingredients:
  • 3-4 artichokes
  • 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup pitted olives
  • 1 packet of vegan crackers
  • 1 punnet of strawberries
  • 1 punnet of blueberries
  • 1 punnet of cherries
  • 1/4 cup walnuts
  • 1/4 cup almonds
  • handful of dried figs
  • 1-2 carrots peeled and chopped lengthways
  • 1 small cucumber chopped lengthways
  • 1 pear sliced
  • 1 nectarine sliced
  • 2 apricots halved
Instructions
For the Seed Cheese:
  1. Soak the sunflower seeds and the pepitas for 4 to 6 hours or overnight. Then drain and rinse them and add them to a high powered blender with the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth. Pour the mixture in a mould and let set in the fridge. For mine I put in the fridge for 20 mins to firm up and then divided the mixture by 3 and wrapped each in gladwrap to form balls. They then take about 2 hours to overnight to firm up. 

For the Baked Cashew Cheese:
  1. Soak the cashews for 6 hours or overnight. Then blend with the remaining ingredients except the agar and the 1/3 cup of water. Bring the 1/3 cup of water to the boil, add the agar and wait for it to simmer. Then take off the heat and add this to the other mixture and blend until well incorporated. Pour into a heatproof ramekin/baking dish. I used an 11cm springform baking tin. I refrigerated mine for a few hours, but it will probably be good to bake straight away. Sprinkle with black pepper if desired and bake for 30 mins at 180℃, until nice and browned on top. 

For the Chickpea Walnut and Carrot Dip:
  1. Add all the ingredients except for the oil to a food processor. Blend until well incorporated (you may have to scrape down the sides a few times). A little bit chunky is ok. Then slowly pour the oil in from the chute at the top. Will keep in the fridge for about four days.  

To Assemble:
  1. Put the dip in a bowl and place it on your platter board. Then arrange the cheeses around it. Put the olives, artichokes and sun dried tomatoes in separate ramekins and place them on the platter board. Then arrange all the fruit, nuts, crackers and veggie sticks however you desire. Now it is ready to eat! 

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  • andrena silk February 13, 2018 at 6:38 pm

    I copied your platter for a dinner party and my guests are still raving about it. The baked cheese was lovely and spreadable. I think personally I would not put so many seeds in the seed cheese but it was all eaten. Thanks for your recipe and your photographs look great x

    • Katie February 14, 2018 at 6:52 am

      Hi Andrena, that’s so great to hear! Platters are such a good idea for a dinner party 😍 I’ve made that baked cheese quite a few times now, we love it! Thanks for your feedback on the nut cheese too, really appreciate it.