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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!