Learn how to make the most amazing Vegan Pimento Cheese completely dairy-free and oil-free! This is creamy, rich, tangy, salty, slightly spicy with just a hint of sweetness. Everything a pimento cheese should be!
Meet my favorite vegan cheese I’ve possibly made ever. This Vegan Pimento Cheese has made me happier than you know! It requires just 8 ingredients, is oil-free and dairy-free and nostalgic in every way. My mom always served us pimento cheese spread on celery sticks. It was a regular snack I had growing up and it was always served at the holidays. So posting this just in time for the holidays was a must.
Maybe it’s just the fact that I’ve missed pimento cheese so much, but this I’m loving more right now than any other cheese I’ve created!
I have missed that stuff. It has been years since I have had it and now I’m. In. Heaven.
This recipe is based off of my Vegan Baked Smoky Cashew Cheese. That recipe has exploded! I’ve legit had dozens of readers tell me it’s the best vegan cheese they’ve ever had and one reader told me I should package and sell it, haha! It’s really delicious, so go try it if you haven’t. I changed that recipe up quite a bit to turn out this amazing pimento spread.
If you’ve never had pimento cheese, you are missing out. It is different than any other cheese. A pimento cheese should be rich, creamy, soft (it’s not a hard cheese), dip-like, spreadable, tangy, slightly spicy and just a hint of sweetness.
My Vegan Pimento Cheese has that all! You’ll need just 8 easy ingredients:
- raw cashews
- rice vinegar (plain, not seasoned)
- lemon juice
- sriracha sauce
- paprika
- tomato paste
- garlic
- pimentos
HOW DO YOU MAKE VEGAN PIMENTO CHEESE?
First, you will need to soak your raw cashews. Do not SKIP THIS. I don’t care if you are in a rush, if you skip this, it will be gritty.
Add the drained cashews to a food processor. Add the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the pimentos.
Process to break everything up, scrape down the sides and process again for a good 5 minutes or so. Process until 100% smooth and creamy.
Taste and it should be tangy, salty, slightly spicy and a mild touch of sweetness! True pimento cheese is not overly spicy so it should be just a nice warmth in your mouth.
Stir in the pimentos and serve over toast, celery sticks or crackers!
Creating amazing vegan cheeses is a regular thing here. Try these other Vegan Cheeses:
- Best Vegan Queso is truly the best you’ve ever had (your reviews)
- Vegan Baked Herbed Cashew Cheese
- Vegan Strawberry Cream Cheese
- Easy Vegan Mexican Cheese
- Vegan Ricotta Cheese
Vegan Pimento Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (225g) raw unsalted cashews, soaked overnight, DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP
- 2 1/2 tablespoons (37g) plain (not seasoned) rice vinegar, please do not sub with another vinegar!
- 2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce (adds LOTS of depth of flavor, a slight kick and a hint of sweet)
- 1 tablespoon (15g) tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon (15g) fresh lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons (45g) water
- 3 large garlic cloves, 11g, roughly chopped (don't be shy, this adds lots of flavor)
- 1 teaspoon regular paprika
- 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/4 cup (60g) diced pimentos (make sure you drain them FIRST from the jar before measuring)
- I use this food processor.
Instructions
- You will need a day in advance to make this cheese, you MUST soak the cashews overnight. Quick soak methods are not advised. Rushing it will result in a gritty cheese. Trust me on this and do not skip soaking the cashews overnight. This makes the nuts very soft and is necessary since so little liquid is used and is needed to get a creamy consistency.
- Add your cashews to a bowl and pour boiling water over them by at least an inch at the top. Cover and leave to sit overnight on your counter or 8 hours minimum. Drain them and rinse them well.
- Add the drained cashews to a food processor, as there is such little liquid, I don't recommend a blender or even a Vitamix, it does not get creamy for me, personally. Add the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the pimentos.
- Process to break everything up, scrape down the sides and process again for a good 5 minutes or so. You will need to scrape down the sides a couple of times to ensure it all gets mixed and smooth. It will seem too gritty at first and like it won't work, but if you soaked your cashews overnight as instructed, it WILL work. Just be patient. Process until 100% smooth and creamy. Like in my photo.
- Taste and it should be tangy, salty, slightly spicy and a mild touch of sweetness! True pimento cheese is not overly spicy so it should be just a nice warmth in your mouth. However, if you want yours spicier, feel free to add a good pinch of cayenne. Do not, however, add more Sriracha, as that will add too much more vinegar and saltiness to the cheese. The heat level is perfect for kids though in my opinion as written and totally reminded me of my mom serving pimento cheese as a kid!
- Now, add the drained pimentos to the food processor and just STIR them in, do NOT blend them up. Alternatively, you could add all of the cheese to a bowl and stir them in that way too.
- Serve immediately or store in the fridge if you like first. I inhaled it immediately! Pimento cheese is supposed to be a soft, creamy spread, not a hard cheese so no need to firm up in the fridge before eating. I love this with crackers, especially celery and really, really delicious on toast!
Would you be able to freeze this? I’m trying to make as much food in advance as possible to take on vacation with us?
I’ve made this several times, both with and without the sriracha. Add the sriracha- it just adds a depth of flavor that takes it to the next level. I’ve shared this with several friends wh also loved this. Amazing!
I totally agree about the sriracha! So glad you loved it!
I just finished making this to take to a party, and of course I had to sample it – it.is.delicious! The flavor and texture are absolutely perfect! Interestingly, before I started eating a vegan diet, I didn’t care for pimiento cheese, but I was intrigued by this recipe and thought I’d try it to experiment on my friends. I’m so glad I did!
I made this recipe using the new PB2 cashew powder and adjusting liquid a bit. I also added a few Tbsp of hemp seeds for texture. Really yummy….it was part of an appetizer platter with celery, cucumber, pecans, peaches, crackers, pickled green beans and okra. Southern style charcuterie without the meat. Next time I will try letting it sit overnight for the flavors to meld, and maybe smoked paprika and miso instead of salt. Thanks for a winning recipe.
For the lady who said her husband couldn’t eat cashews, would Brazil nuts work, they’re soft and have a mild flavor?
I have no idea, as I’ve never tried them in this recipe!
I love your recipes, I have your “Vegan 8” cookbook and of course, I LOVE it! I personally like to collect great cookbooks, I hope your dessert cookbook will come out in print soon so I may pick it up! I love this Pimento Cheese recipe, it’s amazing! It tastes like Pimento Cheese! How do you do it!? I have made your Pimento Cheese recipe numerous times and I always double the batch, by the way, I leave out the 3 tablespoons water (6 tablespoons if you are doubling it) as I just haven’t needed it. I know that’s okay because everyone, including myself (vegan) and all my carnivore friends, LOVE it! It always comes out so creamy, of course, I run it in my Cuisinart food processor for 20 minutes, but it’s creamy as can be and then I stir in my two jars of drained pimentos. I use a little more than a half cup of pimentos in the double batch but again, it turns out great, thanks to your amazing and forgiving recipe! Thank you again for your genius!
Thank you so much Dan for this amazing feedback! So kind!
I love the texture and flavor of this pimiento cheese. The only adjustment I will make next time is a little less garlic. Three large cloves is just too much for me. I also added a little Vegenaise which made it creamier. Thank you for the recipe!
Garlic cloves greatly vary in size, so definitely use less if they are large. So glad you enjoyed it!
We LOVE this spread!! I always make it for Football and everything loves it’!! Thanks so much for yet another delicious recipe!!
That is so awesome Colleen!!
What is the sodium, calorie count of this product?
This was very tasty. I made sandwiches out of them with a homegrown sliced tomato.
I also used pimentos from my garden!
Amazing! Thanks so much! My husband and I have been missing pimento cheese for years.
This was the first of your recipes I made, almost a year ago now, and it blew my mind! It was the first cashew cheese recipe I’d ever tried, and I didn’t have high hopes for it since I couldn’t imagine how cashews could possibly turn into a cheese-like substance. But as someone who loved the dairy version, I went for it anyway, and wow there is no way to explain how delicious this cheese is! My southern husband agrees this is a dead ringer in taste for the real thing. I’ve gone on to make almost all your cheeses and more, and it’s no exaggeration to say you’ve changed the way we cook and eat, Brandi! Thanks for being so good at your job!!! 😀
Thank you so much for this recipe! Growing up in the South, I loved pimiento cheese and am so happy that I can now make it – vegan style. When I make it again, I will use less garlic, maybe 2 cloves instead of 3. Just too garlicky for my taste. Other than that, a definite winner!
So glad you loved it! Garlic cloves greatly vary in sizes from really small to quite large so it sounds like you had some big ones!
Delicious! I’ll have to admit that I didn’t soak my cashews at all and it came out creamy for me! I never soak them when I use my Vitamix and never have had a problem. I did use the tamper thing with it and the outcome was awesome! I added jalapeños because we have a brand here in SC that puts them in pimento cheese and we loved that kind before we gave up dairy. I made hummus right after before I washed my Vitamix and now we have pimento cheese flavored hummus, lol. I always make hummus after I make a sauce or something flavorful so that we don’t waste what is hard to scrape out. 🤗🤗🤗
This is so good! I just ordered the cookbook also.
I’m making it for the second time, and was wondering if you had experience freezing it?
Thanks!
That’s great! No I haven’t tried freezing it. Sometimes sift cheeses don’t freeze well abs get a bit of a grainy and wet texture but you can always try it.
I am not a big fan of vinegar. Do you think if I replaced the vinegar with more lemon juice that it would work?
Hi! They both add a different layer of flavor, which is why I like to use both, but you can always try it! Just keep in mind that lemon will be more pronounced of course.
This was really delicious. However I wanted it to be cheesier. Did you try adding nutritional yeast when you were developing this recipe?
So glad you enjoyed it! No, I loved the flavor as is and totally reminded me of pimento cheese my mom served us, but feel free to add nutritional yeast if you like!
SO GOOD! I followed what another person said here and I boiled the cashews for about 10 minutes. I then left them to soak for 3 hours. I used a Vitamix for this, even though you noted not to, but I swear it turned out so smooth and creamy. It was perfect! Cannot wait to make this again!
Yay! That’s awesome! I think it depends if you have a wide or narrow container, as mine is narrow and it didn’t work for me. So glad it worked for you!
I doubled the recipe, but I used half great northern beans, half cashews. I love cashews but have to be careful with excess fat in nuts. This was delicious. My very southern husband who loves pimiento cheese couldn’t stop eating this.
So happy to hear that!
Do you by chance have the nutritional facts?
No, I’m sorry I don’t at this time. I’ll try to add it when I get a chance, or you can plug in the ingredients in an online nutritional calculator. I use the one off caloriecount .com
Brandi! Absolutely delicious. My mom used to make the most amazing cheese ball while I was growing up. It was my favorite holiday appetizer. This is so close to her original (non-vegan), I simply can’t believe it. Thanks for being the nostalgic dish back into my life. It make a great gift in a crock as well.
The one substitution I made because I simply can’t get enough olive/pimiento flavor is I subbed olive juice for the 3 tablespoons of water 1:1. I was afraid it might make it too salty, but it didn’t. If you can’t find pimientos, I just take them out of the Olive myself and place the olive back in the jar for future use.
Yay Taya! This is so lovely to hear! So glad you loved this!
I’m basically a junk foodvegan as I am in it for the animals and don’t really think about nutrition much. I eat vegan junk food most of the time but was really craving pimento cheese. I never make anything from scratch so I wasn’t sure how it would come out. After two trips to the store (I miss asked a few ingredients the first time) I finally got started. It turned out sooooo good I’ve been eating it 2 or 3 times a day. I’ll definitely be trying a few more of your recipes
So very happy to hear you loved this! I can’t stop eating it either, haha!
I made this yesterday for an all omni cocktail party- people couldn’t stop eating it! So easy and delicious!!
Woohoo, awesome to hear that!
I just made this for the first time and all I can say is, Wow! It’s been so long since I had pimento cheese, and this tastes exactly like I remember! I followed the recipe to the letter and tbh I was worried the sriracha might make it too spicy for me, as I’m pretty sensitive to that kind of thing, but it’s perfect!!! Thanks so much!
So wonderful to hear Louis! So glad you loved it as much as I do!
Hi, Brandi. I have tried a few of your recipes and they have been great. I just got your cookbook today and can’t wait to see what to try next. I am going to make the pimento cheese, but can’t find unflavored rice vinegar. I will try again tomorrow and if I can’t find itI am going to use white wine vinegar. Do you think that will make a big difference? Thanks for what you do: please keep it up.
Aww thank you so much Catherine, I’m really happy to hear that! Yes, I think white wine vinegar would still be great!