1 (16 ounce) block tofu (medium to extra firm)
1-2 small cloves garlic
2/3 cup nondairy milk (I'd stay away from almond milk for this recipe)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2/3 cup raw almonds
2 teaspoons lemon juice (fresh or store bought)
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 tablespoon vegan butter
1/2 cup oil (the best is organic safflower, or canola, but you can use peanut or olive)
salt and pepper, to taste
1. Put the full block of tofu into a food processor. Blend until smooth. Without stopping the blending of your food processor, add whole garlic. Blend until smooth. Without stopping the blending of your food processor, add milk, little bits at a time until all of it is smooth.
2. Again without stopping the blending of your food processor, add the nutritional yeast (the slower the better so it doesn't stick as to the sides of your food processor), until smooth. This time, stop your food processor, pull off the top, and add the measured raw almonds, lemon juice, corn starch and butter substitute.
3. Add about 5 cranks of pepper from my pepper grinder. Blend until everything is about the same consistency. Add about 1 teaspoon oil to a sauce pan and set the burner to medium heat. Dump the liquid out of the food processor into your pan, and let it sit until it starts bubbling a bit. Switch your burner to high, and start mixing constantly.
4. If you have an electric burner, I suggest you mix slower. If you have a gas burner, I suggest you mix at a medium to fast speed, but not rapid. The point of the mixing is to mix it just enough to make sure your cheese doesn't burn.
5. After about two minutes of mixing, add about a third of the 1/2 cup oil you've measured. Every one to two minutes add another third of the measured half cup of oil, or just when it starts to get noticeably thick. At the end of the reduction and thickening process with the oil, you should be ready to serve it to yourself or others.
If you did everything right, at the end it should have a kind of cream cheesy texture. Enjoy! I just spent an hour writing this, so you had better enjoy.
Source of recipe: I was actually just trying to make my own recipe for vegan cheese, because 99% of recipes aren't that good, and packaged vegan cheese is much too expensive for my current budget. On my first attempt, it turned out great. Enjoy. Also, this doesn't come out at the exact consistency and taste as cheese, because it simply isn't cheese.