The Best Easy & Quick Vegan Cottage Cheese Recipe

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Cottage cheese has been having a moment on the internet lately. People are putting it on toast, adding it to dips, and even making ice cream out of it! I'm always excited to jump on any trend and try it out for myself. Even though we now have veganized versions of almost any dairy, meat, or egg product available at the grocery store, we do not have vegan cottage cheese. I had to take matters into my own hands and make my own vegan cottage cheese recipe.

This vegan version is easy to make, is super high in protein, and is incredibly versatile and delicious! And you'll only need a few ingredients to make it. 

Traditional Cottage Cheese

Dairy cottage cheese can be made at home by boiling milk and vinegar (buttermilk). It takes quite a long time and you have to use a thermometer to make sure the temperature is correct. In the end, you have to strain the final result to get to the cottage cheese curd. It can be a time-consuming process. Luckily, tofu cottage cheese is much easier and faster to make than its dairy counterpart.

One great thing about regular cottage cheese is that it is high in protein, so I wanted to make sure that if we are making a vegan version, we ensure that ours is also high in protein. This is why we are going to use tofu in both the creamy part of the recipe, as well as the curd part of the recipe.

Many vegan cottage cheese recipes online will use yogurt as the creamy part of the cottage cheese, but I actually got the idea from Cayla and Liz on Tik Tok to use silken tofu for the creamy part. This really made it so much better than just using yogurt in my opinion, and added some extra protein as well. I also think that the tofu made the recipe taste just like the dairy version- much more so than using yogurt!

What you'll need to make your own vegan cottage cheese recipe 

• silken tofu AND extra firm tofu: you will need both. The silken tofu will be used to create a creamy base, and the firm tofu will be used to create the classic cottage cheese curds.
• nutritional yeast: this gives it that subtle cheesy flavor that classic cottage cheese has.
• lemon juice: you can also use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar instead, but I prefer the flavor of lemon juice.
• sea salt

The full nutritional information and ratios are in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. If you tried and liked this recipe, please consider leaving a rating and review as it really helps out my blog 🙂

How to make this easy vegan cottage cheese recipe

Start by removing the extra water from the silken tofu. You can use a tofu press to do this, but I find that silken tofu is usually too delicate to do this with. Instead, I like to use a kitchen towel to dab it and get rid of the extra moisture. Fortunately, you don't have to press the firm tofu, because firm tofu doesn't have a ton of extra water that needs to be removed. 

Add the silken tofu, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and salt to a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy.

Transfer the silken tofu mixture to a medium bowl, then use your hands to crumble the firm tofu on top. The crumbled tofu will act as the "curds" of the dairy-free cottage cheese. You can adjust the size of the curds to your liking. I decided to go with a large curd, but you can crumble your tofu into smaller pieces if you wish. 

Stir everything together, then add the cottage cheese to whatever you want!

Different ways to enjoy this plant-based cottage cheese

I've been having so much fun adding this vegan cottage cheese recipe to so many dishes! I love how versatile it is because of its neutral flavor and how you can add it to both sweet and savory dishes. 

I especially have been loving adding it to toasts. My favorite way to enjoy it on toast is to add it to avocado toast. This adds a delicious creamy consistency and packs the toast with extra protein.

I toast the bread on a pan with some olive oil, then add the avocado, vegan cottage cheese, garlic powder, chili flakes, maple syrup, lemon zest, cracked black pepper, and flakey salt. You can check the full recipe for my vegan cottage cheese avocado toast from Instagram here. 

I also love adding berries and maple syrup to this cottage cheese toast. Maybe my favorite way of all is adding cottage cheese, chopped walnuts, maple syrup, and flakey salt. It's so incredibly simple, but so delicious and a perfect way to add some extra healthy fats to your day.

I've also tried the viral "cottage cheese ice cream" and mixed this cottage cheese with berries, vegan protein powder, and maple syrup, then froze it for a few hours. It was a perfect cold treat!

Some other fun ways to use this can be used is in pancakes, as a yogurt replacement in a yogurt bowl, and as blending it together in a veggie dip. Feel free to comment on other fun ways to use it if you have any more ideas!

How to store this dairy-free cottage cheese recipe

If you have any leftovers, simply transfer them to an airtight container and store them in the fridge. The recipe lasts for 3-4 days in the fridge for me, but to be honest, it's usually gone by then, so I haven't fully tested how long it can last in the fridge. It may last more time than that! If you try it out, please let me know. 

If you are looking for other plant-based recipes and especially vegan cheese recipes, you might also like these others:

• vegan queso
• vegan cream cheese
• vegan sour cream

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