Marinated Cream Cheese
Ingredients
1 x 240g tub Angel Food plant-based cream cheese, cut into cubes
Marinade:
½ C water
¼ C olive oil
2T white wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1t salt
1t dried oregano or mixed Italian herbs (or fresh woody herbs such as bay leaf, rosemary, thyme)
1T nutritional yeast (optional – add ¼ t more salt if not using nutritional yeast)
½ t pink or black whole or crushed peppercorns, or a mixture
Optional extras: a strip of lemon zest, a garlic clove (sliced or minced)
Steps to make Marinated Cream Cheese
Combine marinade ingredients in a clean jar (we used a Pics peanut butter jar which was just big enough). (Side note – is anybody else here a jar hoarder???)
Add cubes of cream cheese into the marinade one at a time, so that the marinade reaches all sides of the cubes.
Put the lid on the jar. If it’s very full and there’s a risk some oil might leak out the top, stand the jar in a dish to catch any leakage.
Refrigerate for at least 24 hours, and up to 3 days.
To serve, drain off most of the marinade (keep it to use in soups and stews, it’s delicious!!) and place the cream cheese cubes in a serving dish. Top with extra pepper and herbs.
Serve with bread, crackers and some crisp colourful vegetables.
Marinades are usually associated with meat, but they work a treat on lots of plant-based ingredients too!
See Also: How to make Easy Cheesy Noodles
In this dish the flavor some marinade enhances the already-delicious cream cheese and makes it worthy of serving up for company.
The addition of some fresh crisp vegetables such a radish, cos lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes or cucumber slices gives extra visual ‘ping’ to the plate, and a lovely contrast in texture and flavour.
If you do have nutritional yeast in your pantry, it’s a great addition here – it gives a rich savoury umami note.
No drama if you don’t have it, though, there are plenty of other flavors buzzing around in this dish!
What’s nutritional yeast? It’s a deactivated yeast you can buy in organic stores and bulk food stores in powdered or flaky form.
It is quite delicious with a cheesy taste when used cautiously, but can be quite overpowering when used too liberally.
Please note it’s not the same as brewers yeast, which often has a strong and quite unpleasant flavour.
We actually use a concentrated form of deactivated yeast in our dairy-free cheese alternatives.
See Also: Steps to make Mayo Cheese Sauce
Yeast extract is made by centrifuging inactive nutritional yeast and concentrating the water-soluble yeast cell proteins which are rich in the flavor compounds responsible for umami flavor – glutamic acid, nucleotides and peptides.
