Best Vegan Cottage Cheese – Original Taste, Just Two Ingredients

Why this vegan cottage cheese is the best? It’s prepared exactly like regular dairy version.

This is my dream come true!

Growing up in Poland I ate delicious fresh cottage cheese almost everyday. We had it on a bread with chives and tomato. We made smooth bread spread with radishes and spring onion. My Mom made delicious cheesecake.

If you asked me about single product I missed as a vegan I would point to the cottage cheese. Until I discovered you can make delicious vegan cottage cheese using exactly the same method.

Why do I love this Vegan Cottage Cheese recipe?

  • high in protein
  • great base for various cheese spreads
  • you can use it in both sweet and savory recipes
  • use soy cottage cheese to make the best vegan cheesecake
  • very similar to regular cottage cheese
  • only 2 ingredients and simple process

What is Vegan Cottage Cheese made of?

SOY MILK

Soy milk is the basis of this recipe and it is the best milk to make vegan cottage cheese. So far I tried two other milks (almond and oat milk) and unfortunately I wasn’t very successful. Soy milk has high amount of protein compared to other plant milks. That is why it curdles very well when treated with heat and acid.

If you find any other milk with more than 3g protein per 100ml you can give it a shot. I read about pea milk which is high in protein, but I didn’t have a chance to try it yet.

To make natural vegan cottage cheese use unsweetened soy milk. If you want to bake vegan cheesecake use vanilla sweetened soy milk. You will get delicious sweet vanilla cottage cheese, which is amazing for various desserts.

LEMON JUICE

In order to make the milk curdle we need two things: heat and acid. Lemon juice is perfect for that. It has gentle enough taste not to be noticeable in the final product.

If you don’t have lemon, but still want to prepare vegan cottage cheese you can use apple cider vinegar in a bit smaller amount. 2.5 tbsp should be enough. The cheese may have slightly more acidy flavor.

You can transform soy milk into this delicious vegan cottage cheese in a very simple and quick process.

Vegan Cottage Cheese

Recipe by VegnFitCourse: Breakfast, DessertCuisine: VeganDifficulty: Easy
Cook time

10

minutes
Resting Time

1

hour 
Total time

1

hour 

5

minutes

This vegan cottage cheese has a nice soft texture and tastes just like original dairy version.

Ingredients

  • 1liter (1/4 gallon) unsweetened soy milk

  • 4 tbsp lemon juice

  • EQUIPMENT NEEDED
  • pot with thick bottom

  • plastic or glass bowl

  • silicone or wooden spoon

  • cheese cloth / clean white tea towel / coffee filter

  • strainer

Directions

  • Prepare all the equipment you will need. Shake soy milk carton well, so that thickened liquid on the bottom of the carton becomes mixed with rest of the milk.
    Juice your lemons, so that there’s no pulp or seeds in the juice.
    Ingredients for making vegan cottage cheese - soy milk and lemon.
  • Pour all the soy milk into a pot (preferably with a thick bottom). Bring it almost to the boil (when you see the steam and small bubbles rising take it off the stove).
  • Pour your soy milk into the bowl and add 4 table spoons of lemon juice. You will see the milk curdling right away. Mix using silicone or wooden spoon for about 1 minute. Curdled soy milk.
  • Leave curdled soy milk in a bowl for 10-15 minutes.
  • In the meantime, line the strainer with cheese cloth or clean tea towel. Put it over bowl or pot. Pour curdled milk through cloth.Pouring curdles milk through strainer lined with tea towel.
  • Wait till all the liquid goes through the strainer. Your cottage cheese will still be wet.Vegan cottage cheese before pressing.
  • Wrap the cloth over your cheese and put something heavy on top – for example another bowl filled with water. We need to press all the excess liquid to form our cheese.
  • Press the cheese for at least 30 minutes – preferably one hour. The longer you do it the firmer and drier your cottage cheese becomes.
  • After pressing you can eat your cottage cheese or use it in another dish recipe.

Notes

  • I lined tea cloth additionally with paper towel. You don’t need to do that.

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Serving suggestions

What’s so great about this soy cottage cheese is that it’s a base for various sweet and savory dishes. You can simply use it as a spread for bread. You can substitute it for ricotta in spinach pasta sauce. You can prepare many desserts with it.

Where you can use Vegan Cottage Cheese:

Best Vegan Cream Cheese

Vegan Cheesecake

Vegan Cottage Cheese with chives.

How does it work?

CURDLING PROCESS

Curdling is the process that’s initiated in milk by adding acid. When pH of the milk drops suddenly proteins start to form lumps (milk proteins get separated from the water and come together). Why do we heat the milk up? Because this process works best in warmer temperatures.

Will this work if we add other type of acid? Sure, we can use acid cider vinegar, but I like the taste better when using lemon juice.

Picture of Vegan Cottage Cheese with chives.

WHAT MILK TO USE?

You can use any unsweetened soy milk. Unfortunately you cannot substitute it for other plant milks.

IS IT COTTAGE CHEESE OR RICOTTA?

This recipe is describing the process of making soy cottage cheese. Ricotta has a bit different texture and is produced slightly differently. If you want to learn about exact difference between ricotta and cottage cheese you can read about it here.

Picture of Vegan Cottage Cheese with chives and tomato.

INSPIRATION WHERE TO USE VEGAN COTTAGE CHEESE

Soy Cottage Cheese can be used the same way as the regular cottage cheese. Here are some great ideas:

  1. Mix in chopped radishes and spring onion, add salt and pepper and use it as a bread spread.
  2. Add agave syrup with chopped strawberries and other berries for a healthy breakfast.
  3. Add to stewed spinach, just like ricotta, to use in lasagna and other pasta dishes.
  4. Spread it on crackers with some crunchy veggies for delicious party snack.
  5. Use it as a sweet or sour filling for crêpes.

HOW TO STORE VEGAN COTTAGE CHEESE

You can store your soy cottage cheese in an air tight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.

Let me know if you like my Vegan Cottage Cheese! How did you use it?

Pin showing two presentations of vegan cottage cheese.

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16 thoughts on “Best Vegan Cottage Cheese – Original Taste, Just Two Ingredients”

  1. this was great. thank you for sharing. I had it with raspberries, walnuts, and agave. Another time I had it on toast as a spread with garlic, salt, and kalamata olives.

  2. Firstly I must be honest and admit I’m not great in the kitchen. I tried your recipe and really like the taste but I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong because I don’t seem to get the correct texture. The first time I lost most of cheese. The second time to keep a bit more I didn’t leave it to drip for an hour. If you could give me any advice I would be forever grateful. Thank you for sharing this recipe.

    1. Hi Caro,

      Thank you for trying this recipe.

      From what you described, it seems that maybe milk didn’t curdle properly. Did you loose the cheese while pouring the liquid through the strainer lined with cloth?
      There are few questions that may help solve the problem:
      – did you heat the milk enough for curdling process?
      – did you use enough lemon juice?
      – did you use strainer lined with thick cloth?
      I sometimes leave it overnight and I don not loose the cheese, just the liquid part.

      I once tried to do this cottage cheese with other milk than soy milk (I think it was almond). I was left with very very little cheese, because other milks do not contain enough protein.

      If you give me more details what exactly happened maybe we can find the solution.

  3. I made it yesterday evening. It was so delicious that all night I kept dreaming about all the dishes I would use it for. I loved cottage cheese before I went vegan and missed it so much. Question! How much vinegar would you suggest to use? I want to give it a try just to see how it would taste with apple cider vinegar.

    1. Thank you Barbara. I’m very happy you liked it! I would suggest to use 1 tbsp more. It is sure good to experiment in the kitchen and find your own tastes that you like 🙂

  4. I love that this can be used for sweet and savory recipes. Cottage cheese was always one of my faves growing up!

  5. So crazy that this recipe really works!! I haven’t had cottage cheese since I was a kid, and now vegan 15 years, I’m so excited about this! Thanks for making this magic 🙂

  6. I would have never thought I could enjoy cottage cheese again on a plant-based diet. Loving this easy vegan recipe!

  7. I had no idea how easy it was to make vegan cottage cheese! This is such a great recipe, thank you so much for sharing it. Now I no longer feel like I have to miss out.

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