Try this vegan cream cheese with a bagel and "lox" today
How do I express the right amount of excitement?
Play it cool. It’s not real cream cheese or real lox.
But wow.
This vegan cream cheese made from cashews and lox made from carrots are legit.
It won’t fool a purist, but man is this bagel sandwich tasty!
Cream cheese? Good to see you again!
I’m going to attempt to write this post as though I were Lenny.
Why? Because I’ve never seen such a pure look of joy from someone while eating a bagel.
Here we go.
Me (Shalva) writing “as Lenny” about vegan lox bagel with cashew cream cheese
“Guys! Guys! Bagels with cream cheese and lox are back in my life! I didn’t know how much I missed them. But MAN, did I miss them.
Yes, it’s cashew cream cheese. Yes it’s lox made of carrots and marinade.
But all together, they taste incredible!
My silly wife drags me to bagel shops all of the time and I always end up with a pathetic swipe of hummus as a topping. Not exciting. Definitely not drag-me-out-of-bed-early-on-a-weekend-exciting.
But this?! This is different. She just made authentic deli-style scallion cream cheese… out of cashews!
(I just really love her).
But my wife likes to out-do herself. So a bagel with cream cheese just wasn’t enough. She wanted to make sure it had a true deli taste.
So she made lox! Plant-based lox!
(Although very kind, this was not a selfless act. She’s pregnant and has not been able to eat raw fish in 7 months. So she, too, was craving smoked salmon.)
She did some research, tested some recipes, and wow!
We prepped some bagels, and took some pics. So many pictures I even shared on my own Instagram.
She makes me some pretty awesome food, but this was somethin’ else! I’m not sure how I can communicate how good this “lox” tastes.
No, it’s not gonna fool someone that works at a deli and had a “real” bagel and lox this morning. But if you’ve been missing cream cheese and smoked salmon (for whatever reason), this recipe is for you!
Did I mention how much I love my wife?”
So there it is. A plant-based cream cheese with lox to boot. Go make it! 🙂
Other Noteworthy Versions
- My Darling Vegan: Vegan Bagel & Lox
Recipe
Cashew Cream Cheese (+vegan lox)!
Spruce up your bagel with vegan cream cheese and lox.
Carrots, Cashews, Coconut Oil, Lemon, Nutritional Yeast,Ingredients:
- CREAM CHEESE
- cashews (soaked) - 1/2 cup (65 g)
- coconut oil (room temp) - 2 tsp. (9 g)
- lemon (no rind) - drink garnish size
- nutritional yeast - 1 tsp. (5 g)
- salt - 1/4 tsp. (1.5 g)
- water - 1 Tbsp. (15 mL)
- Optional: scallions or chives (chopped) - 1/4 cup (25 g)
- "LOX"
- carrots (w/peels) - 2 large
- olive oil - 1 Tbsp.
- water - 1/2 cup
- soy sauce - 2 tsp.
- vegan worcestershire sauce - 1 tsp.
- liquid smoke - 1/2 tsp.
- kosher salt - 1 Tbsp.
- seaweed/nori - 1 sheet
- SANDWICH
- bagel - 2 whole
- cucumber - 1/4 whole
- red onion - 2 slices
- capers - 2 tsp.
Instructions:
CREAM CHEESE
- Soak your cashews overnight if possible (if not, soak em in hot water now)
- Add all ingredients into 8 oz Vitamix container
- (If you’re using a larger container, you’ll have to quadruple the batch)
- Blend on low for 15-20 seconds
- Ramp to high and blend until smooth
- Mix in chives or scallions with a spoon
LOX
- Preheat oven to 400 F
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper
- Grease carrots with olive oil
- Bake on 400 F for 30-40 min, until soft but not mushy
- While baking, mix together marinade
- Take out carrots and let cool
- Once cool, slice w/a mandolin or peeler (you want uneven pieces)
- Put the carrot slices and marinade in a plastic bag, seal and refrigerate
- Let marinade for at least 30 minutes, but several hours is more ideal
BAGEL
- Construct bagel as you would with “normal” cream cheese and lox
- Spread with cream cheese, pile on the lox
- Top w/the good stuff (we like ours with cucumbers, red onion, and capers)
- Snap a pic and tag #lifeisNOYOKE
- Enjoy!
Useful tips for Cashew Cream Cheese (+vegan lox)!
The recipe for lox was adapted from My Darling Vegan’s blog (linked below). We made a couple of tweaks, and are going to continue perfecting this recipe. But the most important thing is this: the longer it marinades, the better!
This is a recipe for 2 people (although you’ll have some lox leftover). You’ll need to make more cream cheese if you are not using the 8 oz. Vitamix container like we did here. Just make sure to prep some extra lox to match your cream cheese ratio 🙂
Classic worcestershire sauce is not vegan. Make sure to check the ingredients. Annie’s Naturals says vegan on the bottle, that’s what we used.
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Love this spread!
The only problem I had was getting it to a smooth texture using the 8-oz container. I had to stop and scrape it down a couple of times. Am I doing something wrong?
You’re not doing anything wrong, sometimes the 8oz isn’t great with thicker blends. Unlike the larger containers, I like to add the liquids last with the 8oz because that’s what hits the blades first. We usually have to stop a couple of times and scape too. If you didn’t want it as thick you could add a little more water and not have to stop the blend at all. Just let it thicken in the fridge (we’re usually in too much of a hurry to eat it).
Wow, I made the Vegan Lox and it was amazing! I used really giant carrots and we had a ton of leftovers. My husband and I ate it on bagels, in sandwiches, with a tofu scramble, and mixed in with some pasta. So good! Thanks for a great and easy recipe!
I’m always the crazy lady looking for the most giant carrots at the grocery store. So much easier to make this recipe with the big ones. Hadn’t thought to add to pasta, yum!
Hello,
it sounds delicious! Do you think I could use cashew butter instead of raw cashew? If so, how much?
Thank you
Yes, but then I’d skip the coconut oil. Still 1/2 cup. Let us know if it works.