Cashew Cheese Recipe

    cashew cheese wedge on a cheese board
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    If you’re a cheese lover and have recently started a vegan diet, then giving up cheese has probably been one of the harder foods to give up. While modern-day grocery stores have provided a handful of vegan cheese options, it’s still useful to know how to make a non-dairy cheese like this cashew cheese recipe.

    Like its name implies, this cashew cheese recipe utilizes cashews to create the bulk of the recipe. Not only that, but the cashews devote a nutty flavor to this dairy-free cheese.

    The agar flakes in this vegan cashew cheese recipe are what allow this vegan nut cheese to transform from a vegan cheese sauce to a firm cheese that can be sliced. You can display this cashew cheese on a cheese board with grapes and crackers, or you can grate this vegan nut cheese for your various recipes.

    If you do decide to grate this cashew cheese, make sure you chill the cheese in the fridge first to make grating easier and hassle-free.

    Summary

    Cook time: 10 Minutes
    Prep time: 10 Minutes
    Idle time: 4 Hours
    Level
    Servings: Person
    Unit:

    Ingredients

    Instructions

    1. Using the pulse button, finely grind the cashews in a food processor (do not allow the cashews to turn into a paste). Add the nutritional yeast, onion powder, salt, garlic powder, and white pepper. Pulse 3 more times to blend in the spices.
    2. Combine the milk, agar, and oil in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Decrease the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the agar is dissolved.
    3. With the food processor running, gradually pour the milk mixture through the feed tube and into the cashew mixture. Blend for 2 minutes, or until the mixture is very smooth and creamy. Blend in the miso and lemon juice.
    4. For grated or sliced cheese: Transfer the cheese to a container then cover and refrigerate until it is very firm, about 4 hours.
    5. Once it is firm, grate or slice the cheese as desired.
    6. For melted cheese: Use the cheese immediately as melted cheese. To make the cheese in advance, cover and refrigerate it. When ready to use, melt it in a saucepan over medium heat until it is smooth and creamy, stirring frequently and adding more soymilk to the melted cheese to thin, if necessary.

    Additional information

    Updated by Beeta Hashempour on 7/30/2018

    Ann Gentry, host of Naturally Delicious, has spent the past 20 years raising the standard of vegetarian cooking. As a chef, restaurateur, food educator and visionary, she has succeeded in combining macrobiotic food preparation with the richness of her southern upbringing to create a gourmet vegetarian cuisine even meat lovers covet.As the executive chef of Vegetarian Times magazine, Ann creates original vegetarian recipes and contributes articles on healthy eating and living. Ann also writes her own bimonthly column about food and children for the British magazine Junior: The World’s Finest Parenting Magazine.Ann is the creator, founder and operating owner of Real Food Daily, the only restaurant in the Los Angeles area that serves a 100 percent vegetarian menu using foods grown exclusively with organic farming methods. Bon Appetit magazine wrote that “Ann Gentry, the creator of Real Food Daily, has taken two different California trends — vegetarian foods, and the organic seasonal cooking popularized by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse — and come up with a cuisine that is as interesting and delicious as it is healthful.” With two California locations, in Santa Monica and West Hollywood, Real Food Daily has “developed a loyal following.” Its patrons range from the someday to the everyday vegetarian, to celebrities, to trendsetting young eaters with sophisticated palates or the mature diner seeking gourmet, health-supportive cuisine. Ann’s first cookbook, “The Real Food Daily Cookbook,” published by Ten Speed Press, is available for purchase on her website www.realfood.com and at bookstores. As the spokesperson for SOYJOY, an all-natural nutrition bar made with whole soy, Ann has appeared on many radio and television shows as well as various food lifestyle shows promoting a healthy lifestyle. She has also been a guest chef at Canyon Ranch, Pritikin Longevity Center, Robert Mondavi Wine Center, L.A. Times Festival of Books, the Environmental Media Awards, North American Vegetarian Society and Central Market. In the spring of 2008, Ann will be a featured guest chef on a Caribbean cruise ship, in the program “A Taste of Health” on Holistic Holiday at Sea. Ann lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Robert Jacobs, and their two vegetarian children, Halle and Walker.