Raw Vegan Cheese Recipe | Raw Cashew Cheese Round with Step-by-Step Instructions + Video
Plant-based versus vegan
While vegans enjoy many of my plant-based recipes, I want to welcome meat-eaters to enjoy the world of nut cheeses. Traditionally, I was trained in raw vegan cuisine, however, I do not adhere to one specific diet nor am I one-hundred percent raw or vegan. In contrast, I believe eating should “be deliciously healthy” and my journey has been one of experimentation and progress.
From health choices to food intolerances
Are you searching for plant-based fats? Are you lactose intolerant? Nut and seed cheeses may be an enjoyable solution. As a chef and recipe developer, I take on the challenge of many different eating regimens, respecting those different from my own. As a healthy foodie, nut and seed cheeses are amazing but very hard to source and once found can be pricey.
Dairy cheeses the way I like them
Favorite cheeses for me are raw, unpasteurized and fermented. As I write these words down I sense my good friend, who works in the Central District Health Department, cringe. Often, the places that carry these types of cheese are produced without hormones and near organic, if not labeled as such.
Going nuts? It’s a cheesy thing to say
There are many variations of nut and seed cheeses. This is only one way and I hope you find it easy. Hopefully soon, gone will be the days of vegan cheeses based solely on soy products and resemble something similar to dried glue or the bottom of one’s shoe.
This recipe is based on my book, DETOX DELISH: You’re Guide to Clean Eating. The recipe in the book uses rejuvelac—living water from sprouted grains or seeds—instead of water. However, for the sake of simplicity we are using water below.
Cashew Cheese Round
2 cups cashews
3/4 cup water 1 tbsp.
lemon juice
2 tsps. miso
½ tsp. sea salt
½ tsp.
onion powder
¼ tsp. white pepper
¼ cup flour (such as maca, almond, or coconut flours)
DIRECTIONS
Soak the cashews for two hours, and then drain and rinse them. Blend the cashews and rejuvelac until smooth. Blend in the lemon juice, miso, and sea salt and then pour the mixture into a glass bowl or jar. Leave the sour cream to ferment for 20 to 24 hours, folding over the contents with a rubber spatula once or twice in between.
Transfer it to a shallow bowl or plate, covered with a breathable towel, nut milk bag, or colander, to the refrigerator for 3–5 days to dry out, folding the contents with a rubber spatula once a day to help dry out the mixture.
At this point, add a bit more salt if you want. Take the mixture and shape into an oval-shaped ball and roll into 1/4 cup flour and wrap it into a cheese cloth. Set the wrapped cheese ball back into the refrigerator as it will continue to cure and dry out for 3 days and up to 2 weeks. It will feel a little bit harder as the days pass. Once unwrapped from the cheesecloth, store in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to two weeks. Makes about 1 pound cheese round. *May replace the rejuvelac with water (which we did for this recipe) and add 2 probiotic capsules, but the lemon juice and miso (fermented bean paste which can be soy, chickpea, etc) is good enough.
Watch Video of How I Made this Cashew Cheese Round
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