Áine Carlin’s ‘Balsamic and black peppercorn cashew cheese’

Homemade from the “Keep it vegan” cookbook

Pros: Looks beautiful, easy to make, simple (cheapish) ingredients

Cons: More of a pate than a cheese, balsamic is a little strong

My wife got this cookbook ‘Keep it vegan’ by Aine Carlin from my sister for Christmas and, of course, I snaffled it first and quickly looked for a cheese recipe. There were a few cheesy things in the book that got my attention — a cheese log, a no-bake cheesecake and a macaroni cheese recipe that, startlingly, made no use of nutritional yeast in either. I was just dying to try them out, so started with the cashew cheese, on page 85 of the ‘Something Special’ section.

Firstly, the book is super gorgeous. It has some illustrations throughout and spans so many different dishes. It’s also really easy and straightforward to follow.

Her introduction to her cashew cheese unsurprisingly explains how her first experience with vegan processed cheese was not a good one (most of us can attest to this!) but that when she started making her own, with her husband as the taste tester, she realised that it can get a lot better. She also encourages everyone to try their own versions of this (as you can see below, I decided I should definitely try this out).

Her recipe is very simple, which is immediately big ticks from me, and I was amazed to find out that I already had all the ingredients on hand (then again, I make a lot of vegan cheese replacements so that shouldn’t be a huge surprise). Now, vegan cashew cheese logs aren’t exactly a revelation — Sprout & Kernel does one so good that I happily pay around $10 for it — but it’s always nice to give a simple recipe a try yourself. I’ve also never made a balsamic cheese (I did make a pate with balsamic in it and really detested it). Usually, cashew cheese logs are made with a ‘goat’s cheese’ flavour in mind, however this one didn’t really suggest that it was alike to any currently existing dairy cheese. Often it also involves cheesecloths and ingredients like tahini, but this seems to be the pared back version of this sort of cheese.

Her recipe called for 150 grams of cashews, but I decided to halve the recipe, figuring that given it’s just the two of us at home we should minimise the waste. Neither of us is huge on strong, bold flavours in our cheese either, unless balanced well, and with a substantial amount of balsamic vinegar in this recipe I decided to err on the side of caution and make less rather than more.

With 75 grams of raw cashews soaked overnight, I then drained them and added 1 tablespoon, rather than 1.5 as the true recipe would be for half the amount, of balsamic vinegar (we had a fancy organic one in the fridge we just haven’t been using). I also added half the recommended amounts of salt, pepper and mixed dried herbs.

Into the blender it went. The first mixture was still quite bitty after pulsing (it specifically mentions pulsing), so I added two teaspoons of water and gave it another quick pulse. This left it grainy and rustic looking, but acceptable as a paste.

I scooped it out and then put it onto cling wrap as suggested by the recipe.

It easily shaped into a log and kept its shape, and I then put it into the freezer for the hour (perhaps 10 minutes less) that was recommended.

After this, I unpeeled it and it held together firmly well. This is pretty good as you then have to roll it in cracked pepper in a bowl (though we were running out of pepper so mine is a tad bare!) before slicing it up to each.

Firstly, for such a quick cheese it held up amazingly well for slicing (though do use a sharp knife, possibly a paring knife, and even run it under cold water first) and was quite beautiful — it would do well on a platter. The pepper sticks to it easily, and inside it’s a brownish colour. I immediately thought that herb encrusted or even paprika encrusted would be more visually exciting.

The first bite was… intense. It tasted a lot like balsamic, and as I feared it was a little overwhelming, the strong flavour somewhat out blasting the creamy cashew flavour on my palate. I certainly couldn’t taste the dried herbs. The texture was good and I actually quite liked it pulsed rather than heavily blended. When blended too much into a paste it does lose some of the mouth feel of crumbly cashews — though some may prefer it heavily done so it resembles more of a cream cheese.

With the water that I added, it is actually more cohesive but you can notice a certain dampness. To me, this seemed more like the oils from the cashew nuts, but I wouldn’t like to assume that it’s not my tweaking of the recipe. Either way, I quite liked it. I would have personally added nutritional yeast — it’s just not a flavour that you can skip off when making cheese.

However, one day later having been kept in the fridge overnight it was almost 50% better. The balsamic had tempered a little and the cheese itself had slightly aged, making it taste fantastic and, while still strong, it was much more palatable. Most cashew cheeses just seem to get better and better with a bit of age.

All in all, I think it’s more of a pate or nut paste than a cheese in the way it presents. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just not what I was expected. Next time I think I would use about a quarter of the amount of balsamic and even add in a couple of chopped, soaked medjool dates for some sweetness and depth that I think it’s needing.

I decided to use Carlin’s method to create my own simple cheese.

Peanut jalapeno cheese log

50 grams salted peanuts (soaked for 1 hour — keep two teaspoons of the water)

2 slices of pickled jalapeno

1 tsp of nutritional yeast

Pepper

Dash of lemon juice

½ tsp of sesame seeds (optional)

Dried herbs (for the crust)

Stick it all in the blender, other than the herbs, and let it pulse a few times until you’re left with a paste. If it’s a tad dry, then add a tiny bit more water.

Follow Carlin’s style of putting it into cling wrap and then rolling it into a sausage.

Put it in the freezer for one hour.

Roll it in dried mixed herbs.

Leave for 24 hours in the fridge. Slice and eat.

I love the way the herbs look against the yellow of the mixture. If you want even more intensified colours, add some turmeric to the mix (a tiny bit will do) and use chopped dried chives to coat instead for a stronger green/yellow contrast. Either way, I thought this turned out really beautifully.

It’s quite a salty flavour, with the cheesy nooch coming through strongly, and the flavour comes in layers — initially it’s the salty nutritional yeast, then a bit of the lemon and then you get the herb flavour. After a day in the fridge it does temper a little, which I think is a good thing.

You could effectively use any nuts, but I had a free packet of peanuts (50 grams total) from a hamper leftover, so I decided to see what I could do with them. They’re pretty cheap to buy anyway.

The price

Making the cheese cost barely anything, due to the smaller size but also my well stocked pantry — I had all of the ingredients at home. Making half the size, the cashews only set me back a couple of dollars maximum. If you don’t have a nice balsamic, then this may cost a little more (it’ll be worthwhile getting a nice one), but it’s a very cheap creation overall. Considering some high end cashew cheeses can cost a fortune (I’m looking at you Botanical Cuisine)

The ingredients

Cashew nuts, salt, pepper, dried mixed herbs, balsamic vinegar — yes it’s that simple!

The nutritional value

Really, it’s effectively cashew nuts and a touch of other ingredients for flavour. With just five ingredients, it’s better than the majority of commercially produced vegan cheese. At this level of taste intensity you’re only going to eat a tad on crackers. Of course, anything nut based may be high in (good) fat, but I think that this should be on everyone’s list.