Homemade raw vegan cashew cheddar cheese
Raw, GF cheddar replacement
Type: A raw cheddar replacement dip
Pros: Easy to make, accessible ingredients, gluten free, soy free, tasty dip, filling, no added oil, lots of protein
Cons: More expensive than hummus and very similar, not cheese-like enough for me
When it comes to getting vegan cheese — if you’re not in a big city, then you’re often out of luck. While pre-packaged cheese is always my (lazy) choice, it’s actually surprisingly easy to make some sort of a substitute.
I was in Melton library this weekend and while Melton isn’t far from Melbourne city (say 35/40 minutes on the train) it’s not every weekend you want to suffer the journey to the city for a block of cheese. While we’re lucky in that we have one vegetarian/vegan restaurant (a slightly grubby Chinese takeout that does awesome rice noodles), and a fabulous Indian store for cheap bulk dried legumes, there isn’t much in the way of faux meats or dairy.
While I was in the library, I went and did my usual search around the cooking section. I found a book called Eat Raw, Eat Well — 400 raw, vegan and gluten-free recipes by Toronto-based Douglas McNish and found that it had a handful of raw cheese recipes. The entire book is raw, gluten-free and vegan, which I was really excited about. I snapped some photos of the recipes as I already have a stack to read at home, and then decided to make some.
We stopped into our local lolly shop as they sell fairly cheap nuts and seeds, and managed to grab a big bag of salted cashews for $10. I already had yeast, salt, turmeric and (bottled) lemon juice at home, so really wasn’t put out too much.
I got back, stuck two and a half cups of cashews (essentially the whole bag, plus a couple left for nibbling) into a bowl with water to soak. It says to leave them for 30 minutes — but I got distracted, so they were probably soaked for about an hour. I drained them, mixed in the lemon juice (a splash), a teaspoon of turmeric (which gives it the fabulous bright colour), a cup of water, half a cup of yeast and a teaspoon of salt, and then used my stick blender to blend it all up. I don’t have a food processor, and was concerned as I have always assumed an expensive food processor is at the heart of raw vegan cooking. In saying this, my $20 Kmart metal stick blender did the trick perfectly. It’s not a smooth texture at the moment, and as there were no pictures in the book I’m sort of guessing what it should be like, but I think it works although it doesn’t have the cheddar ‘mouth feel’ that the book suggests it should. Cheddar mouth-feel to me is more of a waxy, if not crumbly when pertaining to the older English cheddar, and this feels… like neither of those.
It turned out like bright yellowy/orange hummus. Not a bad thing as I adore hummus! After trying it, I added half a clove of chopped garlic and blended it again. This, I found, was far more desirable as it gave it more of a punch and took away some of that musty flavour I associate with yeast-based cheese flavourings. You have to remember that the author/chef, McNish, once said in an online interview that if he was stuck on a desert island then nutritional yeast is one of the items he would take with him. I can’t say I’m as much of a fan, although I love its versatility. I also understand that a lot of “pure” vegans don’t eat garlic, so it makes sense that he didn’t suggest these sorts of inclusions, although I think I saw some garlic recipes in the book.
I then snapped some pictures, whacked it into an air-tight container and put it into the fridge for overnight keeping. When I opened it again, I added a tad more salt and some pepper, plus a splash of lemon juice, and stirred it up.
It’s tasty and really filling — I couldn’t eat too much of it, which is unusual for me when it comes to cheese. I’ve tried different food at some raw vegan restaurants before (including raw pizza), so I was happily prepared to expect that it may be quite dense and also far unlike the texture of processed vegan cheeses I usually try, and even less like dairy cheese. I was right to expect that, it turns out.
It does taste great, but in my mind it’s a dip not a cheese. It goes well on sandwiches, with crisps and crackers, and I definitely think it’s a good option for when you’re having friends around. However, I can’t see myself putting it on pizza or on top of something tomato-based, which are my main cheese requirements! I also think that while you get an awful lot from one bag of cashews (mine fills up one of those Chinese takeaway containers), it’s far cheaper to make a good hummus.
I love that you can really just throw it together from pantry items, and McNish deserves a big thumbs up for making it excessively straightforward to make from his carefully-written recipe.
It lasts for four days after it has been made– which means you might want to make a little less than the suggested amount, unless you’re catering or looking to eat dip and biscuits for a few nights in a row. I personally recommend leaving it one night in the fridge before eating as it sets and tastes better, for some reason and also sets more so you can make it into a slightly more solid shape.
The price
Estimating around $15 if you had to buy everything from scratch, based on the amounts you’d use. It’s obviously a lot cheaper if you’re using pantry items. You can also choose a cheaper nut if you want, although I think the idea is to choose the softer ones. I’m interested to see whether this recipe can be replicated to similar effect with the much cheaper and already processed almond meal. Overall, though, it makes far more than you’d normally get for $15 of vegan cheese from the shops.
The ingredients
Cashew nuts, salt, water, lemon juice, garlic, turmeric, yeast and pepper.
The recipe suggests that you can add a few other ingredients to give it a different flavour, as this is a “base” cheese. It includes the idea of a ‘southwest’ spin with cumin and chili powder. I definitely think you can do a lot with this cheese to fit the mood — perhaps even heating and making into a version of the chipotle I reviewed over the weekend.
The nutritional value
Lots of protein, no added oil, gluten-free and raw vegan… I think that’s a few big ticks for this cheese. B vitamins from the yeast.
I’ll try some of the other cheeses from the cookbook shortly, which include almond parmesan, red pepper, dill and cashew ricotta, cashew feta cheese, cashew scallion cream cheese and macadamia mozzarella.
