Tart Cherry Cashew Cheese (Vegan)
Vegan cashew cheese is full flavoured, authentic looking and quick and easy to make too! This is a perfect treat for guests or this coming holidays cheese board, It defiantly will be the star of the show, move over turkey!
The crucial ingredient in this recipe is the agar agar powder. It is what makes the cheese set. You get two types of agar agar, you get the powder version and the flakes. Use agar agar powder. The agar agar powder is much stronger than the flakes and is what we used in this recipe. If you have no other option but to use flakes, then you will have to use 3 times as much of it.
It’s perfect for a vegan cheese board with some grapes, olives, dates, maybe some mixed salted nuts and a selection of crackers (and maybe some wine too). We topped ours with Everland tart cherries for that zesty hit. To think it can be so easy to make a super impressive block of vegan cheese!
Ingredients:
1 cup (150g) Raw Cashew Nuts
1/3 cup (80ml) Water
5 Tbsp Lemon Juice (Freshly Squeezed)
2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
1/4 cup (60g) Tahini
1/2 Medium Carrot, peeled and sliced (~30g)
2 and 1/2 tsp Salt*
1/4 tsp Paprika
1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
1 tsp Garlic Powder (or flakes)
1 cup (240ml) Water
1 Tbsp Agar Agar Powder (not flakes)*
Tart Cherries or Raisons (For extra zest)
Instructions:
Add the cashews, 1/3 cup water, lemon juice, coconut oil, tahini, carrot, salt, paprika, cayenne, dijon mustard, nutritional yeast and garlic powder to the blender and blend until very smooth. Leave the mix in the blender and set aside.
Add 1 cup of water and the agar agar powder to a saucepan and heat, stirring regularly until boiling. Boil it for 1 minute (time it), stirring regularly and after 1 minute remove it from the heat and pour it into the blender on top of the cheese mix.
Blend until smooth.
Moving quickly, as it will start setting up very fast, pour the mix out into a round dish sprayed with non-stick spray.
Refrigerate until set. To remove from the bowl, turn upside down onto a plate.
Add dried tart cherries or Raisins on top for that extra bit of fruity zest
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