The Vegan Cheese Files Test #1 🧀 Will it Taste Cheesy? 🧀
“I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.” John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces
I've been wanting to make vegan cheese for ages. There are so many recipes on the internet, and today I had MOST of the ingredients, but not the one that requested the culture, so I had to hunt for something that suited my cupboards.
Then, of course, I adapted that again to what I had - the recipe called for liquid smoke, but I didn't have any, plus, I've heard bad things about it. I was also really worried that I didn't have enough agar agar, and at the time of writing this recipe, I haven't checked to see if it had set or not. I'll let you know by the time you read through the instructions.
Vegan Cheese
This is the kind of recipe that you need to get all your stuff together first. Then, you can take a sexy photo for Steemit with some funky bowls. That's not a necessary part of the recipe, by the way.
2 tablespoons of agar flakes (or make according to pack directions)
1.5 cups water
2 tbsps of lemon juice
1 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted
1 tbsps white miso paste
1 cups raw cashew pieces, soaked in water overnight, rinsed & drained
2 tbsps nutritional yeast
.5 teaspoons sea salt
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
Firstly, sprinkle the agar agar over warm water in a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil for about 5 minutes until it's completely dissolved.
Meanwhile, whizz the cashews in a blender - don't worry about getting them smooth - that will happen. Add the lemon juice and miso paste and coconut oil, blend some more, then add the salt, turmeric and nutritional yeast.
Add about 1/2 of the agar liquid and whiz. Then add the rest and SUPER whiz - at this point it will be nice and creamy and you can dip your finger in for a cheeky taste and be pleasantly suprised that yes, yes indeed - it TASTES CHEESY!
Then, pour the mixture into bowls - stupidly, I had just taken the ramekins I NEVER EVER used to the op shop (charity shop) and damn it, they would have been PERFECT.
At this point, you can fold through some herbs or chillis to flavour it. I used garlic chives. A lot of cheese recipes call for garlic powder and/or onion powder, but I can't use these as two family members required a FODMAP diet so they can't eat onions. Thus, I always use garlic chives, but I was thinking jalapenos would be good in this too.
Pop into the fridge until set.
Slip out onto a plate and voila... vegan cheese! Was it tasty? Drum roll, please!!
Yes!! It tasted really cheesy!
Sadly, as I didn't have enough agar agar, it didn't set as firm as I'd like, so I thought it would be a good spread or a pasta stir through sauce! And it was - perfect for "I can't be bothered cooking on a Friday night" kinda knock up dish. Sorry about the awful photo, but it was pretty dark last night - ugh, damn you daylight savings Winter in Victoria time. And yes, Mum, I did eat salad with it.
Fantastic thanks for the recipe i have been waiting for it. Steemcheese tag sounds good.
REALLY!! Let me know how it goes. I do want to get some liquid smoke and some culture too to make a vegan camembert!
May take me some time to get the items i need but keen to have a go. That liquid smoke is not cheap stuff. Let us know how the vegan camembert goes if you do it.
No it's not. I didn't use it. It took me a while to get the stuff together. I'm definitely going to do it, just have to order the bacteria. However, I've got some brazil nuts onto soak (also not cheap) and I'm going to try a vegan parmesan, so I should be able to post about that tomorrow if it goes well! It's all about food this weekend really with the weather and Jamie's illness!
Vegan parmesan cool.
This post has received a 10.22 % upvote from @boomerang.
Oooo. You are vegan!
Can i ask a question? Okay i will fire away!
If you have given up eating something, why try so hard to replicate it?
Because people don't always quit dairy for the taste or texture. It cam be lacto intolerance, bowel disorders, ethics - any number of reasons. But the TASTE and texture of cheese is usually still dreamed about!!! @twowheeledmonkey I hope I've enlightened you - people ask that question all the time, I recall my parents being asked that all the time when they ate this product called 'not bacon' made out of soy. We loved to eat not-bacon and tomatoes for breakfast - yum yum! I know, it sounds like your worst nightmare. Imagine 'not-pork' !! Oh, and I'm not-vegan btw - I just like a more balanced diet and like to experiment with food, and my son's girl is vegan and so is my nephew. I reckon I'm vegan about 95 percent of the time though!
Hahaha. Yes :)
I understand why people are vegan and vegetarian, though people have a bazillion reasons for either.
I still don't understand why someone would eat soy bacon. And this is not restricted to vegans. There are people who eat something called not crabs, which is basically made of fish with crab flavouring. If you are going to eat fishy crab, you might as well go for the real thing!
In India, believe me, I eat with more vegetarians than you could find in entire Australia :D And I have eaten Soy this and Soy that and it tastes nowhere remotely similar to the original! Not a problem for me, just something I don't quite understand. Like in India, they actually sell something called a vegetarian hamburger. I don't even want to guess what goes inside that :p
I have a vegan friend here. The struggle he goes through for every meal he has outside his house is ridiculous. He practically suffers. And since he is from the south of India and doesn't speak the language of the north, he cannot communicate what he actually wants to eat. Very often he ends up having boiled rice with green tea!
If not for taste, the reason I would be an 'eat everything' guy, is simply convenience. I can eat what vegans eat (if i go to a vegans house for a meal), and what vegetarians eat. Not necessarily the other way around!
I remember my mother going nuts racking her brain, wondering what to cook for my vegetarian friends when i was a kid! You never have to worry about 'eat everything' kind of people :D
No, you don't have to worry about eat everything people.
You know, we find more problems outside of Australia re: the vegetarian thing i.e Spain: yeah, it's vegetarian, there is just a little bit of ham. Boiled rice and green tea can be a pain, but better than slaughtering a living creature just to make your belly full.
Not eating meat may be an inconvenience, but that's not our fault - it's more the problem of those who believe eating meat is the only way to go and not being accommodating for those who don't eat meat or can't eat meat and meat products. Convenience, I believe, is also an ego-centric argument and part of a bigger problem. For example, I love two minute noodles. And I love the flavouring sachets in them - ultimate comfort food! But I refuse to eat them as the palm oil within them comes from palm plantations that will drive orangutans extinct within ten years. Other people will say: 'ah, who cares about that, I'm starving and I don't make a difference anyway'. I guess it's how you look at it.
India has some of the best vegetarian dishes on the planet. I've drawn more inspiration from Indian cooking for vegie dishes than I have any other country on the planet - dahl and curries are freaking awesome and endlessly adaptable.
Sure, soy burgers aren't that awesome, but sometimes it's just that desire to be like others - you know, we have so many barbecues here and there's always a vegie burger option, and they aren't that great but gee, a quick vegie burger with sauce in bread is awesome with a beer!
Crab flavoured crabsticks are pretty wierd, and the texture and flavour might not be exactly crab, but why would you think eating crab is a better alternative for vegetarians who object to killing crab, overfishing, whatever? As I said, it's not about taste. We're not interested in the original - that doesn't factor in. In fact, many vegetarians have totally forgotten what the original tastes like! Dad loves a good lentil burger and can't imagine stomaching beef after 30 odd years of vegetarianism.
I feel sorry for people who worry that others are worrying about what to feed them. Fuck that!! I'll do my best to accommodate for anyone with dietary requirements. It's exactly their choice, in exactly the same way it's your choice to eat meat.
I honestly don't think you need to puzzle over it @twowheeledmonkey - just like I don't puzzle over you drooling over pork. Imagine if no one ate meat - what amazing inventive cuisine we'd have to cover all the different flavours we desire - bbq, cheesey, curry, salty, sweet - and that's exactly what vegos and vegans are doing when they are coming up with dishes that might mimic meat and cheese, but are very far from it.
Must stop talking - off to drink a green tea and eat some rice :) xx
Don't forget to let us know if it tasted cheesy! I am not certain it will have the same texture as cheese but it may taste just as good.
@melbourneswest I did write it was cheesy... But definately not the texture of cheese. I'm going to experiment some more.
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