Vegan Mozzarella Cheese (plus video)

I have a love/hate relationship with vegan cheese.

Vegans are really quick to tell you how much better than “real” cheese our vegan alternatives are. If we are honest, very few come close to real cheese, where as 90% of them taste like rubber.

My main issue with vegan cheese though is that when you melt them, they nearly always keep their shape. This makes trying to convince non vegans to give it a try almost impossible.

So when I found out about tapioca cheese, I was inspired to make my own recipe and after messing around with a few ideas, I have settled on this recipe that to me, is THE vegan cheese.

It melts, it oozes, it tastes like cheese, it has the consistency AND the flavour.

First up, as with most vegan cheeses, I make the most out of cashews and nutritional yeast, which combine to make the cheesy flavour. Cheese has an acidity that is usually replicated with vinegar, but I have gone for lemon. I find that lemon cuts right through the cashews. Mix all this with some salt, garlic powder and water and you will end up with a really runny mixture, therefore you need a mild flour to thicken it and here I am using tapioca flour. The only optional ingredient is tahini. I find it really helps finish off the flavour but add too much and it will totally take over, so be careful, if you do use it.

Happy New Red Hot Chili Peppers album weekend! Make yourself a pizza and give it a listen.

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Recipe below

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Serves 2-3 (pizzas)

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup raw cashews (soaked overnight if you do not have a high powered blender or boiled for 10 minutes)
• 1 cup water
• 2 ½ tablespoons tapioca flour
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon tahini (optional)

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Cook it:

1. Add all the ingredients to a blender (high powered if possible) and blend until you have a really runny liquid. Don’t worry, it should be that liquidy
2. Heat a pan over a medium heat
3. Add the mixture to the pan and stir constantly for the next few minutes. After about 2 minutes, the tapioca flour will start to work its magic and the mixture will thicken. Continue stirring until the desired consistency is met, but do not leave for too long. You want that mixture to be oozy, gooey, runny and soft, just like mozzarella
4. If you are using the cheese for a pizza, you have two options. You can either prepare the pizza exactly as you would a normal pizza and then bake in the oven, this will make the op of the cheese go hard but will remain soft inside. Alternatively you can prepare and cook the pizza until it is ready to eat and then simply spread the sauce on top. This is much easier and you get the same taste, just not the ease to handle it
5. Get it into ya!

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Recommended Tunes:

Red Hot Chili Peppers “The Getaway”

It is finally here and it has not let me down at all. My favourite ever band. Just listen…….

Listen – but do yourself a favour and buy it on vinyl!!

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