Vegan Mozzarella Cheese Recipe
This vegan cheese is made with homemade almond milk. It’s thickened with natural ingredients creating the perfect cheese-like consistency. I love coming up with healthy solutions for substituting dairy without the use of soy or extra preservatives.
It’s great to have on hand as an addition to salads or sandwiches.
This recipe requires some minor prep in advance. Soak the almonds overnight or upon waking up. While peeling the almonds, listen to relaxing music or an inspiring podcast as it does take time to peel. I like to consider this a half-hour of meditative time.
You have an option to use organic store-bought almond milk. It will already have thickeners inside, but it might turn out well. (I haven’t tried).
To get the umami cheese-like flavor, I’ve used olives. If you don’t like olives, you can substitute with nutritional yeast. I’m not too fond of the latter. Therefore, I avoid using it in my kitchen.
Over-all this recipe is a keeper! If you give it a try, please let me know what you think! Any magic you’ve done in your kitchen to improve, do let me know, and I’ll add the tips to this recipe.
Enjoy!
Vegan Mozzarella Cheese Recipe
Equipment
- Blender
- Cheese cloth or nut milk bag
- Silicone mold or a bowl
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Raw almonds
- 6 Pitted olives
- ¼ tsp Sea salt
- 3 cups Purified water
- 2 tbsp Agar-agar powder
- ¼ cup Grapeseed oil
- 1 tbsp Rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp Arrowroot powder
- 1 tsp Fine sea salt
- ½ tsp Garlic powder
Instructions
Prep
- Soak the almonds overnight (or 8 hours) with 1/4 tsp salt.
- Drain and wash. Peel the almonds (that takes time so listen to music or podcast:) )
Making Almond Milk
- Place the blanched almonds in a high-speed blender with 3 cups of filtered water, Blend until smooth.
- Strain the milk into a mesh cheesecloth, or a nut milk bag, squeeze well, place the leftover pulp aside*, place the nut milk back in the blender.
- Add the olives to the blender. Once blended, pour out one cup of milk and set aside. Add the agar-agar powder to the remaining almond milk in the blender and blend a second time until smooth. Set aside.
- Combine 1 cup of almond milk, vinegar, grapeseed oil with arrowroot, 1 tsp of salt, garlic powder and mix well until smooth and set aside.
Cooking
- Place the almond milk- agar mixture in a medium pan and whisk well until you achieve the right consistency. It will be constant whisking for 3-4 minutes. Make sure there are no lumps.
- Once thickened, lower the heat, pour the prepared arrowroot mixture into the pan quickly and stir well to combine for another 3 minutes.
- Once texture is smooth pour the mixture into a desired mold or a small heat-resistant bowl for it to set.
- Place in the refrigerator for half an hour to cool before serving. Store in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for up to 4 days.
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