Cashew Cheeze

After eating Luigis vegan pizzas where they top them with their homemade cashew cheese, I just had to try make some myself at home! This cheese is awesome on top of a pizza. It’s not sticky like vegan cheese alternatives, and makes food cheesy while being a healthy alternative. After I’ve spread the sauce on my pizza, I add dollops of this cheese then carefully spread out with the back of a spoon. It’s also worked well in my lasagna and a tomato pesto pasta, so I will keep experimenting with it! After checking out ingredients that were common for cashew cheese online here’s what I’m happy with after some trial and error.

Ingredients:

• 2 handfuls of cashews
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes
• half teaspoon of garlic powder
• good helping of salt
• dash of pepper
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• plant based milk (I’ve been using almond or soy) until desired consistancy

Method:

1. Soak cashews in a pot of hot water to the boil then leave to cool completely, or soak in water overnight to prepare.
2. Add cooled cashews to a blender or food processor and the following ingredients: the lemon juice, (I always use fresh lemon as they are ideal for vegan baking) nutritional yeast, (makes it taste cheesy) garlic powder, salt & pepper and oil.
3. Here I pour ‘a glug’ of milk into the food processor and turn it on. I continually add milk bit at a time, while also pushing down the cashews off the edges until the mixture is of a thick but smooth consistency. I am unable to get it completely smooth, but if you can get it to a point where its like spreading nut butter on toast.
4. Store it in a container in the fridge, and use within a week. 2 handfuls tends to cover up to 6 pizzas or provide 2 portions for other cooking dishes like pasta.