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–+ servings
A round of homemade nut cheese on a plate

Vegan Cashew Cheese

Naturopath Lauren Glucina
A creamy, raw vegan cashew and macadamia cheese. A kitchen staple around my place! Note: this recipe requires soaking nuts in advance overnight, a short prep time, a 12 hour culture, and two weeks to set/harden in the fridge.
5 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total soaking, culturing and setting time 23 days
Total Time 23 days 10 minutes
Course Appetizer
Cuisine Raw, Vegan
Servings 10
Calories 256 kcal

Equipment

  • Dehydrator
  • Sieve
  • Nut milk bag or cheesecloth
  • Small ring mould (optional)

Ingredients
  

  • 1½ cups organic cashew nuts
  • 1½ cups organic macadamia nuts
  • 1 cup filtered water
  • ½ teaspoon dairy free probiotic powder
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • ½ teaspoon onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Instructions
 

  • Soak the nuts: Soak all of your nuts together in a big bowl of filtered water, ideally over night. This will neutralise the taste of the nuts, as well as making them nice and soft for culturing.
  • Blend the nuts: After at least 8 hours of soaking, drain the water, rinse, and pop in the blender with ½ a teaspoon of probiotic powder. You may need to add up to a whole cup of filtered water here, to blend the nuts to a nice and creamy consistency.
  • Culture the nuts: Now we need to culture the nuts and turn them into cheese. To do this, pour the mixture into a nut milk bag, or cheesecloth, and place in a sieve over a bowl with a weight on top. The weight should be just heavy enough to press out any liquid and let it drain through the sieve into the bowl. Pop a tea towel over the bowl and leave in a warm place for at least 12 hours but no more than 48. I like to leave mine on top of my dehydrator.
  • Taste test: Have a wee taste at the 12 hour mark. It should start to taste a little tangy.
  • Add the flavourings: Once the culturing is complete, scrape the cheese into a bowl and stir in the nutritional yeast, onion powder and salt. The nutritional yeast will give it that beautiful soft cheesy flavour.
  • Set the nut cheese: Transfer the mixture to a small ring mould and pop in the fridge to set. You can leave it like this to harden for a few weeks. Or, if you prefer, you could set the cheese first, then remove the ring mould and dehydrate (at 105F) for 12 hours to create a rind. It’s perfectly fine to put it back in the fridge afterwards.

Nutrition

Calories: 256kcalCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 5gFat: 23gFiber: 3.8gCalcium: 30mgIron: 1.8mg
Keyword Vegan cashew cheese
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