Cashew cheese is one of the first plant cheeses that I recommend you master when transitioning to a plant-based diet. It’s nutritious, tastes amazing and can be added to just about any savoury Buddha bowl.
Ingredients
- 3-5 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast I like the brand Bragg's
- 1/4 Cup Chickpea Miso Paste
- 1 Cup Soaked Cashews (overnight) If you forget to soak you can boil for 10 minutes
- 2-3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1/4 Tsp Garlic Powder & Onion Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Pink Sea Salt & Pepper Add more to taste
- 1/4 Cup Water Add to your desire. This gets added in during blending. Less for a thicker cheese and more for a runnier consistency.
Instructions
- Place all dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse until broken up.
- Stop and scrape the cashews down from the side of the food processor.
- Then, turn the food processed back on, this time on ‘blend’ mode, and drizzle in water with food processor until the cashew cheese is at your desired consistency.
A delicious and healthy alternative to dairy cheese. By switching to a plant-based cheese like this, you will be avoiding hormones, animal protein and cholesterol which are found in dairy-based products. I highly recommend adding the Chickpea Miso paste (optional, but tastes better with this personally) – I like Meru Miso the best.
Even though Cashew Cheese is vegan, we need to still be consuming it in a health conscious manner – cashews still pack a lot of calories and do contain saturated fats, so please do not binge eat this stuff. I recommend 1-2 TBSP max per meal as a healthy source of fats. If you are combining with other fats i.e. avocado and more nuts/seeds, keep in mind that consuming too much saturated fats is not healthy and from my experience, is the #1 place where people on a plant-based diet get a bit carried away and consume too many calories (especially if weight loss or maintenance is your goal). While on this topic, in terms of saturated fats, fats from whole food products like nuts and avocado are much more preferable than saturated fats from processed oils (olive oil, coconut oil, etc).
Cashew cheese is one of the key ingredients in the Plant Proof Chilli Scramble which is a fantastic plant-based ‘egg’ recipe.
Made a Plant Proof recipe? Upload to Instagram and tag #plantproofrecipe @plant_proof in your post so I can see your creation!
