A Perfect Cheese!

I stay away from cheese not because it comes from an animal, I stay away because when I eat too much it makes me sick. I’ve often told Dan that if I was going to die from eating too much cheese I’d want it to be Havarti with dill. I love the creaminess of the cheese and anything with dill in it has to be good for you right?

Over the years I’ve tried making a number of nut based cheeses but until recently the end result has left me less than enthused. Like the Havarti, I want my cheese to have that creamy feel on my tongue and I want the flavors; the garlic and herbs to come through. 

For those of you who are Facebook friends you might recall that last week I was on a cooking spree, I made my own vegetable broth from veggie scraps, then I made rhubarb and apple crisp (yes together) and I topped off the weekend making a vegan cheese from cashews. The longest part of the cheese making process is in the soaking of the cashews and waiting that hour after it bakes before eating, everything else is pretty painless and quick. 

I started with a recipe from My Vibrant Kitchen’s blog post from last November and then I changed it up a bit to suit my taste. To be honest this is the best non dairy cheese I’ve made to date. It’s flavorful, creamy and has the right amount of spices and flavor. The only thing I would do differently next time is put it in a loaf pan (instead of a 8 x 8) and make more than one batch (ok that’s actually 2 things). 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups cashews, soaked

½ cup water

5 garlic cloves

juice of 1 lemon

½ tsp salt

½ cup olive oil

3 - 4 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tsp fresh sage, chopped

1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped

Instructions

Soak the cashews overnight - if not overnight at least 8 hours but overnight produces the best results

Pre-heat the oven to 190˚C.

Drain the cashews and add them to a high-speed blender or food processor.

Peel the garlic cloves and juice the lemon and add both to the blender.

Add water, salt, olive oil and nutritional yeast and blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Finely chop the herbs, add them to the blender and pulse until well combined.

Pour the mixture into an oven-save dish lined with baking paper and top with additional herbs.

Bake it for 40 minutes, then let it set in the fridge for 1 hour before slicing.

Enjoy on crackers, in a sandwich with avocado and tomato (this was my fav), or just slice it and eat the possibilities are endless. 

Thanks for stopping by!