Cashew cheese for Scarpetti

Celeste

Celeste

My cookbooks have got into a box somewhere and I cant find them-but I went looking on line, this recipe is I think, close to the ones I remember having:


Ingredients for Making Raw Cashew Cheese

1 ½ cups raw cashews

1/3 cup water

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon sea salt


My recipes were nearly identical, *except*- one included, a jar of pimentos, drained and added- another had half of a diced red bell pepper added.(these add a color that make the final product look more like yellow cheese).

Some of them also include a product called "nutritional yeast" or "Yeast flakes" a product you can only find in stores that cater to vegetarians- it is a freeze-dried product, you do not want to use live yeast! It adds a cheezier floavor, and the B vitamins lacking in a meatless diet. (strict vegans may not want to eat yeast, some folk put them in the animal kingdom).


The instructions are- soak the raw cashews, at least a couple of hours, put the ingredients in a food processor and whir this until its smooth.

you can pour it over something immediately, or you can pour it in a jar and put it in the fridge and it will set up over night and be sort of the consistency of those spready cheeses in jars.

I saw another recipe that the author was using in instances where she baked it, that was a bit more complex. I'll find that one and come back and post it, too- it might be good for poppers!
---------
Okay- her recipe is almost the same, but she's tweaked it- and has this whole page of other things she does with it, so I thought I'd post the link:


http://vivelevegan.blogspot.com/2009/10/cashew-cheese-filled-pasta.html
 
Odd...I have never heard of this stuff. I would have thought you would use toasted cashews or does that make the spread more mealy due to lesser moisture?
 
I've never tried it with toasted. I imagine it would effect consistency. The flavor change between raw and toasted cashews is very different. to imitate cheese, you'd want the raw. I would think it would coome out more like peanut butter if you used toasted. which is good in its own right, but not a cheese substitute. Now I really want to make it, because my friend has some habeneros from her neighbors garden...:)
 
Thanks Celeste. It does sound interesting. I'll pass this to all my veggie and vegan friends.

and Hophead, your avatar looks like a kitten from the cat around the corner from our house that looks like it's been dead in the street for 3 weeks!
 
Cashew Cheese recipe

I found it! This is my favorite cheese substitute recipe. It even has a pepper! :)

NO CHEESE

4 Tbsp extra light olive oil (Bertolli's)

1 small red bell pepper

1-1/2 cups raw unsalted cashews

1/4 cup raw seseme seeds

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup yeast flakes (this is not live yeast: its a dried product sold in health food stores)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup canola or safflower oil (I will be trying it with grapeseed oil, now)

1 Tablespoon Shoyu ( a particular type of soy sauce)
Chop red bell pepper. add all ingredients in blender or food processor and blend till smooth.

It can be used immediately in things like lasagna, but if you pour it into a jar and put it in the fridge it sets up to a spreadable consistancy, -perhaps a bit softer than cream cheese.


The red bell pepper is primarily to give it a cheesey color- I had another recipe that added pimento for color but I liked this one better. I would imagine you could add a fleshy hot red pepper instead to make it a spicy cheese.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top