cheese
2 servings — 60 minutes
I used to have a cheese recipe on this website, but it failed me a few times after making it, which made it a poor recipe indeed. This time, I've experiemented a lot more, removing and adding ingredients.
This is a basic cheese recipe, that you can add onto if you want different flavors. It's simple to prepare, and ready under an hour. Another great thing about it is that it's completely nut-free!
This cheese can be grated, it holds its shape well enough so it can be used as a topping on pizza — yay!
In this recipe I use kanten, which is similar to agar agar except that it's made from a different type of red algae (tengusa). It can be swapped 1:1 in a recipe, although the resulting texture will not be the same. Adding agar agar will make the cheese softer, so I highly recommend using kanten if available.
In this recipe, you can omit the sunflower seeds and 240 ml of water, and replace it with 240 ml of soy milk instead. This will result in a lighter cheese.
sunflower seeds 140 g
water 240 ml
salt 1.25 g
nutritional yeast 8 g
onion powder 2.5 g
apple cider vinegar 5 ml
white miso 5 g
arrowroot starch 30 g- water 120 ml
kanten powder 6 g
cheese
- Soak 140 g (1 cup) of raw unsalted sunflower seeds in water for 2 hours, or overnight.
- Drain and rinse sunflower seeds, and blend with 240 ml (1 cup) of water, 1.25 g (1/4 tsp) of salt, 8 g (2 tbsp) of nutritional yeast, 2.5 g (1/2 tsp) of onion powder, 5 ml (1 tsp) of apple cider vinegar and 5 g (1 tsp) of white miso.
- In a small bowl, dissolve 30 g (2 tbsp) of arrowroot starch (or 30 g of tapioca starch) with 30 ml (2 tbsp) of water. Keep aside.
- Heat a saucepan at medium heat, pour 120 ml (1/2 cup) of water (or soy milk for richer taste) and sprinkle 6 g (~1 tbsp) of kanten powder (or equal amount of agar agar powder). Stir well.
- When content starts to boil, lower to a simmer and pour the sunflower cheese mix into it. Stir, for 1-2 minutes, then add the arrowroot starch mix. Continue whisking until mixture is thick and shiny. Pour contents of pan into container of choice (I like to use 2 small bowls).
- Let mixture rest for 2 hours.
- Flip bowls upside down, scoop out cheese and enjoy! This cheese can be grated onto pizza too!