How to Make Vegan Cheese at Home

April 14, 2013October 12, 2013 Natalie Houlding Food, Natalie Houlding, Recipes

This recipe for Vegan cheese is so versatile, I wish I had known about it before I made most of my other dishes since becoming a Vegan. Its great in desserts such as cheesecakes, and it can be used in so many other recipes, both sweet and savoury.

It tastes better than Tofutti and similar products and best of all its so easy to make, so you will soon be finding yourself preparing it quickly and naturally!

How to Make Vegan Soya Cheese (it’s very easy!)

To make 500g of cheese, you are going to need:

Vegan Cheese at Home ingredients — Making Vegan Cheese at Home - the ingredients

Base cheese:
2 litres of unsweetened soya milk (e.g. Alpro with the red label). A word of advice, as far as I know this recipe only works using soya milk or homemade cashew milk. (You can also make Soya milk yourself using Soya beans).
3 medium lemons
3/4 cup of boiled water

Flavoured cheese (optional):
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
Olives (chopped)
Salt to taste

You will also need a Cheesecloth, a large sieve, a bowl, a pan with a lid, a large spoon and a blender.

How to make:

Vegan Cheese — The water will turn yellowish and the the milk will have solidified into small clumps. This is our cheese!

Prepare all your ingredients, utensils and boil the kettle.
Line the sieve with the cheesecloth and place on top of the bowl (see photo above)

Heat the milk in the pan until it just begins to start bubbling and then turn off the heat.

Squeeze the lemons into the 3/4 cup of hot water, and pour 1/3 into the hot milk in the pan. Gently stir, close the lid (the heat is what starts the solidification process) and wait for 5 mins.

Add just over 1/2 of what’s left in the cup. Gently stir (you should start to see the milk solidify) and close the lid and wait for another 5 mins.

Add the remainder of the cup to the pan. Gently stir and close the lid and now wait for approx 15mins.

Vegan Cheese in the making — If you squeeze most of the liquid out your cheese will be become hard which is good for a ricotta like texture

The water will turn yellowish and the the milk will have solidified into small clumps. This is our cheese!

Now its ready to move to the cheesecloth lined sieve. Pour the mixture in and all the liquids will drain to the bowl underneath. You can wrap with the cheesecloth and gently squeeze the cheese to drain.

If you squeeze most of the liquid out your cheese will be become hard which is good for a ricotta like texture. To get a soft cheese, I find it best to drain all the water out and then re-add it gradually in the blender until I reach the desired texture.

Garlic and Olive Falvoured Vegan Cheese

For the following recipes we will go with the soft cheese texture. So while the cheese is in the blender, were going to add the garlic, olives and a little salt to taste.

You now have your cheese which you can use as a spread, filling for savoury pancakes, topping for lasagnes or other pasta dishes etc. Enjoy!

Here are a couple more recipe ideas to get you started:

Avocado and Vegan Cheese Dip
1 Avocado
3 tbsp of cream textured cheese (base or flavoured)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
a dash of olive oil

Blend altogether for this gorgeous dip!

Vegan Cheese Stuffed Chillies and Tomatoes
These make a great snack and are perfect for barbeques or parties!

Preheat oven to 230 degrees
10 Jalepeno chillies
4 tomatoes
1/3 to 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
blend of taco or bbq spices
Cream textured base cheese with salt to taste

Rinse the chillies well (use gloves to avoid chilli burn!) and cut lengthwise into half. Scoop out the chilli seeds. Also halve the tomatoes horizontally (as per photo) and scoop out the insides.

Fill the chillies and tomatoes with your previously made cheese. Mix the breadcrumbs with the spices then gently press the chillies and tomatoes facedown to coat the cheese with the spice blend. Place onto a lightly oiled baking sheet/ foil. Sprinkle some salt over them and place into the oven, baking until the breadcrumbs are golden and the cheese is bubbling. (approx 25 mins) and check regularly.

Enjoy and I hope you get to make many other wonderful dishes which I hope you will share!

Natalie Houlding

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