HOMEMADE VEGAN CHEESE

Sunday 8th April.
Gave a taste to my son this morning, who reported that it was similar to brickdust! It's true it's a little gritty - next time I'll use bought ground almonds.

Wednesday 4th April.

Just had another go at making some vegan cheese - this time from scratch.

I took a look at some of the recipes on line, made a list of ingredients common to several of them, and 'winged' it a bit. I ground some flaked almonds and just began adding things:

25g ground almonds

25g gram flour

1 tsp smoked paprika

10g nutritional yeast ('nooch')

1 tsp 'Free and easy' cheese sauce powder 

25g tahini 

1 teaspoon lemon juice 

9g EVOO

I mixed the dried ingredients, then added the wet ones and kept stirring with a table knife. It came together very easily, then I pressed it into the bottom of a small dish. After a couple of hours in the fridge I brought it out and took a couple of slices off it.

Doesn't look a whole lot different to the first lot I did - but it has a much deeper level of flavour

I'm quite impressed - both with the ease of assembly and the flavour and 'feel' of it. I put some on a pizza I was making, and it absolutely added to the overall flavour.    My daughter thought it was “Fine”, which is all I was after, really.

The central components here, I feel, are the almonds, gram flour and tahini - and perhaps the EVOO. The rest is just flavouring and can be altered at whim.

I'm happier with these ingredients as a base for experimentation - I try not to use much soya, and I generally steer clear of marg - but this I can play around with for a bit.

21st March.

Following a recipe posted by Tezza on Wildfood, I made my first vegan cheese this morning:

50g marg (Pure in this case)

50g soya flour

8g yeast extract (Morrison's own - it's cheaper and just as good. Looks a little darker if anything)

Melt the marg and yeast extract together, then add the flour. Mix with a dessertspoon at first, but then get your hands in and bring it together like a stiff bread dough. This makes a small block which will keep in the fridge for quite along time, I feel. There's the basis here for lots of playing about - with olive oil, nooch - and all sorts of other flavourings. Chilli cheese - now there's a thought!