This cashew cheese recipe is easy to make and has so many uses! It can be a delicious spread on bagels (add some chives to make it super fancy), pour it over some pasta for an easy cream sauce, put it on pizza for a white sauce, add it to soups for some creamy goodness, or add to some mashed potatoes for that cheesy deliciousness. Since I make nut milk a couple times a week, I usually use the pulp from that milk as a base for my cashew cheese. If you don’t have nut milk pulp to use up, don’t worry, simply substitute additional cashew pieces for the pulp.
Serves: 2 cups
Time: 30min (15min active)
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups nut pulp
3/4 cups cashews
1 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 small clove garlic roughly chopped
juice of half a lemon (2 tbsp)
Soak the cashews in hot water for 15 minutes.
Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides of your blender or food processor as you go. Keeps for 1 week. You can freeze and use later if you don’t need the whole batch.
You can use either a food processor or a Vitamix blender for this. Using a food processor will give the cheese slightly more texture and a Vitamix will make the cheese extra silky/creamy. Both are good! I would not recommend trying to make this cheese in a blender that isn’t high powered, as the nuts can be hard on the motor and the cheese will come out with a strange texture. Note, I don’t always soak the cashews and can say from first hand it isn’t 100% necessary when using a Vitamix. It does however help take care of your equipment and can make the final product creamier, so I do recommend it, if you have the time.