It's not cheese, but somehow, it feels like it's not "not cheese" either.
Soak the cashews either in cold water over night or 1 hour in boiling water. When they are ready, rinse the water off.
Prepare your bowl or ramekin by greasing it with oil. This will help you get the fabulous creation to loosen its grip when you want to remove it from the bowl.
Put all the ingredients (except the ones for the Agar mixture) into a blender and blend for about 30 seconds.
Bring the water to the boil. I turn my stove off at this stage. Depending on what stove you have you might need to keep it on but at a low temperature.
Add the Agar-Agar powder, and just like Patti LaBelle, you want to Stir It Up until it thickens. When you are one-third through the song, your mixture is ready. Whaddaboom!
Grab your blender container and pour the mixture into the saucepan with the Agar-mixture. And yes, you guessed it, stir some more! Go Patti, go!
I know you want to keep on singing and dancing, but now it's time to pour it all into the bowl you prepared earlier.
Let it cool, and then put it into the fridge to stabilize and thicken for a couple of hours.
When ready, turn it upside down on a plate or whatever flat thing you want. If it doesn't want to come out, just take a wooden flat thingy and try to convince it by running along the edges. Don't worry, you'll win.
I found this recipe at @madeleineolivia's and just had to try it. It's not cheese (obviously), but it could do the same job as cheese on a sandwich.
I've tried it a couple of times and tweaked the original recipe somewhat. I've added some carrot to give it more colour, and some smoked paprika to add more taste.
Personally, I'm not too fond of the taste of nutritional yeast, so next time, I'm going to exclude that and add something else. Also, mine turned out a bit too soft for my liking, even though I used more cashew nuts, so I'll keep experimenting. To be continued.
10 servings
