Vegan Cheese

Vegan cheese can be very hard to come by in Doha, and even when it is available, it’s often so highly processed it negates the health value of a plant based diet. So I decided to make my own, with surprisingly good results.

I often use cashew nuts to make soft cheese, which I’ll detail in a future post, but this recipe is coconut based and produces a firm cheese which is perfect for grating or slicing.

I put the following ingredients in the vitamix and blended until smooth:

2 tbsp lemon juice

½ cup of coconut cream (I put a tin of coconut milk in the fridge overnight so the cream separated)

1 cup of coconut butter (I make my own coconut butter by blending dessicated coconut in the vitamix for about 15 minutes, until it forms a creamy paste)

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 clove of garlic

2/3 cup of virgin coconut oil

I poured the mixture into a container and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours. It was then ready to be turned out and used as desired.

This cheese has a mild taste akin to mozzarella and melts well on pizza. It’s best not to leave it out in warm temperatures for too long because it can start to go a bit soft. You might want to adjust the amount of nutritional yeast you put in, depending on the level of cheesiness required, but it’s fun experimenting and really satisfying to create something that’s endlessly versatile and a core ingredient in so many meals!