Guys, this recipe is a total game changer.
Cashews are blended with hot water, tapioca starch, garlic, lemon, salt & olive oil and cooked until super stringy – just like fresh mozzarella!
AKA my (Italian) lactose intolerant husband can now enjoy fresh mozzarella cheese again. And it’s easy!!
I’ll admit – I was a bit skeptical. I loooove cheese, and I didn’t think it would be THAT good. But it totally was! The texture was almost exactly like fresh mozzarella. It was nice and melty and stringy and totally satisfying.
And somehow – it actually tasted like cheese! My husband said that if I hadn’t told him it wasn’t real mozzarella, he may not have known. This is huge!!
The “cheese” comes together in a saucepan, and then you can dollop it onto your pizza before baking it. If you have a high speed blender, you don’t even need to soak the cashews, which is totally awesome.
I made another batch of Lazy Pizza Dough for this, and it worked out great! My only mistake was not putting enough cornmeal on the paddle, which is why my pizza shape is… interesting. It rolled over on itself and made a big ol’ mess, but I kind of think it turned out looking like a butterfly.
A delicious butterfly.
All I put on this pizza was sauce, the fresh moxarella and a drizzle of olive oil. After it came out of the oven, I added some fresh basil leaves. It was a HUGE hit at the dinner table, and definitely something I’ll be making again.
Fresh Vegan Moxarella Cheese
One Green Planet
1/4 C. raw cashews (soaked in water for several hours and then drained IF you don’t have a high powered blender)
1 C. hot water
2 T. + 1 t. tapioca starch
1 T. extra virgin olive oil (optional)
1 small garlic clove, minced
3/4 t. sea salt
1 t. fresh lemon juice
1. Blend all ingredients together in a high speed blender until completely smooth, about 1 minute.
2. Pour into a small saucepan and cook, stirring constantly over medium high heat. After a couple of minutes the mixture will start to look weird, like it’s curdling or separating. This is totally normal, reduce heat to medium and KEEP stirring so you don’t burn the cheese to the bottom of the pot.
3. Keep cooking and stirring til really thick (about 2-3 more minutes) and the mixture becomes like a cohesive mass of melted dairy cheese and stretches like in the photo below.
4. Remove from heat and let cool a bit while you assemble the pizzas.
Big Flavors Rating: 5 Stars
