VEGAN GOAT CHEESE

When people make the decision to remove dairy from their diet cheese is often what they say they miss most.  Dairy is NOT healthy (in the future I will do an in-depth post to explain why) , so it is important that we find good alternatives.

I recently purchased one of Russell James‘ e-books called Raw Nut Cheese from his Raw Chef’s Recipe Series and decided to give the goat cheese recipe a whirl.

I have made raw nut cheese before and they weren’t as successful as this recipe was (I am eating it as I type…yum!).  I think the curing step is key…

INGREDIENTS – day one

2 cups raw unsalted macadamias, soaked 4 hours

1 cup water

1 tsp. probiotics powder (I used New Chapter Organics All Flora)

INGREDIENTS – day two

1 tsp. nutritional yeast

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. lemon juice

Soak the macadamia nuts in filtered water for 4 hours.

Blend the soaked nuts with 1 cup of filtered water and 1 tsp. probiotics powder in your high-powered blender (I used my Vitamix).  Make sure all of the nuts are blended well and there are no chunks.

Transfer the mixture to a cheesecloth-lined strainer that has been placed over a bowl.

Fold the cheesecloth over the cheese and place a weight over the top (I used a plate with pie weights over it).  Allow this mixture to cure at room temperature for a full 24 hours.

Once the cheese has cured, mix in the nutritional yeast, salt, and lemon juice.

Place the mixture in a Saran wrap lined spring form pan (I used a 5” pan) and place in the refrigerator to firm-up.

When the cheese is more firm (it will never get firm…it will become the texture of goat cheese) and ready to serve, top it with your choice of toppings i.e. pesto, chopped sun dried tomatoes, fresh herbs.  The next time I make this cheese I plan on mixing pesto directly into the mixture.  This cheese is great served with crackers, on a salad, or in a sandwich.

For a printable version of this recipe click here