Yes that’s right I’m still banging on about mock cheeses …Because I have exciting discoveries to share with you!
After feeling pretty pleased with myself after my “Moquetta” creation I decided to try something similar with cashews. I simply blended cashews with a little olive oil, nutrional yeast and paprika and pressed it into a little pot with a weight on top and popped it in the fridge over night. And here it is, the paprika combined with the nutritional yeast gave a nice rich taste and it had a nice smooth buttery consistency, good for spreading on crackers and toast.
And then I discovered Cooking With Plants this recipe is simply amazing and it’s so ingenious because it uses sweet potatoes and sweet marinated peppers! By adding Agar Agar, a Japanese algae that acts like gelatine this clever mixture sets so it will slice and gave the same consistency as cheese! I served mine with walnuts and my aramanth crackers.
And then I got really carried away and coated it with my roast piri-piri spiced peanut crumb which gave a lovely spicy crunch against the rich velvety potato and pepper mix.
But if experimenting with nuts and sweet potatoes doesn’t float your boat all is not lost, because there is a delicious substitute vegan cheese out there which goes by the name of Violife. It’s made predominantly from coconut oil and starch and is gluten and soya free. They have a whole host of flavours and even do a mozzarella and Parmesan style which melt and crumble just like the real thing. I get mine from Holland and Barrett
I also must mention this incredible book by Miyoko Schinner who makes artisan vegan cheeses, this book is packed full of incredible recipes, mozzarella, Camembert, I haven’t tried any yet but watch this space….
Greenwich Village Vegan. 
I am having trouble finding vegan recipes or a actual cookbook. For instance, one recipe is with: roasted piri piri peanut butter. I do not know where to go to find such type of ingredients. Any advice?
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Hello Lorna thank you so much for following me! If you click on the cooking with plants link in Cashew Presse it will take you to an amazing and easy recipe on YouTube. My cashew presse was literally just half a bag of cashews, blended with about a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of nutritional yeast and a teaspoon of paprika. It was a make it up as you go along type of thing! I should have explained about my Piri Piri peanut crumb though so thank you for spotting that! I will post my recipe for it tonight! Xx
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I really need a *beginner* vegan cookbook that is simple and includes ingredients which are easy to find. So far, that’s been my problem. Any ideas?
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Hi Lorna, I would really recommend you get Naturally Sassy’s cookbook, she is so inspiring and her recipes are really delicious and easy to follow. I also love Keep it Vegan by Aine Carlin, The Kind Life by Alicia Silverstone, Thug Kitchen eat like you give a give a **** Veganomicon and Vengan with a vengeance. (All available on Amazon) I use a lot of middle eastern and Indian books too, such amazing herbs and spices! Have a look on Instagram too so many incredible vegan accounts on it with recipes too! If you look on my Instagram account at who I’m following you see some AMAZING food! I hope that helps and you start cooking up a storm! Xx
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