Drumroll Please. . . Homemade Vegan Cheddar!

Ta-da! I have been wanting to try making my own cheese at home, because it always looked so easy. Not to mention that it is much cheaper than trying to buy the packaged cheeses at the health food store (and probably healthier too!). This recipe is from The Uncheese Cookbook. I only found this book on the internet, received it for my birthday, and finally got around to use it.

This recipe was surprisingly easy to make. I had all the ingredients on hand, because it uses a lot of vegan pantry staples. It contains raw cashews, miso, nutritional yeast, agar agar flakes, and some other spices. The video below shows what it looked like when I put it into the container to set up.

I let this set up overnight. The next morning I flipped the container, and it came out easily with just a few taps. It slices nicely just like the store bought vegan cheeses. It doesn't taste like them however. The store bought vegan cheeses are usually made from either tofu or rice. It tasted a little sharp like cheddar tends to, but doesn't taste exactly like real cheddar. I think that most vegans understand that you can't find an exact match for real cheese, but you can get close enough to sate your craving.

We had black bean burgers a few nights later and I put slices of this cheese on them. It tasted great. It melted nicely, but I found melting it in the microwave has an uneven melt, so it is best to melt it while the burger is in the pan. Another way is to very briefly stick it under the broiler in your oven.

I rate this recipe with 4 onigiris!