If you are looking for a creamy dairy-free melty cheese that bubbles and browns, this recipe is for you! The best part is that you make the entire cheese in the blender. It takes mere minutes to make and just a handful of ingredients.
The inspiration for this cheese recipe came from the lovely liquid pourable pizza cheese from Miyoko’s. I started thinking that it would be fun to have something like that but in different flavors. So after studying the ingredients, I set out to create a version of my own. After weeks of trial and error and creating lots of different versions and tweaking the ingredients, I hit on the version I love. It’s a pourable cheese the day that it’s made, and becomes thick and spreadable after refrigerating over night. My husband has even been using it in skillet dishes, where it becomes a rich and creamy sauce.
The beauty of this cheese lies in how you use it. It will bubble and brown when used as a topping and broiled or baked in a hot oven. You can use it drizzled or spooned on your pizza, or on toasted bread for cheesy toast, on a tortilla for quesadillas (broil open face in the toaster oven until bubbly and then fold in half. It also works on top of lasagna, enchiladas, or your favorite casserole. There are tons of uses!
There are a couple of specialty ingredients that provide the magic in this sauce, and they are readily available on Amazon. The first is Glucomannan powder, which is pure konjac root powder. From all of the research I’ve done, there can be a difference among brands (some needing heat to thicken), whereas the NOW brand that I use thickens up beautifully in the blender. It only takes a very small amount of it too. I also want to mention that the konjac root powder is also high in fiber and a prebiotic, which can have a laxative effect if you consume too much. So a little dab will do with the konjac root powder (and we only use a small bit in the cheese recipe). Konjac is a root vegetable that grows in parts of Asia. The tuber-like root of the plant is what is used to make glucomannan powder (which we use in the cheese recipe). The powder is a rich source of dietary fiber. It’s used in vegan seafood products and shirataki noodles.
The second ingredient that you’ll need is sunflower liquid lecithin. I tried it with powdered lecithin, but it made the cheese a bit gritty. Because of this, I highly recommend the liquid. Besides its thickening and emulsifying properties, it also has a number of health benefits too.
The final specialty ingredient that I used is vegan lactic acid. It adds a lovely dairy-like tang to the cheese. At the moment it looks like it is out of stock on Amazon. If you don’t have it you can use about 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or sauerkraut juice. I will update it here when Amazon has it back in stock.
I’ve got more versions and variations of this cheese that I’ll be sharing soon. I’d love to hear if you give it a try!
xoxo Julie
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Vegan Smoky, Melty, Bubbly Cheese
Description
This cheese is so good, and the perfect topping for anything from pizzas to casseroles to cheese toast to quesadillas.
Ingredients
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight if you don’t have a strong blender
2 tablespoons melted virgin coconut oil (not refined)
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast flakes
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon liquid sunflower lecithin
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon lactic acid powder or 1 teaspoon cider vinegar or sauerkraut juice
1 tablespoon tapioca starch
1/4 teaspoon konjac powder
Instructions
In a blender jar combine the water, cashews, melted coconut oil, nutritional yeast flakes, liquid smoke, lecithin, salt, and lactic acid or vinegar. Blend until super smooth and no traces of nuts remain. Add the tapioca and the konjac powder and blend another 30 to 40 seconds.
Pour the cheese into a container or jar and let sit 30 minutes or until thickened. For a thicker spreadable cheese, refrigerate overnight. The cheese should keep for up to a week.
Notes
Gluten-Free, Vegan, Dairy-Free
This recipe can be doubled.
Looks amazing! I have one question though… In the recipe you do not include glucomannan… Would you replace tapioca starch with glucomannan?
Hi Karyn, it needs the konjac powder (glucomannan) for the recipe to work. Unfortunately extra tapioca won’t thicken it. Sorry.
Hi can I use refined coconut oil instead? I really don’t like the coconut flavour of unrefined oil.
You can Annamaria. I haven’t tried it with refined, but it should be fine. I’d love to hear how it works.