Don’t you love having feta cheese on your salads or pizza? Pity that once you graduate on to being a vegan, you have to say goodbye to feta cheese. Or so you thought! This recipe will give you a vegan substitute for feta cheese. Vegan feta cheese actually is very easy to make and literally tastes the same as your dairy containing feta cheese. While the store-bought vegan feta cheese is easily available at your nearest grocery stores, it has an artificial processing taste, which is absolutely eliminated when you prepare it at home.
So, if you are reconsidering going back to your old feta cheese, hold up! This vegan feta recipe is going to be the one you reach out for the moment you start craving it. You can easily store this for a week or so, as well. This also beautifully crumbles like real feta and tastes really good along with your salads or pizzas!
Preparation time: 15 mins
Total time: 8 hours or overnight
Ingredients
- 1 cup (a measure of 150 grams) of raw cashews
- 8 oz (approx. 220 grams) of raw tofu
- 300 ml (1¼ cup) of water
- 5 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon of white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (nutritional yeast is low in calories, sodium, as well as sugar free, gluten-free, vegan)
- 2 ½ teaspoons of salt
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon of onion powder
- 1 tablespoon of agar powder
- ½ teaspoon of dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon of dried dill
Instructions
- To make vegan feta, you need to add to your blender all your dry ingredients like raw cashews, firm tofu, white vinegar, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder and onion powder to a blender cup and blend. While you are blending it, you will see the blended mixture will turn thick.
- You need to prep the square pan next. Grease the square pan with a non-stick spray or even with a bit of oil. Greasing your pan will ensure that it is easier to pull the cheese out once it has set.
- In a cup of water, put in one teaspoon of the agar powder. Set this on the stove, and keep stirring until it starts boiling. Once it is boiling, stir for one whole minute and then immediately remove it from the stove.
- In a swift motion, put this water and agar mixture into the blender, and blend the raw ingredients together once more. You need to be very quick with this step because agar sets in really quickly.
- After you have blended everything in nicely, you need to pour this into the prepped and greased square pan in one swift motion. Smooth the edges and then put this into the fridge for setting for at least eight hours or overnight.
- Once the cheese has set, you can take the square pan out of the fridge and loosen the sides and tip it out onto a cutting board or a wooden board to cut up into your preferred shapes. We recommend cutting it into small cubes; that way, it is easier to place on your salad and also shred for putting on to your pizza.
- Once your vegan feta cheese is prepared, you can garnish it easily with dried oregano and dried dill and mix them together till the feta is covered with it. You can use this for up to a week. You can use this on your salad and also as a pizza topping.
Notes
- Use only agar powder. If you are using flakes, then you will need at least 3 times the product.
- The tofu must be really firm to ensure proper blending because else the consistency will not be thick.
- You can soak the cashews if you think your blender might have problems in blending them properly. In such a situation, soak your cashews in boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes to soften them.
Nutritional value
Per serving of this vegan feta cheese recipe will be around 2 oz. or 57 grams, and each serving consists of 104 kcals, 1.1 grams of sugar, 562 mg of sodium, 7.2 grams of fat, 1.2 grams of saturated fats, 5.7 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre and protein content of 5.2 grams. All things considered, homemade feta cheese is definitely much more nutritional than your average store-bought and over-processed cheese.
Conclusion
This vegan feta cheese is really delicious and tastes ditto like your original feta cheese and way better than the store-bought ones. It can literally be enjoyed with so many dishes, and it adds that extra burst of flavour when used with salads and on pizzas as toppings.
