Raw Recipe: Simple Almond Cheese
Nut cheeses are a great item to have in your raw food recipe collection. They are tasty, easily support the addition of many herbs and spices, and will impress your raw and non-raw friends a like! There are a couple of different ways to make nut cheeses.
You can make delicious nut cheeses with macadamia nuts, cashew nuts and many other nuts and seeds.
Macadamia Nut Cheese made with probiotics.
(From the Rawmazing Holiday Book)
Probiotics: Probably the easiest, but most expensive way to make the “cheese” is to use probiotics. I love how this “cheese” tastes and the texture is wonderful and it is quite fail-proof. The only drawback is the cost of the probiotics. Most recipes require at least a teaspoon, which can be more than half a bottle of capsules. On the plus side, the cheeses are wonderful, the probiotics don’t require advanced preparation.
Cashew Cheese made with Rejuvelac
(recipe here: Cheese)
Rejuvelac: Raw Cheeses made with rejuvilac also have great taste and texture but can be a little more temperamental. Plus, you need to add a couple of days to your process to make the rejuvelac. The grain needs to be sprouted first and then made into rejuvelac. It can be a bit time consuming. That said, it makes a great cheese with wonderful, tangy taste and good texture.
Simple Almond Cheese (recipe follows)
Simple Cheese: Simple cheese spreads and simple cheeses can be made with just nuts and no fermentation process. I usually prefer these cheeses for spreads, but they can also be firmed up and dehydrated to form the rind.
Different nuts not only taste different, but also will give different textures. Almonds make a clean tasting cheese that is a little grainy. Macadamias make a beautiful, creamy cheese that develops good firm texture. Cashews make a smooth, easy to flavor cheese that has a bit of a softer texture.
Today’s recipe is pretty simple. I started my “cheese” when I got up. I threw the ingredients in the food processor, spooned it into a nut-milk bad and tossed it in the refrigerator. The next morning, I took it out, patted it into a round and tossed it in the dehydrator (to form a “rind”). By the evening, it was ready to go!
I hope I have inspired you to try your hand at nut cheese making. It is fun and tasty!
Soaked almonds with skins removed. It takes a little time but is very easy. They just pop right off.
The almonds should be well blended and smooth.
The mixture in the nut-milk bag, before putting it in the refrigerator.
Simple Almond Cheese
Simple Almond Cheese
- 1 cup almonds, soaked, drained and skins removed
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic
- pinch Himalayan Salt
- Soak almonds overnight in water. Drain and pop off skins.
Place all ingredients in food processor. Process until smooth. This will take a bit of time, don’t rush.
Place nut mixture in nut-milk bag or colander lined with cheese cloth.
Give a light squeeze and place in refrigerator over-night to set up.
You can use the cheese at this point or if you want it more firm, place it in the dehydrator for 6+ hours (at 115 degrees) to form a rind.
D. Zemira wrote on January 12, 2011
As always, your recipes are gorgeous! Would you tell us what the crackers are in each of the photos? I’m interested each cracker, but the one with the poppy seeds looks especially ravishing. I went through the recipe list, but couldn’t find them. Much, much appreciated.
Susan wrote on January 13, 2011
They are a new BBQ cracker made with chia seeds. I have not posted the recipe yet. The other crackers are the mushroom crackers that are in the Holiday Book. Both turned out great!
Jeanne wrote on January 11, 2011
You know, instead of adding all the extra ingredients, you can just soak a given nut in water (the initial sprouting process), blend that, and LET IT FERMENT ON ITS OWN, with its OWN ENZYMES. That’s the easiest and least expensive way! No added probiotics/rejuvelac needed! It tastes amazing. And then you can dry the fermented stuff the way you want (when it ferments, the “cheese” floats to the top and the remaining liquid (the “whey”) stays underneath, so you want to scoop up the top layer so it won’t be too soggy. The “whey” can be kept to drink or to be used as a culture for fermenting other things faster). Cheers!
Susan wrote on January 11, 2011
So interesting…I was just given a bottle of whey today and told all about the curds. I guess that is what they mean by curds and whey!
Elena Lipson wrote on January 10, 2011
I made this tonight … added chipotle powder & some rosemary..YUM!!
Susan wrote on January 9, 2011
Dianne, for this recipes, we are not “blanching” almonds, we are just removing the skin. Blanching involves a soak in boiling water…
For this recipe, yes, it is just aesthetics. Also, the addition of skins would change the texture and make it less “cheese” like.
Dianne wrote on January 9, 2011
Have tried several of your recipes and they are all winners! My question is about almonds. I would like to understand why it is recommended to blanch almonds. Is it simply for aesthetics or is there a science behind it? I know several raw and non-raw recipes recommend this technique and sometimes wonder if it is truly necessary. Thanks. (I enjoy your site tremendously and am looking forward to following you this year.) Happy & healthy new year to all.
Susan wrote on January 9, 2011
Ginger…I think you are referring to the almond cheese? It is a softer cheese. If you want it to firm up even more…you will need to put it in the dehydrator. Also, it must go in the refrigerator. And yes…there is a reason the lemon juice is in there. 🙂
ginger wrote on January 9, 2011
I just finished making walnut cheese (the simple version). I let it sit overnight, but it turned out REALLY soft. I thought it might be from not using a food processor (though it turned out smooth using my blender), but I also did not add the lemon juice (NOT on purpose … I forgot to pick it up at the store the other day). Though it tastes dam good, it does need the lemon juice.
Christiane wrote on January 8, 2011
Are you going to share the recipe for those crackers? Because they look AMAZING!
Jeani wrote on January 7, 2011
Wow, that really did take a long time to get to a good, smooth texture, but I have a very old GE food processor.
I have everything sitting on the counter so that in the morning I can throw together the walnut-mushroom burgers (your recipe). I will put them in the dehydrator with the sweet potato fries (your recipe) that are marinating in the fridge overnight. Late tomorrow afternoon I will have a cheesy burger on some onion bread (your recipe that I modified a little), and I KNOW it will be a delicious meal. My house will smell good all day long while we get a little bit of snow here in Delaware.
Thanks for sharing your gift, Susan. You make this so much fun.