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.
Laura wrote on December 13, 2011
I want to start soaking the almonds tonight. This will be perfect to bring to a party on Fri. Since I have a Vitamix, do you think the texture would be better than in the food processor?
Love you recipes
sherrie wrote on December 10, 2011
We use the New Chapter organic “LOOSE” probiotics….about a 1/4-1/2 tsp per 2 cups of nuts in the fermentation process….seems to work very well…a little expensive, but my digestion seems to have improved soooo much, it’s totally worth it…
Maxine wrote on October 8, 2011
Hi Susan,
I’m so glad I found your site. I’m a singer and must cut out everything dairy. So, I was searching for a way to make nut cheeses. And I agree with the others; the crackers look great! (I am also off gluten.) I am very interested in eating more raw and healthy foods. Thanks for your website. I will be taking time to check it all out. It looks as though my dehydrator will finally get some use.
Incidentally, is there a way to make parmesan cheese? I’m a parma-holic!
: )
Maxine
Carmen wrote on September 11, 2011
Yes, I read that you created the rind using a dehydrator. Up until now, there was never a need to have one, so for this first round, I didn’t have one available for the cheese I was making.
I think my next purchase will be a dehydrator.
Carmen wrote on September 11, 2011
Hi Susan,
Just wanted to say that we made the almond cheese this weekend and it was a hit. On another website, there was a recommendation to “bake” the cheese in the oven at 350-degrees for 40 minutes. I did do this and had a nice small rind on top.
Susan wrote on September 11, 2011
Wonderful to hear. Just a note, if you have made this with truly raw almonds, you can put a rind on the cheese in the dehydrator, keeping the temp under 115 degrees thus not compromising the raw status.
Carmen wrote on September 8, 2011
Thanks Susan, I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow. I’m looking forward to this, the almonds are now soaking 🙂
Carmen wrote on September 8, 2011
Thanks for these recipes. This is my first attempt at cheese and I am going to use the Simple Almond Cheese recipe.
As I was buying the almonds today, it just occurred to me. Technically, wouldn’t you agree that this is not a cheese recipe as there is no fermentation. Rather, it is a recipe for Almond butter, similar to Peanut butter.
Susan wrote on September 8, 2011
Actually, no, it has much more of a cheese texture than a almond butter texture. It isn’t even close to that. 🙂
Michael U wrote on July 28, 2011
Just read the blog and comments! Great project you’ve got going here, Susan! Can’t wait to make this out of almonds! I am however, a bit confused on the whey issue. It is the plasma that drains out of the strainer bag? Or cheesecloth?
Anna wrote on July 25, 2011
Oh my gosh, I thought this was a wonderful recipe. It is a basic recipe so you can add all kinds of things to it for flavor. It you are expecting a nut cheese to taste exactly like a dairy cheese, they don’t. But this is still a delicious recipe. I think it is a little grainer because Susan made it accessible for people who don’t have high-speed blenders. Which is really nice. All together, I have made this a couple of times and love it.