A vegan cheddar-style cheese made from cashews, red pepper and nutritional yeast, set with agar agar for toast, sandwiches and burgers.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cashews
- 1/2 cup roasted sweet red pepper
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 5 tbsp agar-agar flakes, a plant-based gelling ingredient from seaweed
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp sea salt or rock salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp mustard powder, or ground mustard seeds
- 2 tbsp miso, optional if available
- A little oil for greasing the molds
Method
- Cut two sweet red peppers into quarters after removing the seeds and white ribs.
- Lightly oil a baking tray and roast the peppers skin-side up after brushing or spraying them with a little oil.
- Once roasted and the skins darken, transfer the peppers to a closed food container for 15 minutes so the skins loosen and become easy to remove.
- If your blender is not very powerful, boil the cashews or soak them in water for several hours and drain. With a strong blender, you can use them dry.
- Put the 5 tablespoons agar-agar flakes and 1 1/2 cups water in a pot. Bring to a boil and stir over low heat until the agar dissolves.
- Add all the ingredients except the oil to a strong blender together with the dissolved agar and blend until completely smooth.
- Meanwhile, lightly grease two containers so the cheese will release easily.
- Pour the mixture into the two containers, leave to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours so the agar sets.
- Turn the molds out. The original recipe produced two pieces like those shown in the photos.
- You can freeze one piece for later use.
Use it with toast, grilled sandwiches, vegan burgers or carrot hot dogs. It softens and melts when heated. Enjoy 🙂
Why this vegan cheddar has a strong nutritional package
Cashews bring unsaturated fats, plant protein, magnesium, copper and zinc, while red pepper contributes vitamin C and carotenoids. Tahini adds sesame fats, protein and minerals, so the richness is coming from plants rather than dairy fat.
One correction matters: nutritional yeast is a reliable B12 source only when the product is fortified with B12. Check the label instead of assuming all nutritional yeast contains it.
And this is the full-package comparison: a cheese-style food made from nuts, peppers, sesame and seaweed-derived agar, without dairy milk or dietary cholesterol. We do not need weak claims about cashews “killing mouth bacteria” to make the vegan case.
