Aquafaba Cashew Mozzarella

Lately, I came across the cutest Indiegogo fundraiser I have ever seen called “Simple Happy Kitchen”.  They are pre-selling a book filled with information on making plant-based food choices, saving the planet, helpful nutrition guides and fun food ideas.  They offer easy to understand posters about plant based protein, iron and calcium sources, super foods, alternative milks and ways that plant based eaters save animals and cut down on water consumption.  All around it is a fabulous site!  www.simplehappykitchen.com  My kids are older now and they don’t really need the fun posters and stickers for labeling storage containers, but I decided that I do!  They are just so adorable!  I think I will laminate them and hang them up in my pantry.  Ok, I just realized how nerdy that sounds! 😉

Their sweet little cartoon characters inspired me to make Cashew Cheese again today.  This is a slightly different recipe than last time I tried, and even tastier.  My daughter even paused her volleyball game with a friend to have some of my cashew cheese on crackers. That’s a win.

So, you might be thinking, what the heck is aquafaba?  Sounds so exotic.  Well, it’s not… It’s actually the liquid found in a can of chickpeas!  I only found out a couple of years ago that there is actually such a thing and that there are uses for it!  Here, it’s an ingredient in the cheese, but it can also be used as egg whites to make meringue.  Who knew?  I love this cartoon for aquafaba!

This recipe is so easy to make.  It takes about 10 minutes, then after it sets up in the fridge for a few hours, it’s ready.  It’s so much cheaper than those expensive nut cheeses in the specialty stores.  So next time you are asked to make an appetizer for a potluck, try this out! It’s a great conversation starter.  And, it contains no cholesterol!  The trick to remembering if food contains cholesterol is to reflect on whether it had a mom or a face.  If it did, or came from something that did, ie: cheese from cow’s milk, it contains cholesterol.  Our bodies make their own cholesterol and we do not need any from any outside source… Need I say anymore?

Here are a couple samples of their posters that help explain some misunderstood plant-based nutrition topics.

How cute are these posters?!!  I’m excited to get my shipment to share with everyone in my life!

They sent out printable recipes to donors and one was this Aquafaba Cashew Mozzarella recipe.   It is mild, but with kids, that can be a good thing.  I’m looking forward to trying more recipes so I can experiment with other varieties and flavours such as Boursin (known in the vegan world as “Voursin”), my eldest’s favourite.

This recipe only took minutes to make and contains only one ingredient you may not have – Agar Agar powder which is vegan gelatin.  It is made from algae instead of regular gelatin which is made by the prolonged boiling of skin, cartilage, horns and bones from animals. So, all of that jello you might have eaten as a kid, or fed your kids was made from that?!  Yuck.  Agar, as it is also known as, is easily found in any health food store and is used to help make the cheese set up.

Aquafaba Cashew Mozzarella

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Serves: 8 Prep Time: 10 minutes, then set in fridge for 5 hours

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup raw cashews - soaked for 2-3 hours (you can reduce this to 1 by soaking in hot water)1 cup aquafaba (aka liquid from chickpea can)1 teaspoon lemon juice1 teaspoon nutritional yeast1/2 teaspoon salt5 tablespoons coconut oil, melted2 tablespoons organic cornstarch or tapioca starch2 teaspoons agar agar 

Instructions

• Cover cashews with water and soak for 2-3 hours.
• Mix the cashews and one cup of aquafaba in a blender until smooth (ideally a Vitamix or similar).
• Add remaining ingredients and blend again.
• Pour the mixture into a saucepan and stir under constant heat until it just starts to bubble and the sauce thickens.
• Pour into a bowl (or two if you would like to have two smaller cheeses), cover and let set in fridge for at least 5 hours.
• Turn bowl upside down onto a plate et voila, there is your cheese!

Notes

Tips: - I lined the bowl with parchment paper which is why is looks kind of wrinkly. I don't think that is necessary as the coconut oil in the recipe will stop it from sticking to the bowl. - You could make a nice cheese board and serve with crackers, grapes, seeds, nuts, figs etc. - You may even want to make it look super fancy and put some crushed nuts or seeds in the bottom of the bowl before pouring in the warm cheese mixture. This way you will have some texture already imbedded in the cheese! - Save your the aquafaba you normally throw out. Just label and freeze little containers of it for uses such as this.