This is my first cheese recipe, but there will be more, promise! Before I went vegan, cheese was something I didn’t think I would be able to live without, but it turns out I was wrong.
I craved it a bit for the first week but within 3 weeks or so I forgot all about it! My body must have appreciated this decision as I started noticing that a handful of minor health complaints I used to have were no longer there, along with a few extra kilos, which I gained in my stressful London life. I found the weight loss astonishing as I was hardly starving myself. Quite the opposite, in fact. All in all, I don’t miss cheese very much, but there are some dishes where having a vegan equivalent would have been handy. While I’m waiting for these amazing vegan cheeses to reach Europe, I’ve decided to take matters in my own hands and make my own vegan ricotta for the upcoming recipe. It was inspired by my numerous cheesecake experiments. Once I found the texture I liked, I decided to go for savoury instead of sweet flavouring and it turned out to be right on the money. As usual, my initial mention of this undertaking saw Duncan pulling faces while (he thought) I wasn’t looking 😉 . Once I was done with my experiment, however, and presented it to him on a piece of toasted sourdough bread with a slice of tomato, a handful of rocket and a few olives, he could not believe that this ricotta-like thing is made from cashews. He was crying out for seconds and marvelling about it all day. Nothing makes me happier than when the taste of my food converts a sceptic. PS: If you try out this vegan ricotta cheese, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram (#lazycatkitchen). Next week, I’ll be publishing a new recipe that uses this cheese as an ingredient 🙂
