Cashew Cheese

I've been experimenting with this fake cheese recipe for a while. Spiral Diner, a local vegan restaurant, has a killer version they pour over their nachos and that's where my baseline came from. I found a few recipes from the super bland to the still not quite there. Mine isn't identical, but I just ruined my dinner dipping chips into the bowl, so there's that.

I make mine in my food processor, but if you have a Vitamix or a Blendtec that's probably going to make the smoothest end product.

Cashew "Cheese"

1 Cup Cashews 

1/2 Cup Homemade Chicken Stock*

1/2 Cup Boiling Water

2/3 Cup Nutritional Yeast flakes

2 Tsp Yellow Mustard

1 Tsp Tumeric

1 Tsp Garlic Powder

1 Tsp Onion Powder

1 Tsp Smoked Paprika 

1/2 Tsp Salt

To prepare your cashews either soak in a bowl of water overnight or bring to a boil and simmer on the stove for 15 minutes. 

Strain cashews and add all ingredients to your blender. Blend until smooth, scraping sides down a few times to ensure all the spices are incorporated. It may look a bit thin, but as it cools it will thicken up. 

Serve over nachos, over cauliflower with toasted almond slices (a house favorite), as the cheese in "mac & cheese", etc. 

*If using canned stock, add 1 tsp of olive oil. 

**If you are using the cheese in mac'n'cheese like we have, adding a little fresh garlic is nice for when I put it in the oven to bake up a bit. But if you're making it as a dip or over nachos, the fresh garlic can be a bit much. But it's totally personal preference.