vegan cheese

vegan cheese

Chipotle & Cashew Queso Dip

Posted on March 27, 2018 by leroy watson

Treat your nachos/ tortilla/ enchilladas (anything you fancy really) to this creamy, smoky queso! This is a classic tex mex style dip gone vegan, it has a lovely thick texture that clings to your nachos and it’s a load healthier too.

Chilli con Queso (basically cheese plus chillies) is the national dish of Texas (Texas is a nation isn’t it?!) That’s what I’ve been told….. Either way, the lone star state is pretty obsessed with this creamy, dippy, lovely stuff.

We love it poured over spicy sweet potato fries, now your nibblin’. I’ve also found it makes an interesting twist on Welsh Rarebit…Texas Titbit? Serve with your favourite Mexican style bean dish, this queso takes yum wherever it goes.

There are loads of ways of making a comforting vegan queso, but I like this one because it’s simple and uses easy to find ingredients. You can add to it what you like, I’ve heard people are making kimhci queso! But let’s face it, Kimchi goes well in most things.

There’s nothing flashy here, but it tastes goooooodd! In the realm of dips, this is way up there for me. Like a Texan hummus, a sunshine guac, but calling these dishes ‘dips’ seems to belittle them. What do you think?

Nachos have always been a thing with me, I think there just perfect party food, they’re fun (Jane disagrees) and a mountain of nachos is perfect for sharing and enjoying with drinks and a giggle. Why is that? I think it’s the sharing aspect. Communal nibbles. I’ve always preferred sharing food, when we go to restaurants, I’m that guy who wants to taste everyone else’s food. Hah! You have been warned…..

Thing about ‘normal’ queso is that its made with processed, ultra orange, cheese. Bahhh! This queso recipe has cashews which are creamy and lovely and packed with healthy stuff, also tapioca flour, gluten-free and a good source of carbs, chillies (super high in vitamin C), turmeric (outrageously good for us), paprika (see chillies), garlic…..you get the idea, this is a super healthy dip. But, it tastes creamy and delicious too.

I have limited queso experience but I have fortunately been to Mexico, from North to South, totally awesome country and such a diverse food culture. I travelled up along the border with the US, which can be a pretty dicey and spicy place in some towns and for a clueless wanderer, it was an eye opener. But the nachos were always sensational.

I’d only known nachos from the UK, as say Doritos, but never with all the add ons and embellishments. Making this queso really got my tex mex hat twitching, I’m going to do my fully loaded nachos for you, watch this little ol’ space. They’re coming…..

I use tapioca starch here, many use corn starch, but tapioca gives it a really nice stringy, thick texture. I’ve made mozzarella style cheese with tapioca starch, Moxarella recipe here, it really is a genius ingredient. You’ll find it in health food shops across the land for sure. Of course, you can order it online, we get ours from Suma but they do a minimum order. Check out the website here, get some friends together and put an order in. Suma will also sort you out with all those tricky to get vegan products that you may be struggling with. We’re not sponsored in anyway by Suma, we just think they’re great. We’re not sponsored by anyone actually! The BHK is free!!

If you like what you see here, let us know in the comments below. Are you in Texas? Are you in Mexico? Are you in Wales?

Recipe Notes

If you have a really good blender, you don’t even need to soak the cashews, although soaking nuts is good for your health. See what we wrote about that here.

If you’re not a chilli/smoky fan, leave out the chipotle, it’s still really tasty.

This queso is quite thick, just stir in more milk or water when you’re cooking to make it thinner, like a pourable, double cream consistency is nice drizzled over nachos (Fully Loaded Nachos coming soon).

We want a nice kick of chilli here, go for it!

Chipotle chilli paste, you’ll find in most supermarkets. Stir it into stews and soups for lovely smokiness with chilli-ish benefits.

Not into mountains of nachos, toast or grill some corn or wheat tortillas and cut them up into little triangles. Or go for veggies, chop up some of your favs and dip away.

Chipotle & Cashew Queso

The Bits – For one large bowlful

375ml soya milk

125g cashews (soaked in water for 2 hours)

2/3 teas turmeric

1 teas paprika/ cayenne pepper (if you like it really hot!)

4 tbs nooch (nutritional yeast flakes)

2 tbs tapioca starch/ flour

1 small garlic clove (crushed)

1/2 – 1 teas salt

2 – 4+ teas chipotle paste (as you like your fiery-ness)

Topping

2 tbs jalapeno chillies

Fresh coriander

Do It

Add all the bits to a blender, except the chipotle paste. Blend until smooth.

In a saucepan on medium heat, add the queso and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring. Tastes the queso, if it tastes a little chalky due to the starch/ flour, keep stirring and cooking. Taste again, add chipotle paste and more salt as needed.

You may like to top with jalapeno chillies, a light dusting of paprika/ cayenne pepper and fresh coriander.

Very nice when served warm with nachos/ tortillas. I also like to serve the nachos warm, pop them in a low oven for 5-10 minutes.

You can also serve this dip alongside Mexican/ Tex mex style bean dishes, burritos, tacos, quesadillas etc. All very tasty. I love it especially served with a tangy salsa.

Foodie Fact

Cashews are low in fat for a nut and are a good source of protein and iron.

Categories: gluten-free, healthy, Healthy Eating, Nutrition, photography, plant-based, Recipes, Snacks and Inbetweens, Vegan, vegan cheese | Tags: Mexico, Tex Mex, vegan recipes | 5 Comments

Moxarella – Homemade Vegan Mozzarella

Posted on March 21, 2018 by leroy watson

Here is our little offering to the coming of Spring. A simple vegan cheese recipe which is so versatile and can be enjoyed on pizza and melts nicely. As you may know, the way a vegan cheese melts can be quite an issue, we don’t want cheese like rubber on our pizzas!! I also like this as it is, especially with these kinds of accompaniments, this is like a rainbow ploughman’s really!! The texture of this cheeze is similar to Mozzarella and the flavour is light.

We enjoyed this in the garden, with bright sunshine and birds singing. After the recent snow storms, it really feels like Spring is finally on the way in Snowdonia. We’ll see….

Some vegan cheeses can go a little off piste. Not much like their namesake, cheddar or blue cheese style, you’ve probably been there. But this one delivers! A cheese that is simple to make, pretty healthy actually and also similar in texture and taste to the original. We’re using a handful of cashews here, so don’t expect over to top creaminess, but I love this and for an inexpensive, fuss-free, vegan cheese, I think this is top truckle!

ALL THE WAY FROM UTAH!

My friend Somer over at Vedged Out (coming straight outta Utah) calls this recipe ‘Foxy Moxy’. Which I like, but when punched into Google, you get some pretty unappetizing results!! So we’ll stick with Moxa. This is basically Somer’s awesome recipe, given a slight tweak, but when a recipe is this good, simple and tasty, why mess with it? Thanks for the inspiration Somer!!

EXCITING CHEESE!

Moxarella is so simple to make at home and has the stretchy texture of Mozzarella, coming from the flour we use. You’ll have to seek out some Tapioca Flour, found online or in your local health food shop. You can use other starches/ flours to make cheeses, but this one is the very best for Mozzarella style cheese. I’m going to be sharing one of my favourite Mexican-style Queso recipes soon, where we’ll use corn flour, the texture is subtly different, but perfect for a slightly thinner cheese. It’s exciting playing with these cheese making techniques!

If you’ve bought a bag of tapioca flour, you can also use it a a thickener for soups, stews and the like or it adds a really interesting, springy texture to baked goods. Ideal in bread I’ve found. It may be known as ‘Tapioca Starch’ where you are. Same thing.

The sun shines and spring is in the air, time to prepare ourselves for picnics and eating outside, what a joy! We’re coming out of the dark winter and bright platters like this really help to wake us up; eyes, tastebuds all tantalised by the colours an textures and it only takes a few minutes to make special.

Please feel free to share this recipe and leave us a comment below if your like the look of it or try it out. It’s always wonderful to hear from you!

Recipe Notes

A little more salt and lemon will really bring the flavours out, experiment with your preferred quantities.

If you’re not using oil, that’s cool, leave it out, it will still be a hit!

Somer likes to add a little nooch (nutritional yeast flakes) to the recipe. If you like them, go for it!! They will add a little more savoury cheesiness.

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Moxarella – Vegan Mozzarella

The Bits – For One Small Bowlful

75g cashews (soaked for a few hours in water, then drained)

250ml/ 1 cup hot water

2 tbs tapioca ﬂour

1 teas extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove (peeled and crushed)

½ tbs lemon juice

¾ teas salt

Do It

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.

Pour into a saucepan, warm on a medium heat and stir constantly. The mixture will thicken and become gradually more elastic in texture. Keep stirring throughout to ensure the moxarella does not burn on the bottom.

Stir and cook for 10-12 minutes until thick and the edges leave the pan. Remember it will firm up even more when cooled.

Line a small bowl or ramekins with cling film/ baking parchment, once the cheeze has cooled a little, spoon in the moxarella mix and tap on a surface to remove any air bubbles. Smooth the top with the base of a spoon, once cooled enough, cover and pop in the fridge to set for an hour.

Keeps well in the fridge for a few days and can be used for pizza, cheese on toast or on your rainbow ploughmans…….you know how you like your mozza!

Foodie Fact

Tapioca flour may be a new one for some of you. Tapioca is made from the root of the Cassava plant, its a big knobbly tuber basically. Being a starch, this is high in carbs and has a smidge of calcium in there. It’s low in calories and fat and is something that will become really popular in vegan/ gluten-free baking I reckon.