Dairy-Free Parmesan-Style Cheese

Dairy-Free Parmesan-Style Cheese

My Little Blue Heron

If you're not familiar with nutritional yeast, this recipe will change this. Nutritional yeast is a great product for those who don't eat dairy. It tastes great, it's fortified with tons of amino acids, B vitamins and protein, and it has a great many applications in the dairy-free, vegetarian/vegan culinary world. You may think it’s yeast, but it’s deactivated. 

From Wikipedia:

            Nutritional yeast has a strong flavor that is described as nutty, cheesy, or creamy, which makes it popular as an ingredient in cheese substitutes. It is often used by vegans in place of cheese,… for example in mashed and fried potatoes, atop of "scrambled" tofu, or as a topping for popcorn.

In Australia, it is sometimes sold as "savoury yeast flakes". In New Zealand, it has long been known as Brufax. In the United States, it is sometimes referred to as "hippie dust", "nooch" or "yeshi", an Ethiopian name meaning "for a thousand".

HIPPIE DUST! 

It is fantastic on popcorn.
Please read labels and buy fortified nutritional yeast. it packs a nutritional punch, supplying B vitamins, amino acids and protein. It’s low in calories, keeps well, is a decent sub for cheesy tasting things (it's what you need to make vegan mac and cheese), and how can you not be the tiniest bit curious about a food called "nooch", "yeshi" and “hippie dust”?

This vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free “Parmesan Cheese" recipe doesn't taste like Parmesan cheese. But everyone who tastes it likes it. Texturally, it’s exactly like grated cheese (that you’d buy already grated.) It's a legitimate replacement. I use it as I would use Parmesan cheese. Its taste is round, nutty, distinctive (and gosh-darned delicious!)

I’ll be sharing a salad dressing that you'd swear is a “mustard/mayonnaise” and is eggless and mustard-free. It has nutritional yeast hippie dust! You'll find it at most markets these days, or in the "alternative" (oy) aisle that has those fake planked wood floors in your mainstream mega supermarket. Bragg (the apple cider vinegar people) makes it. But I prefer to buy KAL brand. KAL is tastier, less expensive and fortifies their product in a much bigger way. Bob's Red Mill is another resource for hippie dust. 

Please check out this link for resources. Vitacost is one of my favorite online vendors in the U.S.

Commercial vegan Parmesan cheese substitutes are vile. Take some time to put this recipe together. It's worth it. 

MLBH Truc: I usually opt to use my Vitamix, but this recipe will be much easier to put together in a conventional food processor.

Today's last tray of Hippie Dust Parm is in the oven now and the house smells divine. 

Kept as “flaked” or grated (actually, pulverized in your power blender or in a food processor), it will keep, sealed air-tight in a glass jar, for a month at room temperature. It'll keep longer in the fridge, and you can freeze it.

Sprinkle this topping on pasta, pizza, veggies, baked potatoes, omelets or on salads.

You’re going to love this condiment!

peace and love from my little blue heron's kitchen to yours,

jane

Dairy-Free Parmesan-Style Cheese

Ingredients:
(partial for first step, which requires waiting time of 6 hours to overnight)

1/2 c. (70 g.) raw sunflower seeds

1/2 c. (60-63 g.) blanched almonds 

SOAK THE TWO ABOVE INGREDIENTS FOR AT LEAST SIX HOURS OR PREFERABLY OVERNIGHT. 

N.B.: If you don't have blanched almonds, after raw almonds with skins have soaked for this long, they'll simply pop out of their skins.

Popping almond from their skins is:
tedious 囗
meditative 囗

Ingredients (continued):
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 Tbsp./15 g. Nutritional Yeast
1 tsp. Soy Sauce/GF Soy Sauce (my choice)/Wheat-Free Tamari Soy Sauce/Coconut Aminos (if you avoid soy, this is a wonderful substitute!)
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 250º F. and line two baking sheets with parchment paper (you will remove the parchment from the sheet and then slide it onto the sheet once you've prepared the mixture for baking)

Drain the soaked nuts and seeds well.

Spread them on tea towels or paper towels and pat them, removing as much water as possible (don't make yourself crazy.)

Place soaked nuts/seeds and all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until a fairly smooth paste comes together. The texture will be semi-smooth. It doesn't need to be silky. It should have some coarseness to it.

Spread 1/2 of the mixture on one piece of parchment. Place a piece of waxed paper, the size of the sheet pan/parchment over the mixture, and with a rolling pin, roll it as thinly as possible.

Slowly, peel the waxed paper from one end to the other, revealing an exposed sheet of paste atop the parchment. Slide the parchment on the baking sheet and repeat for the second sheet.

Pop them into the oven and bake until the sheets of paste are dried, but not brown. The edges may begin to darken, ever so slightly.


Remove from oven and cool on racks. When slightly warm, free the sheets of 'cheese' from the parchment to cool completely. This will prohibit moisture from collecting. (You don't want this to be bone 'dry', but if this is too wet, it'll be gooey and gummy.)

You can 'flake' the 'cheese' or pulse in the food processor or in your Vitamix/power blender, 'grating' the cheese coarse/medium or fine.

If your flaked 'cheese' becomes soft, you can spread it on a baking sheet and pop it back into a preheated 250º F. oven to crisp it up again.