There are many reasons why you would want to eat less or no cheese. Cheese contains a lot of saturated fat. Bad for your body, bad for your skin .. Cheese is, just like all animal products, bad for the environment .. And the dairy industry isn’t very animal-friendly. But did you know that cheese is even as addictive as morphine because of the high concentration of casein?
There are several cheese substitutes, such as willemburger, but I’m sure there are a lot more brands in the USA. Most of these are too expensive for me and personally I’ve never found one that I liked (I like the old, spicy cheese). Also, most vegan cheeses contain a lot of added fat.
“A super-healthy grilled cheese sandwich! It exists!”
The homemade vegan cheddar contains no added fat and consists of mostly fresh, unprocessed and natural ingredients. And it tastes fantastic, especially on your pizza, between a cheeseburger or sandwich. And the best part; the cheese melts like real cheese.
I couldn’t find a recipe that was tasty enough, so I created my own recipe; spicy and savory, very much like real cheddar cheese. Everyone will love it!
The recipe
Ingredients
3 teaspoons agar agar,
350 ml of water,
60 grams of cashew nuts
100 ml nutritional yeast
1 red chili pepper
1/4 red sweet pepper
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
good pinch chili powder
Pinch of allspice
Preparation
Add the agar agar to the water into a small pan and bring to a boil and simmer a few minutes while stirring until all the agar has dissolved.
Remove most of the seeds from the peppers and chop the onion, garlic, paprika and pepper into wedges.
Then put all ingredients in a blender, including the hot agar agar solution and mix until you have a smooth ‘sauce’.
You can taste it and any additional spices / salt to taste.
Finish
Finish
The cheese solidifies rather quickly, so you should not wait too long.
Pour the liquid cheese into a mould or grocery container.
I use a simple plastic container so I can cut square slices, but if you want the cheese to look a bit more ‘real’, you could use something like this: 6 Inch Round Baking Mould 
Or even better;Square Silicone Mould
And how awesome are these!! 100% Handmade Square Silicon
After you poured it into your mould, put it in your refrigerator and wait at least one hour. It also hardens at room temperature, but it will take longer. When it fully solidified, it is easy to remove from the mould. Simply shake it a little and put the mould upside down.
It looks a little jelly-like, and that might feel a little weird when eating it, but I’m sure you agree that it tastes good, and it gets even better when you use it on a grilled cheese sandwich :D
Price in Euros
Agar 50 cents
Cashew 90 cents
nutritional yeast: 40 cents
red pepper 30 cents
Other 35 cents
Total: ± € 2,50
For a chunk of cheese of about half a kilo.
For comparison: A piece of dutch ‘old Amsterdam’ cheese costs about 7 euros.
500g cheddar easily cost 5 euros
and the same amount vegan willemburger even cost 9 euros here in Holland!