Cashew Chive Cream Cheese
Authentic dairy-free fermented cream cheese that tastes just like your old favourite. Warning, this stuff is addictive :-)
Ingredients
1 cup of organic unsalted raw cashew nuts
1 good quality probiotic capsule
Sea Salt
Lemon Juice
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes (ground)
1/4 tablespoon onion power
1 tablespoon chives (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon parsley (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon shallots (finely chopped or minced)
Method
- Soak 1 cup of cashews in filtered water for 2 hours
- Drain and rinse the cashews
- Add cashews to a high speed blender
- Add the powder of 1 probiotic capsule and a dash of lemon juice and start blending
- If necessary add a tiny amount (1 tablespoon) filtered water to make the nut mix more creamy
- Add salt and pepper and keep blending till smooth
- Keep stopping the blender to scrape down sides, and blend again until really smooth
- Scrape out mixture and place into a glass or ceramic bowl
- Cover bowl with cling film and pierce a few holes in it to let gases out (can also use a wet towel)
- Leave to ferment for 12 hours in a warm dark place
- After 12 hours check the smell, (it should smell a bit like yoghurt).
- Now mix in the ground nutritional yeast flakes, onion powder, chives, parsley and shallots and any other ingredients of your choice, until you get the taste you like
- Transfer mixture to a small ring mold or pot and keep in fridge
- Keeps for about 2 weeks
A note about cheese texture and smell: This cheese resembles goats cheese in texture, soft, moist, almost crumbly.
Recipe source: Bruna Oliveira
Photo credit: The wonderful Faith Mason for Made in Hackney