Swiss Cheeze
This is a versatile, tangy, white cheese. Ideal for shredding, melting and of course snacking. I recommend that you use a high-speed blender for this. Also, doubling the recipe would make it a lot easier on your blender due to the small amount of volume. Check out the nutritional comparison further down. You will be amazed. This recipe came from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak.
Ingredients: yields 2 1/2 cup brick
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 5 Tbsp agar flakes or 1 1/2 Tbsp agar powder
- 1/2 cup chopped raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 3 Tbsp lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp tahini
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp dried onion flakes
- 1/4 tsp ground dill weed
Preparation:
- Set aside a 3 Cup plastic storage container.
- In a blender add the cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, tahini, salt, mustard, onion powder, and garlic powder.
- Bring water to boil. Slowly add the agar stirring with whisk. Reduce the heat and simmer, whisking often, for 5 to 10 minutes, or until completely dissolved.
- Slowly pour a little into blender and pulse. Working quickly. Scrape sides. Put cover on blender and remove cover center – slowly pour the rest of hot agar mixture into center of blender. Process several minutes until completely smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender jar as necessary.
- Pour into container and cool uncovered in the refrigerator.
- When completely cool, cover and chill several hours. To serve, turn out of the container and slice.
- Store covered in refrigerator. Will keep 5 to 7 days.
- To make the “swiss holes” I simply used a drinking straw and poked it in at different angles.
Nutritional Value for this recipe: 2 Tbsp
- Calories: 30
- Fat: 1 gm
- Carbs: 2 gm
- Protein: 1 gm
A comparison:
Dairy Cheese 1 oz =
- Dairy Cheese Calories: 107
- Fat: 7.8 gm
Uncheese 1 oz =
When is the last time you could SHRED a raw cheese?
Here is a snack tray that I put together for my sweetheart….mid-afternoon snack at work.
Posted on Sunday, May 8th, 2011 at 10:36 am. Filed under: Seed / Nut Cheeses Tags: Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free, Soy Free, Vegan RSS 2.0 feed.
This looks so good! I’m going to make this soon. Thank you for sharing. I wonder where I can get agar powder where I live. Any alternatives you can suggest that might work?
Hi Fristine…I don’t know where you live but I can find it in Whole Foods, my local Asian stores, and health food stores. If you don’t have access to it locally you can order it from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Food-Products-Powder/dp/B000MGSJ5A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1311962975&sr=8-2) there are other brands, I just grabbed one that I have used before. I am sure that there are tons of places to order it on-line so you can google it if you don’t want to go through Amazon.
Agar agar = agar is flavorless and becomes gelatinous when it’s dissolved in water, heated, and then cooled. Agar, though, gels more firmly than gelatin, and it sets and melts at a higher temperature–it can even set at room temperature. Agar, like gelatin, is full of protein (though incomplete), but it also contains the rich array of minerals one would expect from seaweed.
Substitutes:
Gelatin (Substitute one tablespoon powdered gelatin for every tablespoon of powdered agar. Gelatin is made from animal by-products.) I don’t endorse this route but it’s an alternative.
Carrageen – Also known as Irish moss, this seaweed, found in coastal waters near Ireland, France, and North America, is best when used for making softer gels and puddings. To prepare carrageen, rinse it thoroughly, and then soak it in water until it swells. Add the carrageen to the liquid you want to set, boil for 10 minutes, and remove the carrageen. One ounce of carrageen will gel 1 cup of liquid.
Kosher Gelatin – Many kosher gelatins are vegan. Try Lieber’s unflavored gel, Carmel’s unsweetened gel, KoJel’s unflavored gel, and Hain Superfruits.
Xanthan gum is a corn-based, fermented product. It’s made by fermenting corn sugar with a microbial called “Xanthomonas campestris.” It’s used extensively in the food industry to make products thicker and it’s a common ingredient in gluten-free recipes. If you use too much xanthan gum in a recipe you may notice a heavy, gummy or even slimy texture in your baked goods- so measure carefully when using xanthan gum. People with allergies or sensitivity to corn may be advised by their physician to avoid xanthan gum. Also, xanthan gum generally costs almost 3 times as much as guar gum.
Guar gum comes from the seed of bean-like (legume) plant, sometimes referred to as the Indian tree. It is high in soluble fiber. According to Bob’s Red Mill Guar Gum product literature “Guar Gum has eight times the thickening power as cornstarch.” Like xanthan gum, measure carefully when using guar gum in gluten-free recipes or you may end up with heavy, stringy baked goods. Guar gum is a high fiber product and has been associated with gastrointestinal upset in some people.
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So there are some options but to be honest I haven’t tried them so I don’t know what the out come would be in texture and flavor. But there is some “food for thought” :)
What a lovely recipe – I’ll sure try this one. I’ve made nut cheese before but this is certainly stunning recipe. Beautiful photographs again, like all your recipes. Well done!
Thank you Laurinda. I am a huge fan of these cheese recipes. Let me know how it goes if you decide to make it! Blessings, amie sue
Good Morning Amie-Sue, well it’s morning here at my place. ;)
Guess what? I’ve just started to soak the nuts, and I’m so excited of how the cheese will turn out!! I’ve also soaked the nuts for the cheese nip crackers, and the oats for some bread are “bathing” since last evening. :D
I’m putting together a yummy raw food gift basket for a lovely couple I’ll be seeing on saturday. They love homemade healthy goodies and it is so nice to create beautiful raw food for them.
I’ll tell you how everything turned out. I’m curious what my family will say about the swiss cheese!!! I haven’t had swiss cheese in 4 years, and I don’t want any of the real one but I need the comments of others since I can’t remember how real swiss cheese smells like.
I believe it’s your catering day today?! Good luck, I’m so sure that everyone will love the food!
Lovely greetings from Switzerland,
Jana
Good morning Jana!
Good for you for all the things you are trying out. My husband loves the texture and taste of soaked and dehydrated almonds. It is so much easier on a person’s digestion.
That is so thoughtful of you to make up a gift basket of homemade foods. I am like that and love to give such gifts…you are giving the fruits of your love through it. You will be blessed. :)
Keep me posted how the recipes go! Have a great day.
Oh, yes, the catering is today. Catering raw/lliving food has its challenges. We are so volatile to the cost of foods, the availability when the time comes to making it, you can’t make most things up well ahead of time. Yesterday I stood in the kitchen from 7:30am till 9:30pm just to make the “fresh produce dishes”. I had been working through the week dehydrating crackers, kale chips, etc. I hope the food is well received!
hugs, amie sue
Amie Sue, I have been looking for a vegan cheeze recipe, and this one looks really good. I do have a question about the recipe though. You mention ‘horseradish powder’ in the instructions, but I do not see it in the list of ingredients. Where do you find it, and how much do you use?
Thanks!
Alta, OOPS….that was a typo, no horseradish powder is used. I fixed that….sorry about that and thank you for pointing that out so I could amend it. I hope you try the recipe though….we really enjoyed it!
I tried making this and also the mayonnaise but couldn’t get rid of the grainy texture. I am using almonds as my son is intolerant to cashews and wondered do you think using almond flour would work? That way my blender wouldn’t have to grind up the nuts
Good afternoon Claire,
I can see why you are getting that grainy texture, cashews do lend to a creamier consistency. When using the almonds are you soaking them first? Also, removing the skins might help make a difference as they are more fiberous. Just ideas. I haven’t used almond flour before so it would be an experiment and I can’t really comment for sure. Also, are you using a high-powered blender? I would love to be of help…so let’s start there. I hope you are enjoying your day. Today it is raining heavy and as gorgeous as can be. :) amie sue
Blanched almonds tend to cream better than whole almonds with the brown coating still on them. Great recipe! I can’t wait to try it!!
I just have a normal blender. I haven’t had a problem with it before but I have only ground nuts in it to use as a cheesecake base or for raw brownies so they didn’t need to be so fine. Maybe that is the problem? I peeled the almonds but wasn’t sure how long to soak for so I left them for most of a day, probably about 8 hours
Good evening Claire,
It sounds like you soaked them long enough and are going through the right steps. It just might be that your blender isn’t capable to making it creamy enough, so hard to say without seeing it for myself. My guess is that it boils down to the fact of the makeup of the almond verses the cashew. Can you try using macadamia nuts? They get real creamy like the cashew nut. Keep me posted! amie sue
I think it is down to the blender as I made another batch using bought ground almonds and the texture is fine. may give the macadamia nuts a try too though. Thanks for your help
Yeah! Can you use hempseeds instead of cashews? What about Irish Moss instead of agar? Thanks, Amie Sue!
Morning Chris,
It’s good to hear from you. I haven’t tried hemp seeds or Irish Moss in this recipe so I can’t promise you what the exact outcome would be. It would be worth a shot though. To have an alternative to nuts would be great. I think we need to experiment on this and see what we come up with. :)
Is there a cheddar cheese version?
I haven’t made one yet…the key word here being “YET”! :)
WOW, you are SO good to your hubby! He is a very lucky guy! Do you sleep very much because I’m wondering if you are a bit of an overachiever…this website and all these things you do are just so stellar! Thanks again for these great cheeze recipes!
lol Heather…. so you think I am a bit of an overachiever? Your words made me giggle. I suppose I am but gosh darn I have fun in the meantime. hehe Sleep is by far over-rated. :P And I love my husband beyond words, and I would do anything for him and that includes making cheese. :) I am happy to hear that you are enjoying the recipes. Please keep in touch. amie sue
I have made both the hard cheese recipes on your wonderful site in the last week and can say that I am absolutely addicted – the swiss cheese is particularly tasty. These cheeses are fabulous on raw flat breads or organic rye bread with sliced tomatoes and sliced pickled gherkins. Hurray for being able to make your own hard raw vegan cheeses with all the texture and flavour and none of the soy and mysterious “seasonings” that appear in the ingredients listings of big vegan commercial brands. Many many thanks. i am hooked.
P.S. These cheeses are also delicious thinly sliced on top of sliced tomato pieces topped with gherkin slices as a snack. The possibilities are endless!
That is wonderful to hear Kate. I love these “cheeses” as well! Thank you so much for sharing. I love it. Have a great day, amie sue
Does this cheese melt like other vegan cheeses? It looks good! I can’t wait to try it :)
Hi Tiffany, to be honest, I never tried melting it. In making it raw it would be my goal not to. hehe I hope you do try it, it was very good! amie sue
Yes, it melts perfectly, I tried it on pizza! Thanks a lot for this wonderful recipe :)
That is wonderful Anna! Thank you sharing your experience. :) Have a wonderful weekend. amie sue
Hi Amie Sue, love your website and have drawn inspiration from it (and passed it on to friends and family) for the past year or so. Well done and thank you! I have tried this Swiss cheese a few times now following your recipe to the letter and, although it does taste nice and is a welcome change from other nut cheeses, I wonder how you get yours to be so ‘dry’ as in your pictures (similar to eg cheddar cheese)? Mine always turns out sort of ‘wet’, so more like a pate than a cheese and although I can sort of ‘grate’ it by forcing it through a grater, it still looks or taste nothing like cheese really (when other nut cheeses do). I do like pates but in this case I am expecting a grateable cheese-like product! Any ideas as to what I might be doing wrong?
Good evening Severine… it is good to hear from you. Thank you for all the kind words, it means a lot to me. Let’s see, regarding the cheese… Can you share with me what type of agar agar you are using? Flake or powder? I always use the powder form and never seem to have an issue with it. You can always add a tad bit more agar to get it to firm up even more. Also, are you draining the soak water from the cashews? Lets start with those questions and work from there.
Have a happy day! amie sue
Hi Amie Sue. I am using 5 tbsp of agar flakes in this. I do drain the cashews but perhaps I should also towel dry them a bit, and maybe use more agar?
It wouldn’t hurt since it isn’t firm enough for you!
Are these cheese recipes Raw cheese recipes? I see that a lot have boiling water. I was just curious. I just started a raw food ‘lifestyle change’ (don’t like to call it a diet because I don’t want it to be a temporary thing) a week ago and went to a local raw/vegan restaurant. They had a raw chipotle cashew cheese that was delicious so I decided to look up some recipes to try myself! I am hoping that this is still considered ‘raw’. I love cheese normally but am trying to live a healthier lifestyle. Look forward to hearing from you! :)
Hi Anna, this “cheese” is not 100% raw due to the agar agar, but there are many raw “cheese” recipes on my site. Best of luck on your journey! I hope my site offers you inspiration to help you through your transition. Blessings, amie sue