This Vegan Mozzarella Cheese is creamy, plus it slices, shreds, and melts!!! Â It takes only a few minutes and a blender to make – no actual cooking involved! Â Everyone loves this amazing vegan cheese! Â You simply must try it!
Melty-stretchy gooey cheese is something that I think all of us vegans dream of. Â Except now you don’t have to just dream about it! Â You can make it in your kitchen in about 5 minutes with just a handful of ingredients!
This Vegan Mozzarella is:
- Creamy
- Slices
- Shreds
- Melts
- Is quick to make
- Healthy
So excited for your try this stuff!
What does Vegan Mozzarella taste like?
This Vegan Mozzarella is very mild and neutral flavored. Â It is rich and creamy, and has bit of that satisfying cheesy ‘chew’. Â I think it tastes a lot like string cheese actually. Â If you like spice, check out my Vegan Pepper Jack recipe and if you’re more of a smoky person, you’ll definitely love Vegan Smoked Gouda.
What is Vegan Mozzarella made of?
- Refined Coconut Oil  – Please don’t miss the word refined.  It doesn’t taste like coconut but it still turns solid at cooler temps and just has that wonderful richness.
- Tapioca Flour. Â This helps solidify the cheese, and also adds a ‘stretchiness’ to the texture.
- Kappa Carrageenan – This ingredient is what makes the cheese able to go from liquid to solid and back to melted state.  It’s a wonder ingredient and not widely sold.  (find it on Amazon or Modernist Pantry).
The one challenge of making this cheese is that it takes a few unusual ingredients that not everyone has on hand. Â But please believe me, it’s SO worth it! Â (See all the rest of the ingredients in the photo below!)
The Steps to make Vegan Mozzarella:
Assemble all your ingredients (Photo 1). Â Rinse Cashews under hot running water for several minutes. (Photo 2) Â Put all ingredients in the blender except for the water. (Photo 3)
Carefully! Add HOT (just boiled!) water to blender and blend until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides of blender with spatula once if needed. Â (Photo 4)
Pour immediately into heat safe dish (your mold – no need to oil the mold) and place in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight. (Photo 5)
Slice, grate and enjoy!
Expert Cooking Tip:
Don’t skip rinsing the cashews! (If you don’t want run water over them for several minutes, soak them in super hot water for about 5 minutes and then rinse again.)  This step really helps to decrease the ‘cashew’ flavor in the recipe, while still using the wonderful creaminess of the cashew!
Can you freeze Vegan Mozzarella?
Sure! Â It does get a little softer in texture after thawing, but if you think you can’t eat it all, by all means freeze it! Â (Most people have trouble making it last that long tho! Â Check out the comments below! )
Does Vegan Mozzarella Melt?
Yes! Â This vegan mozzarella does melt at higher temps, so if you’re baking a pizza you’re in for a melty treat! Â It also works great melted in quesadillas, shredded over lasagna, and breaded and fried as vegan mozzarella sticks!!
Can you use Agar powder in place of the Kappa Carrageenan?
The short answer is yes. Â Double the amount recommended in the recipe for Kappa Carrageenan and replace with Agar Powder.
The long answer is also yes, but it won’t have quite as firm a texture and may not be quite as melty.
What I would NOT recommend substituting:
Don’t replace the lemon juice with Lactic Acid. Â For some reason, the quick blending process used here does not work well with this substitution and your cheese may not set properly.
For a slightly drier cheese:
After your cheese block has hardened, you can wrap first in a dry paper towel, and then tightly in plastic wrap. Â This will remove any excess moisture.
For a softer cheese:
Decrease Kappa Carrageenan amount to 1 tbsp. Â This texture is ideal for making Mozzarella Balls.
Whew, getting your ingredients together is SO much harder than actually making this, I promise. Â I cannot wait for you to try this so you too, can successfully make and enjoy yummy, healthy, Real Vegan Mozzarella Cheese!!!
IF you like this post you might also be interested in:
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Real Vegan Mozzarella Cheese
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Cashews Rinsed under hot water for several minutes
- 1/4 cup Refined Coconut Oil
- 1/4 cup Tapioca Flour
- 1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast Flakes
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Kappa Carrageenan
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 1/4-1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 1/2 cup Boiling Water
Instructions
- Select a heat-safe preferably glass dish that can hold approx 3C and set aside. (This is your cheese mold.)
- Rinse Cashews under HOT water for several minutes.
- Put your water in a small pot on the stove to boil.
- Add all ingredients (except the water!) to the blender. Add the cashews first and then everything else on top of the cashews.
- Carefully add (so you don't burn yourself!!!) the boiling hot water into your blender. Put the blender lid on! And blend immediately until completely smooth.
- Stop blending once if need be to quickly scrape sides of blender and resume blending right after.
- Immediately transfer your cheese to your chosen dish/mold as it will start to solidify quickly as it cools.
- Place in refrigerator to chill. No need to cover yet.
- After 2-3 hours or when fully chilled, remove cheese block from dish/mold and wrap in paper towels and then tightly plastic wrap. The flavor gets better over a day or two but it’s great as soon as it’s hardened, too. Yeay! You are officially a cheese-maker!
Yes I ordered it 2 days ago but won’t arrive until mid June ): So I guess will have to wait till then!! Will report back when I do 😀
Well then…I’ll have to make it a point to look for them. I will be ordering the kappa stuff again soon! =)
Hello Rebecca. First, thank you for sharing your knowledge and tips so freely. I made the mozzarella and it is DELICIOUS! The first time I made it it didn’t firm up but I didn’t fully understand the importance of boiling water (I only waited a min before adding but that’s all it took to effect the outcome). It’s so easy to make and so yummy to eat I had to say Thanks again! Second, have you ever considered making links to the products you recommend? (I don’t expect you to answer..just food for thought). Did you know if we use a link you provide… anything we buy within a certain time period you would get a ka-Ching back from…so if I go through you to Amazon to buy that Kappa stuff and end up filling my cart with who knows what else while I’m in there you would get a percent of that. While it’s not a large percentage it can add up…I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d love for you to get a kick-back for all you do. Wishing you many wonderful, rich blessings for you and yours! THANK YOU! =)
SO glad you had success! Kudos to you for trying again! Glad you love it and really appreciate your genuine thoughtful comment! I do actually have a few Amazon links to products but they are in the body of the post so pretty easy to miss…
Hi Rebecca! I’ve JUST ran out of my nutritional yeast that I brought from the States – am overseas where it’s hard to find. Any substitutes for it that you recommend? All these comments are killing me – I’m dying to try this!!
I wish I knew a good sub for nutritional yeast! I really hope you can find some so you can make this! Are you able to order online?
Hi there – I followed the recipe and used double the agar agar as you suggested, but my cheese never solidified at all – despite leaving it in the fridge uncovered for well over 24 hours. It’s about the consistency of mayo. It also unfortunately didn’t taste good or like cheese. What do you think I could do differently next time? Also, do you have a suggestion on how I could repurpose what I have? I’d hate to throw it out. Thanks!!
The Agar powder is much more difficult to use in this recipe than the kappa carrageenan. All isn’t lost tho! Go ahead and cook it on the stovetop until it reaches a thicker consistency and then chill. Unfortunately, I still recommend the kappa for best results. You could also add a bit more salt if you like! Hope that helps!
hi! i made the recipe, but I don’t know i what i fail. my my cheese taste good, but doesn’t look as firm as yours. I used the same amount of Kappa. The only thing the kappa i have i quite old around 3 years. Do you think that makes a difference? Also when i blendered It was with the lid closed and I used avocado oil instead of conconut. Does the oil makes a big difference too?
kind regards,
Maria
Thanks for the question! Yes, the oil change will make a super huge difference in the firmness of the cheese. Coconut oil hardens when chilled so it helps create that firm texture. Be sure to purchase the ‘refined’ coconut oil to avoid the coconut taste! Also, your kappa is pretty old, but it sounds like it’s working decently given that you subbed oils. I would try it again with the right oil and maybe increase your kappa just a bit since it may have lost some of its potency. Have fun!
How can I prepare it if I dont have either agar agar nor Kappa Carrageenan ? maybe cornstarch ? I want it to get hard like a real mozzarella block.
Using just cornstarch, it will be almost impossible to get the super firm texture you see in the photos. I highly recommend ordering the kappa carrageenan from Amazon or Modernist Pantry website. It is such an amazing ingredient and so worth the wait!
I added a 1/4 cup of plain almond milk yogurt to help give a bit of an aged flavor to the mozzarella. Turned out very nice, but adding the yogurt made the cheeze a little too light in weight, although the firmness seemed perfect, so next time, I’ll add more cashews. This was my first time using kappa carrageenan and I’m well pleased with the results — much better than anything I’ve bought from the grocery. Thanks, Rebecca.
Love your adaptations! Glad you are enjoying making the cheese. Kappa Carrageenan really is amazing!
I made the recipe and substituted agar agar powder for kappa carrageenan as there was no time to get a new ingredient. It’s been in the fridge for four hours and is too soft to take out of the mold in one piece. It definitely tastes a lot closer to mozzarella than other recipes I have tried! I am trying to put it on pizza and I was wondering if I pop it in the freezer do you think I could then be able to shred it frozen? I feel like I read about someone doing that somewhere. Any idea if that’ll work?
So glad you tried the recipe. Kappa carrageenan is really the golden ingredient for getting super firm cheese. The Agar powder is more difficult to activate in the blender. You could try freezing it, and that would definitely make it more grazeable, but the freezing also changes the texture and general smoothness. Hope that helps!