This Vegan Mozzarella Cheese is creamy, plus it slices, shreds, and melts!
It takes only a few minutes and a blender to make this dairy-free mozzarella - no actual cooking involved! Everyone loves this amazing vegan cheese. You simply must try it!
Melty-stretchy gooey mozzarella cheese is something that I think all of us vegans dream of. Except now you don't have to just dream about it!
You can make it in your kitchen in about 5 minutes with just a handful of ingredients!
This Vegan Mozzarella Cheese...
- Is deliciously creamy
- Slices
- Shreds
- Melts - this is an amazing vegan cheese for pizza
- Is quick to make
- Healthy, thanks to a couple of nutrient-loaded ingredients, such as cashews and nutritional yeast flakes
I am excited for your try this stuff!
Shred this mozzarella and use it in my vegan manicotti or vegan stuffed shells stuffing, add it to pizza, serve it as part of a vegan charcuterie board, or simply snack on it! It's also amazing shredded on top of vegan stuffed Portobello mushrooms before baking, so it gets nice and melty.
What does Vegan Mozzarella taste like?
This Vegan Mozzarella is very mild and neutral flavored. It is rich and creamy, and has bit of that satisfying cheesy 'chew'.
I think it tastes a lot like string cheese actually.
It makes the perfect vegan pizza cheese, and I truly believe it is the best vegan mozzarella recipe.
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 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.
- Raw cashew pieces - These make the cheese creamy in texture and add lots magnesium, potassium, iron, and healthy fats to this vegan cheese
- Nutritional yeast flakes - Nutritional yeast is loaded with nutrients like niacin, Vitamins B1, B2, B6, B9, and B12, and it gives vegan cheese a wonderful realistic cheesy flavor
The one challenge of making this cheese is that it takes a few unusual ingredients that not everyone has on hand. But please believe me, it's SO worth it! (See all the rest of the ingredients in the photo below!)
How to make Vegan Mozzarella:
Assemble all your ingredients (Photo 1). Rinse Cashews under hot running water for several minutes. (Photo 2) 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. The water must be JUST BOILED. I mean, HOT! (Photo 4)
Pour immediately into heat-safe dish (this will be 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 for making cashew cheese:
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!
What kind of mold to use to make vegan mozzarella?
Any small heat-safe container will do, but I like making mozzarella into a round shape so it resembles a mozzarella bowl. The 2-cup container from this set of Pyrex containers is perfect!
How long does vegan mozzarella last in the fridge?
This cheese will last about 4-5 days in the refrigerator... if it makes it that long. 😉
Can you freeze Vegan Mozzarella?
Sure! 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! (Most people have trouble making it last that long though! Check out the comments below! )
Does Vegan Mozzarella Melt?
Yes! This vegan mozzarella does melt at higher temps, so if you're baking a pizza you're in for a melty treat! 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. Double the amount recommended in the recipe for Kappa Carrageenan and replace with Agar Powder. Make sure to use Agar Powder, not Agar Flakes.
The long answer is also yes, but it won't have quite as firm a texture and may not be quite as melty. Which is still perfectly fine for many uses!
What I would NOT recommend substituting:
Don't replace the lemon juice with Lactic Acid. 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. This will remove any excess moisture.
For a softer cheese:
Decrease Kappa Carrageenan amount to 1 tbsp. This texture is ideal for making Mozzarella Balls.
Whew, reading about the ingredients is SO much harder than actually making this, I promise. I cannot wait for you to try this so you too, can successfully make and enjoy yummy, healthy, Real Vegan Mozzarella Cheese!!!
Other recipes you will love:
- Vegan nacho cheese
- Vegan feta cheese
- Best vegan egg salad
- Easy vegan buttermilk biscuits
- Vegan smoked Gouda cheese
- Vegan pepper Jack cheese
- Vegan cream cheese
- Vegan herbed cheese
- See my web story for 10 vegan cheese to try!
If you’ve tried this Vegan Mozzarella Cheese recipe or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I LOVE hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious food!!!
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Recipe
Real Vegan Mozzarella Cheese
Ingredients
- ½ cup Raw cashew pieces, Rinsed under hot water for several minutes
- ¼ cup Refined coconut oil
- ¼ cup Tapioca flour
- 1 tablespoon Nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 ½ tablespoon Kappa carrageenan
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 1 ¼-½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ cup Boiling water
Special equipment
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!
Beverly
I'm going to be ordering the Kappa Carrageenan, online. Some say refined, some say semi-refined, and others don't mention either. Is one better over the other?
Rebecca
I purchase the Kappa Carrageenan off of Amazon from Modernist Pantry. I'm sure some other companies do a good job as well, but I've been super happy with the quality from modernist pantry. I have direct links to the product I use on the page if you are interested.
Linda
I wish I could make it but I follow doctors that don’t use any oil. I guess it wouldn’t work without it.
Rebecca
I'm so sorry! This particular recipe does not work well without oil. Maybe check out my vegan nacho cheese https://www.veganblueberry.com/vegan-nacho-cheese/ . The small amount of margarine in that recipe can easily be left out and it is DELISH!
Isidora
Thank you for adding the recipe. I have a question . How long can I keep it in the refrigerator ?
Rebecca
I generally say that it keeps about a week in the refrigerator. You can also freeze it but the texture changes just a little. Hope that helps!
Avikk Sharma
Hey Rebecca! Thanks for this amazing recipe! I am not able to find "Refined unflavoured coconut oil" in my Country, will refined coconut cooking oil work or any other suggestions?! I have all the rest ingredients ! 😀
Rebecca
Yes refined coconut cooking oil should work fine. Basically any coconut oil that is solid at cooler temps and doesn't have a coconut flavor works great!
Trudy
Just made it! Thank you for the recipe
Rebecca
Awesome! So glad you did it! It's super fun to make vegan cheese isn't it?
Mrs Cook
I made this without kappa carrageenan(no sub either)
Of course it didn’t turn into a solid cheese BUT it was still really good and melted well, and worked well for pizza 🙂
I just dropped spoon fulls on the pizza and it’s delicious
Rebecca
Thanks so much for commenting and letting us know how this went for you! Sometimes you don't need hard cheese and that sounds perfect! Glad you liked the recipe!
Monique
THIS IS AMAZING!!!! It tastes so much like real cheese! More than most of the store bought vegan cheeses I have tried, and definitely way more then the other block cheeses I have made at home. It melts and grates and slices thinly too! It is totally cheese!! Thank youuuuuu!
I did one thing differently, I was scared to put boiling water in my Blendtec because they say not to. And also I tried a similar recipe once and it set up too hard before the cashews were done blending and made a sad chunky mess. So this time I set aside the tapioca starch and the kappa carageenan, and put everything else besides the cashews and water into the blender. Then I brought 1 cup of water to a boil, tossed in the rinsed cashews and set aside off the heat to soak and cool down for 10 minutes. After that I put the cashews and soaking water which was still pretty hot into the blender and blended on high 2 minutes, it got perfectly creamy and liquified. Then I quickly tossed in the starch and carageenan and the remaining 1/2 cup water, which I had also warmed slightly, blended like 30 seconds more and then poured into my mold. It did firm up real fast!
So happy to have this recipe! Thank you for sharing!!!
Rebecca
So glad that you love the cheese! My family is eating some as I write this! 😉 Yes, adding the starches later in the blending process can work well! If you save just the kappa carrageenan to add at the end you should have no trouble with it thickening too fast! I do this often myself and I'm considering changing the recipe to reflect that idea! Thanks for your comments!
南蛮渡来 (@soushokusora)
Versions to this recipe in South America use cassava flour, so it should work!
Recently I moved to a country that only has potato starch; I'm not really sure it's working the same way ><
Rebecca
Thanks for the info on Cassava! Sorry that the potato starch isn't doing the trick!
Louis
Rebecca, what type of tapioca are you using? (Does it say regular tapioca?). I thought you had to bring it to a boil for it to set--does using boiling water (as an ingredient) hot enough?
Rebecca
Hi! Just the typical tapioca flour/starch. Although Tapioca flour thickens best at a full boil, the just boiled water activates it enough for this recipe! It's really pretty amazing! Hope you try it!
Irene
Can I use cassava flour instead of tapioca flour?
Rebecca
Hi! Sorry I'm not familiar with cassava flour so I'm not sure if that would work or not. Please let me know if your try it! I'm def curious now!