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!
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 cashews – 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!
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!!!
IF you like this post you might also be interested in:
- Vegan nacho cheese
- Vegan feta cheese
- Best vegan egg salad
- Easy vegan buttermilk biscuits
- Vegan smoked Gouda cheese
- Vegan Pepper Jack cheese
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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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
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!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Hi would be able to use soft tofu rather than cashews?
I’m sorry I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure! It might take some tweaking to get the amounts/ratio right. Are you allergic to all nuts? Others have made this recipe with soaked sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, pine nuts, and blanched almonds. I haven’t tried those options either, but my readers say they work well!
Such an awesome recipe!! And it does taste very remanicent of string cheese! So tasty!! Thank you!!
So glad you loved it! Thanks for commenting!
Thank you so much Rebecca- I will give it another try 🙂
I made this cheese and it came out absolutely perfect on my first try! Yesterday I made it again…it did not set…can you think of any reason for this? Thanks so much
Hi! So glad the cheese came out well the first time. As for this last time, is there any chance you forgot to add an ingredient? I’m assuming you are using the kappa carrageenan? Also, was your water just-boiled? You can also check out the newest method I used in my herbed vegan cheese https://www.veganblueberry.com/herbed-vegan-cheese/. You can apply the same method to this cheese (basically adding the kappa carrageenan through the blender plug hole after everything else is blended smooth). Hope that helps!
I wish you would have shown how you make a brick. Sort of a huge step that takes mastery. Would be helpful to see for this recipe in particular. The immediately blended goop looks very mushy.
Hi! Are you able to watch the video? The cheese is soft just after being blended but then you pour it into the mold and chill for at least 3-4 hours and it will become nice and firm! Hope that helps!
Hi! We tried this recipe and it was so awesome!! One question: is there any way to get the cheese to be more firm?
So glad you liked the cheese! To make it even firmer, you can increase the kappa carrageenan slightly…say another 1/2-1 teaspoon. The more kappa you add, the less melty the cheese is, so depending on what you’re using it for, be sure to keep that in mind! Have fun!
Hi. Just wondering if cashews can be replaced with macadamia nuts?
Thanks for the question! I’ve never used Macadamia nuts but I’m pretty sure that they would work great and taste AMAZING! Please let us know if you try it!
Hi! Have you ever used this cheese for baking savory muffings? Thanks!
I haven’t but I’m sure it would work great! I use it in all kinds of other baked things. Would love to hear how it goes for you!
I have placed my order for the Modernist Pantry’s Kappa Carrageenan. Thanks for the quick reply.
You’re welcome! Excited for you! That stuff is SO amazing!
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?
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.