Every once in a while I get a craving for ricotta cheese, but being cruelty-free, I don't indulge in dairy. I can't find any vegan ricotta in a 50-mile radius, so I decided to try and make my own version using cashews. If you haven't already tried it, raw cashews can make an astounding number of sauces and cheeses. I made a mayo-like creation with them as well as an alfredo sauce with them, both of which were spectacular. For this ricotta, I decided to add some herbs and use it for pasta with onion, garlic, and sauteed zucchini. SO GOOD! Dudes, you should totally give cashew ricotta a chance.
This makes a little over a cup of ricotta, depending how much water and fresh lemon juice you add.
What I used:
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 2 hours
- fresh lemon juice - I used juice of 1 whole lemon, adding a little at a time and tasting often
- fresh herbs to your liking (I used basil, dill and flat-leaf parsley
- 1 small fresh clove of garlic (optional)
- 1tsp olive oil
- salt
- a little water to loosen up the cashew ricotta in the blender
- Drain and rinse off your soaked cashews. Add them to your blender or food processor.
- Add a couple TB of fresh herbs and the garlic(if using). Squeeze some lemon juice in and a splash of water. Whir until the cashews are mostly creamed with a little texture remaining.
- Taste and adjust salt, lemon and herbs as needed. It should look something like this:
I let mine sit in the fridge, covered, for about an hour and the flavor got even better. Now, you can add it to an awesome dish, like this:
