Herbed Cashew Ricotta

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

What I did:

1. Drain and rinse off your soaked cashews. Add them to your blender or food processor. 
2. 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. 
3. 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: