Raw cheese recipe: Almond Ricotta Cheese with Paprika

By Stanka Vukelić

Photo: Stanka Vukelić

Raw cheese recipe: Almond Ricotta Cheese with Paprika

This is a recipe for a dairy-free nut cheese made with your own probiotics!

Raw nut or seed cheeses offer a great, healthy alternative to dairy cheeses. The base is made from soaked almond and cashew nuts, which gives it that perfect texture. You can use other nuts instead, just be aware that there will be a difference in flavor.

This cheese has a much stronger taste – in comparison to the other recipes – due to the addition of garlic and dried tomatoes.

To create the “cheesy” taste, I use lemon juice, nutritional yeast and rejuvelac. The rejuvelac aids in the fermenting process and increases the health benefits greatly.

For making the cheese, you will first need to make the rejuvelac, which will act as the probiotic during the process of fermentation. Please note that you need to add a couple of days for the preparation of the rejuvelac. The grain needs to be sprouted first, to make the water turn into rejuvelac (video recipe is below).

Instead of rejuvelac you can use probiotics powder and water. It is probably the easiest, but not the cheapest way to make the “cheese”. Most recipes require at least one teaspoon, but the cheeses are just as good, and the probiotics don’t require advanced preparation.

So again, if you want the out-of-the-box version – buy probiotics – if you want to make your own probiotics – make your own rejuvelac!

Raw cheese recipe: Almond Ricotta Cheese with Paprika

Preparation time: 20 min.

Soaking: overnight, or 8-12 hours

Fermentation: 12-24 hours

Chill: 120 min or overnight (optional)

Ingredients for one cheese:

3.5 oz (100g) of cashew nuts soaked overnight

3.5 oz (100g) of almond nuts soaked overnight

1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast

1/2 fresh-squeezed lemon

pinch of sea salt

1/2 – 1 cup of rejuvelac – below is a video recipe for rejuvelac + health benefits

2 teaspoons of paprika (or as you like)

2 medium garlic cloves (or as you like)

5 dried tomatoes in extra-virgin olive oil

Methods/steps –

1. Put the cashews and almond nuts separately into two jars and cover with fresh water. Soak it overnight. After that, wash well a few times. After that, peel the almonds for better taste.

2. Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor.

3. Process until well combined and creamy. Start with 1/2 cup of rejuvelac and add more if needed to run smoothly.

4. Place a strainer inside of a bowl and line the strainer with cheesecloth, allowing the edges to drape over the edge of the bowl. Pour the cheese into the cheesecloth. Wrap the cheesecloth around everything.

5. Place a weight on top of the cheesecloth ball. It should not be too heavy that it pushes the cheese through the cloth, but heavy enough to gently start to press the liquid out. I use a mason jar filled with water. Cover everything with a towel.

6. Leave to ferment for 12-24 hours at room temperature.

7. Chop garlic and dried tomatoes into small pieces.

8. Mix garlic, dried tomatoes, and paprika powder into the cheese and shape it into any cheese shape. I dip the cheese in some extra paprika for better look.

9. Optional: Leave it in the refrigerator for 120 min or overnight – for better taste.

10. It is ready to serve.

11. Store in refrigerator in a sealed container. Stays good for up to 14 days.

Options:

Instead 1/2 cup of rejuvelac, use 1 teaspoon of probiotic powder and 1/2 cup of water.

You can skip fermentation. Tastes great too.

Other ideas for nut spreads:

Raw sesame seeds dip/spread

Raw basil-nut dip or spread

Another great cheese: Brazil nut cheese

Almond Ricotta Cheese with Dill

Rejuvelac Recipe – The Fermented Super Drink / How to make rejuvelac

(instead of wheat, you can use quinoa or buckwheat)

Growing sprouts

Here is a video showing you how to make a raw vegan cheese step by step –

Raw Vegan Almond Cheese

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This post was shared on Raw Foods Thursdays!

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