I make cashew ricotta all the time (which is only really soaking cashews, grinding them up in a food processor with some flavored oils, salt, pepper, herbs, etc. and eating) so i finally decided to try my hand at a harder fermented cheese. An easy way to do this is to add the contents of a probiotic pill to your cashew-ricotta-like blend and let it sit, but i decided to try my luck using rejuvelac as my fermentation starter.
Rejuvelac is a fermented liquid made by sprouting a whole grain (i used wheat berries) for a few days, then soaking that sprouted berry in water for like 2 days. the water you're soaking in is Rejuvelac once its all finished. theres how-to guides all over the internet for the process and they're all varied in quantities and time but the main idea is to sprout, then soak. then drink the soaking liquid.
Rejuvelac is great for the digestive tract and is a super cheap easy vegan probiotic formula. Ive yet to take enthusiastic gulps of chilled rejulevac as a beverage (its in a jar in my fridge and i will get around to drinking it…) but im excited about its health benefits nonetheless.
the cheese recipe is also dead easy
here it is:
3 cups soaked cashews (soaked for approx 12 hours)
1/4 cup rejuvelac
salt and pepper to taste
blend your soaked cashews in a food processor until as smooth as possible. add salt and pepper and anything else you're flavoring with. Mix with rejuvelac in bowl. if its super liquidy you can put it through a cheesecloth but i didn't need to.
let sit in room temp area, covered, for 12 hours. it will firm up during this time.
shape your cheese round however you'd like, and stick it in the fridge!
i added cracked black peppercorns to the top of one of my rounds and left the others plain. this recipe made me 3 good sized rounds, so much cashew cheese that i had to give some away.
