A baked version of almond feta, is so deliciously rich in taste and magnificently creamy. And it tastes, smells, even looks like cheese. It’s lush texture slices perfectly and is easy to crumble on your salads and light summer dishes. Just like a genuine feta. Only made of plants alone. In fact, it’s made with just a few ingredients and easily, really, anyone can do it. So I guess, this almond feta cheese is a true ambassador of all of the amazingness of the plants.
Ingredients for about 300g of almond feta
- 200g raw almonds
- 2tbsp nutritional yeast
- fresh juice of half of lemon
- 1 clove of garlic
- 3tbsp of grape seed oil (or any other with a blend taste like rice or a sunflower one)
- 1tsp of salt
Let’s make the cheese
For this cheese, I used the almonds that I previously made some almond milk with, so they were already all set to go. Another reason why I would recommend this option is that almonds have already soaked enough water to become nicely moist, which makes a real difference when it comes to texture. It will be much more lighter and whiter, and will resemble of a true cheese, especially on the inside when you cut it.
Now, I have made the cheese with almonds blanched only for that purpose, and it had changed the colour to a bit more yellowish all over and the texture more dense, but the taste was great, and the slice and crumble effect worked just fine. So it’s really up to how much time you want to dedicate to your cheese making.
So if you’re blanching the almonds from the scratch, soak them in cold water overnight. The next day rinse the almonds, cover with boiling water and leave for some 10minutes. Then remove the skin, it should come off really easily as you take each almond and gently squeeze it with your fingertips.
Pop the almonds into a blender and start blending at a minimum speed, so it all blends into a thick paste. If really necessary add not more than 100g of water to start the process. As the almonds are blending, start adding the rest of the ingredients, one by one and in order listed above. Once it’s all combined together, pour the almond paste into a cheese cloth, drain and squeeze any liquid out of it.
Spread the almond paste about 2cm thick onto a tray covered with baking paper and bake with a fan on at 150C for some 30min. It should be all golden on the outside and nicely light and bright on the inside.
Once baked and cooled, it’s ready to go on just about any dish you can think of would need some of that cheese kick.
Happy cooking!
