You can always head to your favorite supermarket to get your hands on vegan cheese, which is perfect for you whether you intend to stay away from animal products or want to reduce your intake of dairy and sodium. Or you can simply make one right in your kitchen using only a couple of ingredients that are easily accessible.
It’s true that there are plenty of vegetarian cheeses currently in our midst. However, some of the best ones do not come cheap. Also, many of these products contain tons of preservatives for an impressive shelf life. In other words, a lot of vegan cheeses are not only hard on the pocket, but also bad for the health!
Most of those commercially-available vegan cheeses are made from nuts and beans. If you are a newcomer in the world of homemade healthy stuff, it’s not really a good idea to opt for DIY dairy-free cheese recipes that call for the said ingredients as they will surely give you a shock, what with all the time and effort you have to put in.
So as a starter, consider going for the simplest vegetarian cheese recipe on the planet, something that you can whip up in a snap. Once you get the hang of cheese making at home without the use of any animal product, then by all means feel free to delve into more challenging vegan cheese recipes.
Why make your own dairy-free cheese at home when you can simply reach for one at the supermarket? Again, it’s to avoid ending up with a massive dent on your shopping budget as well as to save your body from all of those unfavorable ingredients in most vegan cheeses such as preservatives and sometimes sodium.
Also, serving your homemade vegetarian cheese on the table when relatives and friends are around can make your heart swell with joy, especially when they simply cannot believe that you made it with your very own hands. And just imagine their amazement upon knowing that you only used a couple of ingredients to make your vegan cheese!
Let’s not keep the DIYer and health-conscious in you on the edge of the seat! Here’s how to make dairy-free cheese using only two ingredients that could in fact be already in your kitchen this very instant:
Ingredients:
- 2 liters of soya milk (unsweetened)
- 3 medium-sized lemons
(By the way, you will also need 3/4 cup of boiled water, a piece of cheesecloth, a blender, sieve, glass or ceramic mixing bowl, wooden spoon, and pan that comes with a lid)
Procedure:
- Grab your sieve and line it with a piece of cheesecloth. Place it over your glass or ceramic mixing bowl.
- Pour the soya milk into the pan. Using medium heat, bring your soya milk to a near boil. Immediately turn off the heat as soon as the soya milk bubbles.
- In the mean time, squeeze your lemons into your 3/4 cup of boiling water. Pour about 1/3 of the mixture into the soya milk. Stir gently with a wooden spoon and cover the pan.
- After about 5 minutes, pour into the pan about half of the remaining mixture of water and lemon juice. Stir and cover. Wait for another 5 minutes, pour into the pan the remaining lemon juice mixture, stir and cover.
- After 15 minutes, you will notice that much of the pan’s content has solidified. Pour everything into the sieve lined with a piece of cheesecloth.
- Wrap the piece of cheesecloth around the solidified part and squeeze out excess water. You can make your homemade dairy-free cheese soft or hard, depending on how much water you squeeze out of it.
- Transfer to a clean container and keep in the fridge for freshness.
