Add to: Recipe Box | Grocery List | Meal PlannerRecipe submitted by Dragonfly
Dragonfly's Bulk, Dry Uncheese MixIngredients (use vegan versions): 3 cups raw, organic cashew pieces
2 cups either Red Star or Vegetarian Support, nutritional yeast
3 Tblsp seasoning salt
3 Tblsp garlic powder (NOT garlic salt)
3 Tblsp of onion powder (NOT onion salt)
8 Tblsp of arrowroot powder. Can use cornstarch, but it is not stringy like arrowroot.
Directions:Using a VERY dry blender, blend the nuts till they are very fine. Then, blend in batches of about 1 cup and then mix in a dry container.
You can keep this tightly covered in the frig for about 6 weeks. To make up, add one heaping 1/2 cup of mix to 1 cup of water and stir over heat till thickened.
Use less water and add salsa for queso dip. Pour over hot veggies and/or pasta. Spread on vegan bread and toast for grilled uncheeses...or look up my enchilada recipe and use it that way.
Serves: many!
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Wow is all I can say. This stuff rocks.
Archived comment by: ilovegdch
I just made this for dinner for myself and my very skeptical parents. My mom started laughing and making ew! faces when she saw me putting cashews into the blender. Less than fifteen minutes later she was so surprised to find out how tasty it is. The nutritional yeast definitely gives it a little bit of a cheesy flavor. We had it on pasta so it was sorta like alfredo sauce. I'm gonna try it on veggies next, like steamed broccoli. I highly recommend this stuff; it was fast, easy and tasty! Oh and make sure you use a whisk when heating the mix up on the stove to get the clumps out. It thickens pretty fast so watch it carefully. Give it a try!
Archived comment by: applejacks582
Seasoning salt? I really wanna try this recipe, but I don't know what ya mean by seasoning salt...? Thx!
Archived comment by: hugpete
Seasoning salt is just a mixture of salt and various spices. If you look in the spice section at the grocery store, you should have no problem finding one. I use Vege-Sal, which is more of a health store version of seasoning salt. Vege-Sal contains the following ingredients: Earth and sea salt crystals, vegetable mixture (alfalfa, celery, onion, carrot, parsley, spinach, kelp, beet root, lettuce), soy sauce, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (no added MSG), molasses, and dill weed. I hope this helps!
Archived comment by: willwolf
I just used regular salt and it came out great.
Archived comment by: applejacks582
Ok, I tried the Vege-Sal and cooked up some Mac & unCheese last night. YUMMMM!!! I brought the extra uncheese (wasn't sure how much I'd need to mix with the pasta, so I made a lot) to work today with some pita bread and my co-workers are going nuts for it. Thanks Dragonfly and everyone!!
Archived comment by: hugpete
This is delicious! I had some left over after burritos last night, so I added some cumin, chile powder and hot sauce -- just like that nacho cheese sauce from the conveneince store but so much better (and not that funky orange color!).
Archived comment by: chandakitty
Lets face it - how bad can it be with all those cashews? I'll try it tonight for my lactose intolerant hubby.
Archived comment by: buba
This stuff is awesome! I added 2 pureed steamed zucchinis and 2 big garlic cloves (minced) to a cup of mix and 1/2 cup water. A great stufffing for mushrooms. Just coat them with breadcrumbs and toast it in the oven for a bit. Appetizers!
Archived comment by: pepita
This stuff is great! I use it as a pizza topping. First, I saute an onion, then add a peeled, chopped yellow tomato, then add the dry uncheese mix directly to the skillet. It soaks up the juices and the yellow tomato makes it look more familiarly cheesy. hugpete, you can make your own seasoned salt from 8 Tbsp salt, 3 Tbsp pepper, 2 Tbsp paprika, 1/2 Tbsp onion powder, and 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder.
Archived comment by: matchbookhymnal
wow! As the only vegan at home, I either have to freeze sauces like these, or eat them for lik a week...=( This is so good! Just to make as much as you need! Very easy to take with you aswell, just add some water and pasta = the best mac&cheese like, ever!
Archived comment by: melodyGirl
OK SO I WAS A DOUBTER But I went ahead and tried this and am pleasently suprised! Just DONT use one of those small 1-2 cup mini food processors that you can find for under 10$ Big mistake. It took me close to an hour to get all of the cashews down to a fine consistancy due to the cheep method I used. If you have a food processor USE IT! But the time spent was well worth it for now I have a LOT of made to play around with. I have not tried it for mac and cheese yet. But I did take some onion garlic can diced tomatos/can diced green chilis and sauted them in a little olive oil....added 6 handfulls of fresh spinach and wilted it down added the liquid from the tomatos/green chilies and a cup of the uncheese mix and let it thicken up and used that for an EXCELENT filling for enchiladas. sprinkled some more of the uncheese mix on top and then covered with the remaining sauce and baked for 15 min. CAN YOU SAY YUM! Thanks for such a cool recipe
Archived comment by: sIR%21 Bear
Heyas, Just an FYI...willwolf writes: Vege-Sal contains the following ingredients: Earth and sea salt crystals, vegetable mixture (alfalfa, celery, onion, carrot, parsley, spinach, kelp, beet root, lettuce), soy sauce, HYRDOLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (NO ADDED MSG), molasses, and dill weed. I hope this helps! Certainly not a slant willwolf but rather an opportunity to educate anyone trying to keep MSG out of their diet. Hyrdolized Vegetable Protein is MSG. The cute little message beside it that states No added MSG implies just that: We don't add any MSG...above and beyond the hydrolized vegetable protein which is in no way, shape, or form...MSG.
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/nomsg.html You would be suprised how many vegan and organic products use this kind of subterfuge. Most of them are child companies of corporations like The Hain Celestial Group. Google that for some mind food. Anywhoo, recipe sounds super yummy. Going to give it shot this weekend! Thanks again.
Archived comment by: chris76
I just wanted to say thanks again to Dragonfly for this recipe. I always have some in the freezer now. I just add the mix directly to mostly-drained pasta, toss in a can of diced tomatoes, and stir until dissolved. Mmmm. Also, you can make this recipe cheaper without a lot of taste difference by using raw, unsalted sunflower seeds for half or all of the cashews. I get cashew pieces for $3/pound, sunflower seeds for less than $1/pound.
Archived comment by: matchbookhymnal
Okay. This was fantastic. I just made nachos out of this. By far this is the best cheese substitute I have ever had since becoming vegan. I've tried quite a few recipes and none have gotten the consistency right like this one. I'm very excited to use it other ways. Like au gratin potatoes. The only thing I might try next time is to cut down on the salt....and add it to taste per recipe. Do yourself a favor and try this one.
Archived comment by: nicklamon
this stuff is really good! i like to always have some on hand for other recipes. I am not a huge fan of it by itself, but it is really good in a velveeta style nacho dip. I also find that the taste and consistency improves a lot with baking, so I have been putting it on pizzas and flatbread. Really a good thing to keep in the fridge.
Archived comment by: curiale
didn't have onion powder so i left it out. added a bit of pepper and made mac'n'uncheese. this is the best uncheese recipie i've tasted in a long time. yum.
Archived comment by: baypuppy
This makes the best hollandaisse sauce for vegan eggs benedict-- YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY. We're having it after our run this am!
Archived comment by: chandakitty
Out of control good and so easy to make. I brought the salsified dip to a SuperBowl party and served it with veggies and delicious pita chips and the crowd went wild. For real. So tasty. And I'm excited that the dry mix keeps so well in the fridge! Magic.
Archived comment by: fakeveganannette
chandakitty: do you just pour this sauce over tofu and an english muffin to make vegan eggs benedict, or do you make alterations to it to make it more like hollandaise? please let me know. thanks!!
Archived comment by: curiale
Eggs Benedict -- I add a little lemon juice and paprika to the uncheese to make it a little hollandaisey. If I'm lazy I just put it over english muffins and a slice of vegan ham (whole foods brand english muffins appear to be vegan). On the weekend we make the Yummy Breakfast Tofu (another recipe on this site) and add it to the stack. Delish -- add a side of homefries and some fruit and you don't need to go out ever!
Archived comment by: chandakitty
I know I commented on this recipe already, but for real, it's so good! I've been using less water and some salsa as someone mentioned above and using it as a sauce for quinoa, pasta, etc. Just thought I'd let you know that this recipe more or less is entirely to thank for my renewed commitment (after some slippage) to being vegan. Thanks!
Archived comment by: fakeveganannette
I have a question, does nutritional yeast come in different forms, like powder, flakes etc? because the kind that I have I don't think would work in this...
Archived comment by: eatmenotmeat
After having wanted to try this recipe for several months, I finally got around to it a couple of days ago. I thought it was wonderful. The only ingredient I did not have was onion powder so I simply used all garlic powder. Oh, and I used regular salt. I had wondered whether the salt content was too high so I added it gradually, tasting the powdered mix as I went, but my palate thought it was perfect. I served it with a mix of stirfried green beans, cabbage, carrot, green pepper, garlic and ginger, mixed with a little penne pasta. It was delicious.
Archived comment by: adagio
With the seasoning salt dilamma in mind, I went shopping. All seasoning salts that I could find even at the more natural grocers has MSG or "hidden" MSG. So I stumbled upon Greek seasoning blend in the bulk spices and herbs. It smells like Cavender's Greek Seasoning. Mix it with you choice of salt until you have your own MSG-free seasoning. I make up a batch of uncheese and tell you how it goes.
Archived comment by: Nistia
Just to let you know, Cavender's has salt in it and is salty on its own. I wouldn't reccomend mixing it with salt.
Archived comment by: veggievulture
Help! I screwed up and bought agar instead of arrowroot (who knows where my mind was). If I can't return it (what else would I need agar for? I hate, hate, hate jello-type stuff) and get arrowroot, can agar be used? Or would it become uncheesy jello?
Archived comment by: SheDevil
Unfortunately for you, agar does make jello-like stuff and it would make this cheese mix set like jello (depending on how much you used). If you can't find arrowroot, try using cornstarch(corn flour) or plain old flour.
Archived comment by: anima
Thanks, Anima. That was basically what I was afraid of, though I did find another pseudo-cheese that uses agar, but it makes a block that you slice from. Oh well. I always see arrowroot in my local Oriental stores when I don't want it, and now none of them seem to have it!
Archived comment by: SheDevil
hummmm....agar + Uncheese Mix = Uncheese Jello Did you just create the first veg version of Velveeta?
Archived comment by: SIR%21 Bear
SheDevil, you can use your agar in recipes that aren't necesarily jello-like...for example, a google search for 'vegan agar recipes' brought up recipes like this vegan strawberry ice cream:
http://www.recipezaar.com/67724 and this vegan chocolate pie recipe:
http://www.veganvillage.co.uk/recipes/deepchoc.htm . I haven't tried these recipes so I can't guarantee whether or not they're good, but hopefully you'll be able to find something nice to use your agar flakes for.
Archived comment by: Katica
Mmmmphf! That is so good! Thank you for posting this. This with refried beans and salsa on a tortilla, with and without some veggies... great. Thank you also to Katica. I returned the agar because my mother bought it for me and it was quite expensive, but I copied the recipes anyway. I have another one using it, so I will buy it one day with my own money (once I'm no longer an impoverished fulltime student).
Archived comment by: SheDevil
