There seems to be waves of various vegan cheese recipes doing the rounds on YouTube channels, and this mozzarella one from Ellie Phoebe has been covered on a few channels recently. To some acclaim.
Part of its charm is that it is nut free and also uses fairly regular stuff that many vegans will have at home, with no chemical additives.
I was thinking a bit about it and wondering if another starch would work instead of tapioca, say corn starch. I also didn't have any soy milk at home and was wondering about alternatives. Then it hit me!
When I make my Oat Cream recipe, which shares some of the other ingredients in Ellie Phoebe's recipe, I strain out some of the gloop left in the cream after blending it. This is mostly starch. I have used the Oat Cream along with cashew nuts for a Creamy Dauphinoise, as well as for my Nut Roast, so playing with it again seemed like a good idea.
So here is an even easier recipe for the cheese sauce that uses even simpler ingredients! This can be used for mac'n'cheese or as a pizza topping, or even for a toasted cheese sandwich!
Worth noting that this recipe is also reasonably high in fibre as it is made from oats.
Another note is that Ellie Phoebe uses melted coconut oil, but I don't need this cheese to set, so I use either olive oil or rapeseed oil as they have less of a carbon footprint. Rapeseed oil is especially good for me as we get it locally. Also, the oil will emulsify with the garlic to some extent for added texture.
Ingredients
200ml water
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp extra virgin olive or rapeseed oil
1 small garlic clove
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
Put everything into a blender (I am using a Nutribullet these days) and blend until smooth. About 30 seconds or so.
Pour the mixture into a non-stick saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. I use a silicon spatula for this as it works great.
It will start to thicken and get stretchy. Keep cooking for another 2-3 minutes until thick and bubbling.
For mac'n'cheese, pour over cooked pasta in an oven-safe dish and stir well. Bake at about 180 for 20 or so minutes.
For pizza, prepare a base with a tomato sauce and pour the cheese over to cover. It can help to spray a little oil over it. Bake until it starts to brown.
You can store the cooked cheese sauce in the fridge for a couple of days, but it is so easy to make, I would just make it whenever needed!