Encouraged by my first experience with plant based cheese, I took the next step. That is, testing a plant based “cheddar” cheese. “Cheddar” cheese is a lot to say, it’s about the look it has, the yellow color and the higher density than a plain cheese. I don’t know if the names “cheese” and “cheddar” are awarded to dairy products, but these names are used in the vegan and lactose free worlds, so I will use them too. I chose the chickpeas this time, because it has an affordable price, and in my search I liked the dense looks of the chickpeas cheese and the fact that it melts in the hot sandwich. I did not use a specific recipe found somewhere, but I took from several places ideas that were suitable for what I wanted.
Ingrediente
- A jar of ready-boiled chickpeas (250 grams of drained berries)
- 3 tablespoons of inactive yeast
- 3 tablespoons of inactive yeast
- A teaspoon with a pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoon of white pepper
- A tablespoon of agar
- ½ teaspoon of garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- A tablespoon of aple cider vinegar
- A tablespoon of coconut oil
- 400 ml of water
Method of Preparation
Put all the ingredients in a blender and mix until you get a kind of thick milk that is poured into a saucepan that we put on the stove over low heat. Stir continuously (because it tends to deposit and stick) until it thickens like a cream that we immediately pour into a form greased with olive oil. The mold must be resistant to high temperatures, so made of metal, thick ceramic or silicone. I used a bowl of soup, maybe it’s not the most inspired choice for pictures, because it looks like a polenta (romanian “mamaliga”). But I assure you that the taste is excellent, all the ingredients combine perfectly. Refrigerate for a few hours, covered with plastic wrap to adhere to the surface, so as not to form a hard shell. After it has hardened, turn the cheese over on a plate, gently removing it from the edges, then it will come off due to the olive oil with which we greased the form. It’s perfect in cold or hot sandwiches, accompanied by ham, tomatoes or cucumbers.
