Onion, Dill & Horseradish Cheez

In May 2007, at 63 years old, my friend Barbara stopped eating meat and all animal products cold turkey (pardon the pun) and became vegan. After only four months into her new diet she was already quite a different person. She no longer had to take her high blood pressure, high cholesterol, auto-immune, constipation and retinal vein inclusion medications, lost a lot of weight and felt wonderful in the process. Now, 3 1/2 years later she feels and looks a-ma-zing!!!

As president of VSU, the Vegetarian Society of Utah, Barbara is now sharing the inspiring story of how she has saved her life with food and promoting the health benefits of a whole food plant based diet.

Today we join her as she shows us how to make a delicious dairy-free 'uncheese'. I've been experimenting with cultured cashew and macadamia nut based cheeze for the last few years and love LOVE them, so naturally I was curious to try Barbara's technique. One of the main differences between the two is that she uses agar-agar (a sea vegetable that acts as a natural thickener) and therefore a lot less nuts. While the agar is heated on the stove in order to be activated, all of the other ingredients are raw.

Let's see how she does it!

The Cheeze's texture was really impressive! After only one hour of chilling it was so firm that you could slice it with a knife! The blend of onion, dill and horseradish also made for a super tasty cheeze. Now I can't wait to play around with the idea and try other variations! In fact this weekend I'll be conducting a little experiment, replacing the agar with Irish moss paste. I'll let you know how it turns out!

In the meantime, here's the recipe that Barbara just demoed.

 

Onion, Dill & Horseradish Cheez

From The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak

Posted in Vegetarian Society of Utah's Vol. 3, Q3 2010 Newsletter

1 1/2 C water

5 Tbs agar flakes or 1 1/2 Tbs agar powder

1/2 C chopped raw cashews

1/4 C nutritional yeast

3 Tbs lemon juice

2 Tbs tahini

2 Tbs white horseradish powder

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp salt

1 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp dried onion flakes

2 tsp dried dill weed

Set aside a 2 Cup plastic storage container.

In a blender add the cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, tahini, horseradish powder, mustard, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Bring water to boil.  Slowly add the agar stirring with whisk. Reduce the heat and simmer, whisking often, for 5 to 10 minutes, or until completely dissolved.

Slowly pour a little into blender and pulse.  Working quickly.  Scrape sides.  Put cover on blender and remove cover center - slowly pour rest of hot agar mixture into center of blender.  Process several
minutes until completely smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender jar as necessary.  Pour in the onion flakes and dill weed and mix by hand or pulse quickly – being sure not to over blend – this is to be slightly chunky.

Pour into container and cool uncovered in the refrigerator.

When completely cool, cover and chill several hours.  To serve, turn out of the container and slice.

Store covered in refrigerator.  Will keep 5 to 7 days.