pistachio crusted cashew cheeseball
One bite of this cashew cheeseball and you'll never think of the real thing again!
Servings 4 to 6
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ C raw cashews, soaked for 20 minutes in hot water
- ⅔ C fresh filtered water
- 1 teaspoon miso paste
- 2 capsules vegan probiotic powder (10 billion CFU)
- 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper (or white pepper)
- 2 tbsp fresh basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill fronds
- ⅓ C shelled salted pistachios, finely chopped
for a smaller cheeseball (2 to 4 people)
- 1 ½ C raw cashews, soaked for 20 minutes in hot water
- ½ C fresh filtered water
- ½ teaspoon miso paste
- 1 capsule vegan probiotic powder (10 billion CFU)
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 ½ tablespoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon lemon zest
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper (or white pepper)
- ½ tablespoon fresh basil leaves
- ½ tablespoon fresh dill fronds
- ¼ C shelled salted pistachios, finely chopped
Instructions
- Drain the soaking water from the cashews and rinse them in fresh water.
- In a food processor or high-powered blender, combine cashews, fresh filtered water, miso paste, probiotic powder, lemon juice, lemon zest, nutritional yeast, garlic, onion powder, sea salt, and ground black pepper until smooth. Be patient, the mixture will get smooth eventually with a little manual labor helping it along. Just stop the food processor or blender every so often and push the mixture off of the sides with a spatula.
- Once the mixture is smooth, add in the dill and basil through the feeding tube at the top while the machine is running. If you're using a high-powered blender, stir the finely chopped herbs into the mixture by hand so that it doesn't turn the cheese light green!
- Empty the mixture into 2 layers of cheesecloth. Make sure the cheesecloth is cut big enough to cover the entire cheeseball and have some excess at the top. Tie the excess ends at the top around a wooden spoon or something that can suspend the cheeseball in a large mixing bowl so that it doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Then cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave it in a warm, dark place (in a cupboard, on the counter, or on top of the fridge) for 16 hours.
- After 16 hours, unwrap the cheesecloth and transfer the mixture into a new clean 2 layered cheesecloth. You can reuse these if you just wash them in warm water and a little dish soap and allow them to air dry. Tie this around the wooden spoon again and suspend it the same way in the mixing bowl but keep it covered with a tea towel in the fridge for 24 to 36 hours. The longer it sits the more cheesy "fermented" flavor it will develop.
- If you're leaving it in the fridge longer than 36 hours, just remove the cheeseball from the cheesecloth so it doesn't stick and instead wrap it in plastic until ready to cover in pistachios to serve.
- When you're ready to serve the cheeseball, unwrap it from the cheesecloth and gently shape it into a ball with your hands if it lost its round shape at all. Gently press the finely chopped pistachios around it and serve immediately.
- You can also add the pistachios a couple hours before serving and leave the cheeseball in the fridge on your serving platter. Then it's all ready to go when your guests arrive.
Notes
I doubt you will have any left overs, but it's good for a total of 7 days from the time you made the cheese.
