Vegan Caprese Sandwiches with Garlic Cashew Cheese

Photos by Lindsey Johnson.

Hello all! My name is Alissa and I blog over at a little vegan site known as Connoisseurus Veg. I’ve been a vegetarian for over twenty years, and I’ve been a culinary enthusiast as long as I can remember, so most of my veg tenure has been spent doing some kind of experimentation in the kitchen. I’m not 100% vegan, but I find that the more plant-based my diet is, the better I feel. I also get a geeky kick out of veganizing recipes, so I’ve opted to go in that direction with my blogging. Having said all that, today I’d like to share a veganized version of the classic Italian Caprese sandwich.

My first few experiences with vegan cheese took place maybe a dozen or so years ago and were rather disappointing, to say the least. Since then, the quality of store-bought vegan cheese has gone way up. Not only that, but the quality of homemade vegan cheese has also gone up … sort of.

Okay, you got me. My secret vegan cheese ingredient is cashews, and cashews were around way before I ever tried making vegan cheese. Somehow it seems like we’ve all just caught on recently though. Or is it just me? I credit the magic of the internet and, ahem, food bloggers for spreading the joy that is cashew-based cheese.

If you’re new to vegan cheesery (which you probably are, considering I just decided “cheesery” is a thing), you’ll probably be surprised at how simple it is. While a few different varieties of nuts and seeds can be transformed into cheese, cashews are generally the easiest to work with. Raw cashews are the way to go. The flavor is neutral and they blend up silky and creamy after a few hours of soaking in water. A little oil along with some non-dairy milk helps the nuts blend super-smooth and takes them from a thick paste to a rich, spreadable cheese base. As far as flavoring your cheese goes, the sky is the limit, and I’ve found this to be the fun part. I kept things pretty simple for this recipe, opting to go with a little lemon for tang, along with some garlic, simply because it goes deliciously with the classic tomato-basil caprese combo. You can create different flavors to mimic different cheese varieties by using ingredients like nutritional yeast for a zippy-cheddary flavor, miso for sharpness, different types of vinegars for sourness and even powdered spices.

Once you’ve gotten comfortable with the flavoring step, you always have the option of adding something to harden it up, for a more sliceable cheese. I usually end up using agar for this, which is a vegan gelatin-like ingredient derived from algae. Agar needs to be completely dissolved in hot liquid before adding it to your cheese base, so it adds a little work to the process. I find agar to be great when my goal is to replicate dairy cheese in taste, look and texture -– most often just for fun or to satisfy my yearning for some halloumi. When taste is my main goal, as it was with these Vegan Caprese Sandwiches, I just go for the soft, blended cheese.

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