Author: This is my love language. 💛 Ooey, gooey, stretchy, melty, where have you been all my life- vegan mozzarella. I'm pretty sure I just made all my vegan dreams come true. I made this recipe four times this week, FOUR. That's how amazing this is. Just dip some tortilla chips in this bad boy and welcome to heaven.
You can also use this anywhere you would like a melty mozzarella experience, which is, um, everywhere! Let's see... pizza, lasagna, grilled cheese, dips, the possibilities of deliciousness are endless.
I haven't even gotten to some of the best news yet. This takes only 7 ingredients, one of them being water. It takes only 15 minutes to make, AND it doesn't even have any oils or "bad stuff". Can you tell I'm excited? I'm SO excited.
So what makes it stretchy and gooey. Tapioca! Who knew right? It's the main ingredient in Daiya, a well-known brand of vegan cheese, and I found that Somer McCowan from the blog Vedged Out also used tapioca starch in her Fresh Moxarella Cheese. She is one smart cookie, er.. well some smart cheese, because she knew what was up. I adapted her original recipe to make a mozzarella that suited my own taste buds but be sure to try her original recipe and check out her blog. So many delicious vegan recipes to be had!
Back to tapioca. Tapioca provides this amazing stretchy, melty quality that any good vegan cheese deserves. It is an absolute must for this recipe. Any other starch will make a thick sauce, but only tapioca will give it that stretch. If you can't find it in stores you can pick it up on Amazon here.
This recipe will stay in a melty stretchy state, even when cold, but if you are looking for a grate-able cheese, try my recipe for The Best Vegan Mozzarella.
To make melty stretchy gooey vegan mozzarella:
To make Melty Stretchy Gooey Vegan Mozzarella: Boil the cashews for 10 minutes until softened. Then toss into the blender with the remaining ingredients, and blend until completely smooth. It will be very watery, don't worry, it will get cheesy!
Pour it in a small sauce pan, and heat over medium-high heat. Stir to keep anything from burning. You will start to see clumps forming.
Then all of a sudden, magic! Everything comes together and makes this cheesy, melty, deliciousness. Keep stirring and cooking for another minute or two, to make sure it's finished firming up. It should take about 5 minutes to cook total. That's it! Done. So easy.
If you want to save it for later, store in an air tight container in the fridge. It won't firm up like a hard cheese, it will stay pretty soft, but let's get real, who needs hard mozzarella anyways?
Serve as a dip, spread onto some toast, dollop onto pizza, do whatever your creative cooking spirit tells you. Don't worry if you eat it all in one sitting (cause I would never do that), you can always make more.
Bon appetegan!
Sam.
(click stars to vote)
Melty Stretchy Gooey Vegan Mozzarella
Servings: (makes about 1 cup)
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Ingredients
- ½ cup raw cashews,, softened (see step 1)
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons tapioca starch, (also called tapioca flour)
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
Softening the cashews:
- Softening the cashews first helps them blend. If you have a high-powered blender you may be able to skip this step, but if not, this step is important to get a smooth cheese. You can either boil or soak the cashews. To boil the cashews (the fast method): add the cashews to a small pot, cover with water, and boil for about 10 minutes until the cashews are very tender. To soak the cashews: add the cashews to a bowl, and cover with water. Let soak for 4 hours or overnight until tender. Drain and rinse cashews before using.
To make the vegan mozzarella:
- Add the cashews along with the 1 cup of water and all the remaining ingredients to a blender. Blend until completely smooth. It will be very watery.
- Pour into a small saucepan and put over medium-high heat. Continually stir. The cheese will start forming clumps, keep stirring and it will continue clumping until the mixture turns from watery to a thicker melty cheese sauce. This takes about 5 minutes. Serve hot or allow to cool and store in an air-tight container in the fridge for 2 - 3 days. The cheese will get thicker as it cools but will stay in a melty state.
Notes
- Tapioca starch is essential for this recipe. It's what gives the cheese it’s gooey and stretchy texture. Any other starch or flour will not get the same result.
- If you want to return the cold mozzarella back to dipping consistency, reheat over medium heat while stirring constantly so it doesn't burn. Once it is hot and bubbling it might have thickened up too much. You can thin it out by adding a splash of water at a time, stirring it in until desired consistency is reached.
- To ensure a smooth cheese, you may also want to pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth before cooking to remove any cashew bits that didn't grind up. This will ensure a smooth cheese texture.
Nutrition
⭐ Did You Make This Recipe?
I’d love if you left a rating and comment, it helps others find the recipe and makes my day! 💕
Laura says
I've made this cheese a few times for various meals. I have started making it into a vegan cream of spinach soup and it is perfect! Thank you so much!
Sam Turnbull says
So happy you love it, Laura!
Sonya says
I've made this and it is yummilicious ! Has anyone tried using almond or soy milk instead of water? Wonder how that might turn out.
Kristina says
I've made this several times and I always use unsweetened almondmilk and it turns out great! Not sure how much of a difference it makes compared to water but my hope is to just make it a liiiiittle bit creamier.
Fox Clementine says
I made this about a few months back but instead of cooking it the way advised I put it in my lasagna with a few other homemade vegan cheeses and seitan and used a "chicken Alfredo lasagna" recipe to make my vegan one. It came out very well being cooked once with the whole dish opposed to twice once by itself and once in the lasagna. I loved it so much.
R Young says
Loved this recipe!!! Thank you so much!!! I followed it to the T except I used red wine vinegar and arrowroot starch because that's all I had on hand!! I also omitted the nutritional yeast (didn't have any in my pantry) and it still tastes great!
Mike says
At least you followed it to a T.
C says
❤️
Mike says
In other words you did not follow it to a "T" if you changed 2 ingredients. To a "T" means exactly. LoL
Andre says
I am going to try and use it as a fondue cheese. I hope it works out.
Ann Marie says
This is a great recipe. I don't boil the cashews but let them soak overnight and use my Vitamix blender. I add 1 tsp red pepper flakes when cooking on stove, after it begins to thicken a bit. It gives it a nice 'pepper jack' flavor!
Ashley says
Can I use almonds instead of cashews and just make sure they are soft? Thank you!
Fefe says
The recipe looks very nice! Will try it soon 🙂
I'm making a new menu with vegan options, i got all the ingredients but i have some hydrated tapioca starch powder from before, is it okay to use it on this recipe?
Shani says
Just had this in a toastie! Thanks for making it easier to be vegan -and satisfying those craving 🙂 Keep doing what you're doing, Sam!
Lisa says
I’ve made your sunflower cheese and your sharp cheddar multiple times since I discovered your website in October. Both are delicious!!
Which mozzarella recipe would you suggest for lasagna? This one or the shredded one or doesn’t it matter?
Thank you for providing such great recipes!
Cindy says
I Love this vegan version of poutine. This "cheese" is the pretty close to the real stuff. I had to copy and paste this recipe to a word doc because this website takes forever to upload and when it does there are way too many distracting pop-ups and advertisements. However, I am gratemful for this recipe thank you for tha!
Avery Bollinger says
Hi!!! I was wondering if there is a yeast-gluten free substitute for nutritional yeast in this recipe? I can have those so it’s hard to know what can substitute, but I want to try this sooo bad!!!!
Malin Pegenius says
Try some miso paste? Good luck!
Karen says
Just wanted to say that I’ve made this multiple times to perfection! I use arrowroot flour as a 1:1 replacement for the tapioca, otherwise I follow the recipe. Delicious and stretchy, it blows my mind every time. Great addition for our Friday night pizzas!
Sandra says
This is a really great cheese, and it's so easy to adjust to your liking just by putting in a few spices and such. It's actually my non-vegan roommate's favorite!
I also discovered that you can freeze it easily in the ice cubes BEFORE you heat it up, so when it's still all watery. Makes it super easy to use exactly the amount you need; for example, if I want a cheese sandwich, I just pop out two of the cheese-icecubs, heat them up until it's thickening and I have the perfect amount. So now I have two ice trays full of this mozzarella, waiting to be cooked 🙂
Ren says
Has anyone tried using soy milk in place of the cashews/water? Maybe I should just add a bit of oil to it to counter the fat content in the cashews? 🙂
Sandra says
I've tried it with soy-based cooking cream instead of water and it turned out delicious. I recommend!
Ren says
Awesome thank you!
Theresa says
This is amazing! Thank you!
Christina says
This is the first time I have used cashews to make cheese, I normally avoid it because cashews can be so expensive! But I decided to try this one for a vegan parmesan dish I was making and didn't want to buy vegan cheese.
I did have to order the tapioca flour online but found a good price and hope to find other recipes to use it with 😉
This recipe was so easy to make and my goodness, I was really impressed with the flavour!!! So simple but spot on!
Thanks!
Krystal J. says
Hey Sam I made this cheese and it was bom! Way better than store bought.
Martyna says
I've just had the best vegan pizza using this mozzarella! I only added a bit more salt 🙂
Allie says
It's hard to find good vegan cheese, but this came together quickly and tastes great! I upped the nooch 2x (cuz I love nooch), but other than that I followed the recipe. This is a great recipe for a pizza or a fundido dip.
Sam Turnbull says
So happy you enjoyed!!
Allison says
I can't have cashews, almonds, or sunflower seeds. Would macadamia nuts work for this? Could I use macadamia butter to save the soaking/blending step? Or would tigernuts possibly work? And same question using tigernut butter, or even tigernut flour?
ROB says
Yes, you can use macadamia too. More pricy if I'm correct but honestly better for vegan cheeses. You can increase chesiness with little white miso, and some liquid from lactofermented veg.
Yetişkin sohbet says
You have great shares, I like to follow thanks
Cindy Bass says
I love this "cheese" so much!!!!
Maggie says
I LOVE this recipe!! & your site! I'm making it today for the ?4th time... &(this time only) IN the blender it becomes SUPER-thick! I'm wondering 1-is my blender the problem? & 2- what can I do to fix the already super-thick cheesy-sauce I have!
Amy says
It may have gotten thick in the blender if you blended too long especially if you have a vitamin that heats up. Also in the notes above she mentioned if it’s thick then add spoonful of water at a time to thin to your liking