Cultured Cashew Cheese – In 6 Days

6 days!  That sounds like a lot of work and a lot of time, but for most of the days the work is less than 2 minutes.   If you start this process on Sunday night, you will have cheese to enjoy for the following weekend.   I promise, it is much easier than it may seem and don’t be intimidated by rejuvelac.  It really is only the cloudy water that is produced by soaking your wheat berries. This will make 2 small cheese rounds.  You can make them both the same flavour, or be adventurous and try two different flavours.  Just remember that the flavours will intensify as they sit, so go easy on any heat that you add.  For my picture and the recipe below, I created lemon dill.  I wanted to try something a bit different but my husband requested lemon dill, again!

Making cultured cheese has more depth of flavour, but if you cant be bothered with the extra steps, I have many other cashew cheese recipes on the blog that don’t have as many steps.

MAKES 2 SMALL CHEESE ROUNDS OR 1 LARGE

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup wheat berries
• 2 cups water
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups raw cashews

Lemon Dill Seasoning

• 3T lemon juice, or more to taste
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1.5 tablespoons dried dill.  You can use fresh too!
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• Salt, to taste (I use around 3/4 tsp)

DIRECTIONS
Day 1 – Put 1 cup of wheat berries in a jar or bowl covered with 2 cups of water. Store at room temperature.

Day 2 – Drain the water in your wheat berries and replace with another 2 cups of water.

Day 3 – Your grains should be starting to sprout now. If not, change water again and let sit for an additional day. If they have started to sprout, change water and let sit for 48 hours. Do not change water during the 48 hours because liquid is the rejuvelac so you do not want to throw it out. I cover my jar with cheesecloth at this stage.

Day 4 – Soak your cashews in a large bowl of water.  These will soak until tomorrow.  Keep these on the counter.
– Continue to soak your wheat berries. The liquid should start to appear cloudy with a slight smell.

Day 5 – Drain and reserve the liquid from the wheat berries.
– In a blender, combine 4 tablespoons of the liquid (rejuvelac) with the cashews and salt.  Process until really smooth.
– Transfer the mixture to a bowl and cover with a towel.  Let sit for at least 24 hours on the counter. It will thicken as it sits.  Stir once or twice during the 24 hours.

Day 6 – Season your cheese to your taste.  My Lemon Dill seasoning is for the whole recipe.  If you want to try two different flavours, half the recipe and then use a different seasoning blend.  You will want to add some lemon juice (1 T) and nutritional yeast (1-2 T) to whatever seasoning you use.

Once you have seasoned your cheese, shape it. I line 2 ramekins with plastic wrap and divide my mixture evenly into each and then wrap the plastic wrap over top to keep it sealed.  Store in fridge. The cheese will taste better the longer it sits in the fridge and it will firm up slightly too.  When you at ready to serve, just lift the cheese out of the ramekins by pulling up on the plastic wrap.