Vegan Blue Cheese

This is raw vegan magic in a high speed blender!

Fermented Tofu

The color of the pumpkin seeds comes out a nice blue-green color which resembles blue cheese without artificial color or spirulina often found in other recipes. For this recipe, you need a powerful blender or food processor to break down the nuts and seeds sufficiently. I used my Nutribullet 600 watt. You can substitute out another bland nut or seed such as blanched almonds or raw sunflower seeds, but the color will not be as white and sunflower seeds may contribute some flavor to the final cheese. If you are turned off of cashews because of the price, look for B grade or pieces- you don't need the nut to be whole for this recipe. You can find fermented tofu at Asian or international markets. This is the kind I get- you can get regular (sesame oil), or this kind with chili that I get. 1 cup raw cashews 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds (without 4 oz fermented tofu ½ cup raw sauerkraut, drained well and chopped finely 1 teaspoon acidophilus culture (2 tablets, ground or 4 capsules) Sea salt or Kosher salt to taste 2 Tbsp mild miso paste Overnight or for minimum 8 hours, soak the cashews and pumpkin seeds separately in cold water. Drain well and rinse. To the blender, add drained cashews, 2 oz fermented tofu (or 2 cubes), 1/4 cup sauerkraut, 1 tbsp miso paste, and salt to taste. Salt is very important to this recipe as blue cheese is salty- I recommend starting at 1/2 tsp and then tasting. Blend these ingredients until very smooth, adding as little cold water as necessary, 1 tsp at a time if necessary for blending. Once fully blended, stir in 1/2 tsp acidophilus, or open 2 capsules and stir in. Scoop this mixture into a wide flat container, preferably glass. A 9x13" glass pan would be perfect. Dollops are fine, it doesn't need to be spread smooth. After as much of the cashew mixture has been scraped out of the blender as possible, add in the rest of the ingredients and salt to tast, minus the other 1/2 tsp acidophilus. Blend until very smooth. Again, adding very little water only if needed. Once blended, stir in the other half of the acidophilus well, then scoop this mixture on top of the cashew mixture. Cover loosely with a cheesecloth or other thin, clean fabric such as a clean t shirt or towel, making sure the fabric is not touching the mixture. Set this aside for 2-3 days to culture and develop flavor. The fermented tofu and sauerkraut come into play here, providing bacteria and a cheesy flavor to the cheese as it ages. After a few days, the cheese should be drier on top and should have firmed up. If you want, you may dehydrate it at this point in crumbles on a very low temperature, or scrape into a smaller airtight glass container for storage. This is great on crackers, with fruit, and on a salad. Enjoy!