almond "cheese"

I miss cheese. Not that we've completely cut it out, but I miss putting it over every vegetable we cooked: Parmesan with asparagus or spinach, feta on Greek salad, goat cheese with beets, wine and cheese, etc. Although it hasn't been fully eliminated, our cheese consumption has certainly been reduced.


I'd avoided making any of the "nut" cheeses I'd seen recipes for because the whole fermenting process seemed like an exorbitant amount of work that I was not willing to put forth in my personal time. This recipe, however, requires little work, just time, and no fermentation. It's really more of a cheese spread than a cheese you can slice and eat while sipping a glass of wine, but I'll take it.

Ingredients

2 cups blanched almonds
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup filtered water
1/2 tablespoon Celtic sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Soak the almonds in filtered water (you'll need about 2.5 cups to fully cover the almonds) in a covered bowl for 24 hours. Then place all ingredients in a food processor and blend on high.

This takes a while. I was skeptical this was going to work at first.

Eventually it will start to look a bit like cheese spread, and you've done it: you've made nut cheese. I prefer to call it almond cheese, for reasons I'm sure you can discern on your own.

my little helper