The Stretchy Vegan Mozzarella Cheese of your dreams, made with just 5 ingredients and in 15 minutes! Perfect for grilled cheese, lasagna, pizza and more!
Meet the vegan mozzarella cheese of your dreams! Stretchy, tangy and oh-so-delicious. I love using this mozzarella on pizza and my new favorite place for it is on top of Vegan Lasagna. Oh my goodness, it takes the lasagna to a whole new level of amazing!
This cheese also makes a mouthwatering vegan grilled cheese sandwich, which I love alongside tomato soup. Talk about an easy meal that kids and grown-ups will love!
I’m sure you could use this vegan mozzarella in many more ways that I haven’t even discovered yet. I’m thinking french onion soup, eggplant parmesan, quesadillas, dips… The possibilities are endless.
How do you make Vegan Mozzarella?
It’s very easy. First, you soak your cashews in hot water for 5 minutes (or up to an hour). Drain them, and add to a high powered blender with all the other ingredients. Blend; the mixture will be very watery.
Add to a small saucepan and stir constantly over medium heat. After a few minutes, it will start to get clumpy. Keep stirring. And then all of a sudden it magically turns into smooth, stretchy vegan mozzarella! That’s it, it’s ready to use.
How to brown vegan mozzarella in the oven:
I’ve discovered something new lately about this cheese. It will totally brown and bubble in the oven, like real mozzarella would! Simply spray the cheese with a little oil (I used olive oil spray), and broil for 5-10 minutes in the oven. I spread some cheese on sourdough bread and broiled it, and wow, it was incredible cheesy bread. I think this would work on top of casseroles (like lasagna), pizza and more.
What is tapioca starch and where can I find it?
Tapioca flour is a starch extracted from cassava. Tapioca starch and flour are usually the same thing, but not always.
It’s a white powder and works similarly to cornstarch as a thickener. The difference is it’s the key to making cheeses like this stretchy instead of just thickened. It’s absolutely necessary and perfect for making this vegan mozzarella.
How to use vegan mozzarella:
- Grilled Cheese – Spoon the cheese between two slices of (vegan) buttered bread and grill for a fantastic grilled cheese.
- Pizza – Spoon dollops of cheese on top of pizza crust along with other toppings of choice and cook as you normally would. You can also try to spread it all over the pizza (this works best when the mozzarella is very fresh).
- Lasagna – Spoon the cheese all over the top of the lasagna in the last 20 minutes of baking in the oven. Bake uncovered with the cheese, and broil if desired to brown in spots.
- Anywhere else you’d like! Dip chips into it, make quesadillas, in enchiladas, etc.
Recipe adapted from Minimalist Baker.
EASY Stretchy Vegan Mozzarella Cheese
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice, fresh from about 1/2 lemon
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons tapioca starch
Instructions
- Boil 2 cups of water (I just heat up water in my tea kettle). Pour the water over the cashews and let soak for 5 minutes and up to an hour.
- Drain the cashews, and add them to a blender along with 1 1/3 cups fresh water (not the water you soaked the cashews in), lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, salt and tapioca starch. Blend until very smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender as needed. It will be very watery at this point.
- Now pour the watery mixture into a small saucepan and bring the heat to medium. Begin to stir with a spatula or spoon.
- After a few minutes, it will begin to get clumpy. Keep stirring, constantly until suddenly it will become super gooey, stretchy, thick and smooth. It will become one big mass of stretchy vegan cheese. Remove from heat as soon as this happens.
- Use immediately, or store in a covered container in the refrigerator. It is easiest to use immediately, because it will thicken up more in the fridge and be less stretchy. So if possible, especially for using on pizza or lasagna, make right before using.
- For pizza, drop 1-2 tablespoon sized balls onto the crust and pat down a little bit. Or spread it all over. It will brown in the oven. For lasagna, drop dollops of the cheese all over the top towards the end of cooking time. Or place between bread and grill for grilled cheese.
Video
Notes
- Tapioca starch/flour is essential in this recipe, cornstarch will not create the same "stretchy" quality.
- I've never tried it with another nut, but I suspect raw slivered almonds could work.
- If you want the cheese to brown in the oven (like it looks on the bread in the post above), simply spray with a little oil and broil for 5-10 minutes, watching carefully. This is wonderful for lasagna, pizza, or just atop bread for cheesy bread.
- I have frozen this and while it is still edible, it definitely tastes best fresh. It will keep in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. But again, it will be the most stretchy and easy to work with immediately.
Stretchy and gooey were spot on, but my kids and husband thought it was relatively bland/tasteless. Maybe it would be fine if you had really, really tasty bread, but I had made relatively plain bread, expecting the cheese to carry the flavor. We will definitely be trying again, but will be experimenting with options to add a lot more flavor.
Hello, could I do this with almonds?
Raw slivered almonds should work quite well if you soak them!
Wow! I’m so impressed by this recipe! I have never made vegan cheese before and honestly was expecting it to be a disaster, but this recipe was very easy to follow and came together amazingly quickly. It’s like magic watching the ingredients transform into a stretchy mass of cheese on the stovetop. I used it to top a pizza and it worked perfectly, staying super melty and stretchy even after it was baked. I’m not a fan of nutritional yeast, so I also really appreciate that this recipe doesn’t call for it.
Love this recipe. THANK YOU. Just wondering about the amount of calories-is that 59kcal/serving? Doesn’t seem correct? I added some nutritional yeast and it worked well.
I’m so glad! Yes, that is correct, if you divided the recipe into 8 servings. Thank you!
This was so delicious!!! Thank you so much for providing these recipes! The lasagna was just magnificent. I liked it even better than traditional lasagna and the “cheese” was just spot on – both the ricotta and mozzarella. THANK YOU!
You’re welcome!!
Amazing recipe! No weird ingredients , comes together quickly and soooo delicious! My 3 year old who normally hates vegan cheese loved it and my dairy cheese eating husband thought it had great flavour and texture. Used it for grilled cheese sandwiches to go with soup. Can’t wait to try It with other dishes. This is definitely going to be my new go to! I didn’t soak the cashews and it still turned out great. Thanks so much for sharing!
You’re welcome!! Glad everyone liked it!
This is the most delicious cheese recipe I have ever made!! I have used it on your lasagna and just made homemade pizza with it. Thank you Nora for your fabulous recipes and for making our transition to veganism easier and healthier 🙂
You’re welcome!!
Haven’t made it yet, but I’m happy to see that your recipes (the ones I’ve seen so far), don’t use soy or nutritional yeast.
Subscribing and can’t wait to make these!
Thank you, keep being awesome!
For anyone wondering about substitutions, I just made this with potato starch and it turned out great! I used about 2.5 tbs.
thank you! I came here for this comment. Making it tonight.
Mine remained liquid. It never got to the stretchy lumpy stage. I used it anyway. I’ll see how it turns out. What did I do wrong?
That’s odd, I wonder if you had the heat turned up high enough? Did you use tapioca starch? That is what takes it from liquid to stretchy, when it heats up.
I literally eat this by the spoonful. I’ve made this four times now and today I quadrupled the amount. I love having it in salads or really just by itself. I buy processed vegan cheese but there’s nothing I’ve come across in the stores that resembles this. Last time I left it on the stove too long and it became quite tough. This time I took it right off the stove as you say in the recipe and yeah I’m literally eating it by the spoonful. Also, I added a tbsp of citric acid to the quadrupled recipe and it added some extra tang. Thanks for the amazing recipe.
You’re welcome!
Do you think agar agar powder would work instead of tapioca powder?
I’m not sure, I think agar agar would greatly firm up the cheese instead of just making it stretchy.
Best recipe! You have to try it ! I’m speechless! Thank you! Now I can enjoy the best without the stomach upset.
I’m so glad to hear that!
It’s delicious! I’ve found I need to add a tablespoon more tapioca powder for it to take shape, not sure why. Anyway thank you-I can finally have lasagna without suffering the consequences! I even substituted arrowroot powder one time and still worked great!
That’s so great to hear!!
Help – this did not work out for me!
I’ve made it before (last year at my parents’ house) and it was perfect – amazing, stretchy, gooey! I picked up some cashews recently and was excited to make this again and have some great pizza.
It never solidified – I stirred for 20+ min on the stove and it stayed watery the entire time 🙁 I was so disappointed, I don’t know what I did wrong. I used the metric translations for ingredients as I’m in the EU, but I measured them all on a kitchen scale and used the exact ingredients listed. It was very watery though – could I have added too much water? I tried pushing the heat up and boiling for some time as well to evaporate some of the water and see if that helped, but it still stayed a sad, watery mess.
Any thoughts as to where I could have gone wrong? I soaked the cashews in boiling water for ~20 min before I started, I don’t have a high powered blender but I blended them for a while to make them as smooth as possible. Could that have been the issue? Please help – I loved this last time I had it and would like to have it again in the future!
You didn’t happen to forgot to add the tapioca starch, did you? I ask because that would certainly make it so it would never thicken and be watery. The mixture is watery UNTIL you cook it with the tapioca starch, which is the magical thickener. Or perhaps your measurements were off somehow? I’m not sure without being there what exactly happened, but that’s my guess. So sorry it didn’t work out for you this time, I hope we can figure it out, especially since you have made it successfully before!
Thanks for your response!
I added the tapioca starch (even added extra when it wasn’t working), but I’m wondering if mine was too old or something as I’ve had it for some time. I’ll look for some new tapioca starch and try again. Thanks for sharing so many wonderful vegan recipes! 🙂
I would guess it was too old maybe, I’m not sure! Hopefully next time you won’t have a problem. Thank you so much!
Hi, I got some new tapioca starch and attempted making this again – it was AMAZING! Case solved, don’t let the tapioca starch sit in your cupboard for over a year 🙂
Can you use a regular blender? I don’t have a high powered one
Thank you
It might work if you soak the cashews for a long time (perhaps even overnight) but it might not get as smooth.
You can also try boiling the cashews in a pot of water for about 10 min, might not be as effective but it works for me when I use cashews for other types of dishes.
I had raw almonds, I boiled them in the microwave for 5 minutes, and took off the skins. I used rice vinegar, I was out of Braggs. I did use Bob’s tapioca, everything else worked like clockwork. The mozzarella vegan cheese came out just fine with raw almonds, skins removed!
Hi, I don’t usually like to ask questions in the comments like this (sorry) but would it be possible to make this more cheddary? Maybe by adding nutritional yeast? I saw another person say they added some down here…
I know you have a cheddar recipe but I’m cheap and trying to avoid buying agar!
Yes, I actually do this from time to time myself. I just add more nutritional yeast (around 1/2 cup) and a pinch of turmeric for color.
The best! Thank you so much! In
You’re welcome!!
I love the flavor and stretchiness of it, however, it did have some grains in it. Did I do something wrong?
My guess would be you didn’t use a high powered blender like a Vitamix, or you did and you just didn’t blend it long enough. It will be grainy if you don’t blend it well enough.
Yup. This is it. Thank you for this recipe, as it’s made a variety of meals open back up for me!
Hello. Can i use tapioca pearls instead of cornstarch? Thank you
I don’t think that would work, the recipe calls for tapioca starch, not cornstarch. It’s also sometimes called tapioca flour, and it makes this cheese stretchy.
Will this harden in the fridge so that I can slice it.
No, this one does not become sliceable. My Shreddable Vegan Mozzarella does though.
Today was the first day I tried this. I was very impressed with how it turned out. Thank you for such a wonderful and easy recipe!
You’re so welcome!!
And oh yeah I forgot to say this. I don’t have apple cider vinegar. But I have apple sauce so I used that and yeah it worked fine!
Made this tonight for our pizza night! WOW incredible ! Such a simple recipe with delicious results! Will make again and again! Thank you, Nora!
You’re so welcome!!
Thank you! I was wondering if you have ever grated this cheese after it started to become less stretchy? Or when it was frozen?
I did try it once after I froze some, and it worked okay. But it doesn’t stay firm like harder cheeses.
Absolutely life changing for vegans who still dream of mozzarella cheese. Thank you so much! Added nutritional yeast at the end and it turned out fantastic!
I’m so glad it came out fantastic!