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This vegan pepper jack cheese made with leftover wheat starch water from washing flour to make seitan gets its creaminess from cashews and packs plenty of heat. It's a hard cheese perfect for your next charcuterie board, sliced thin for sandwiches, or grated onto just about anything when you're looking to add a little kick.
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the cashews overnight or for 8-12 hours to soften them. If you're pressed for time you can boil a cup or two of water, then add the cashews and remove from the heat. Let them sit for 30 minutes in the boiled water, then give a quick rinse in cool water.
In a high-speed blender or food processor (I used the single blender cup from my Ninja) process the cashews and starting with about a 1/2 cup of water, process until smooth, adding the additional 1/4 cup as you go.
Heat the 1/3 cup of refined coconut oil in a small pan on low heat and add the seeded, finely-chopped serrano peppers and the 2 tsp of red pepper flakes. Cook them on low/medium heat for about 5 minutes until the serranos have softened. Set aside to cool.
Drain as much excess water off your starch as possible and stir. I let mine sit in the fridge for a day or two to try to get it to really separate before using for this. Make sure your starch water is at room temperature before beginning, or it can make your coconut oil solidify when mixing.* I microwave it in 30-second increments, stirring each time until it's ready. Be careful not to heat it too much or the starch will clump.
*You can also leave the starch on your counter for several hours or overnight so it begins to ferment. The sourness and slight acidity will add more depth of flavor to your cheese.
Prepare a steamer and have a container ready for your cheese. I use these silicone molds which easily release. You may want to oil a glass container if using. Whatever you choose, make sure it can easily hold up to at least 2 1/2-3 cups of liquid, because the mixture will rise by about 1/3 during cooking.
Add the blended cashews, and all the ingredients except the coconut oil/pepper mixture and lactic acid to your blender or food processor and blitz. Slowly add in the oil/peppers and continue to blend until it is fully emulsified.
Finally add in the lactic acid and pulse the blender a bit more to incorporate.* Pour the mixture into the prepared vessel and steam for 45 minutes. Allow to come to room temperature before covering and storing in the fridge. The cheese will be hardened after about 6-8 hours of resting in the fridge and will continue to harden a little more as it rests.
*SIDE NOTE: The reason I add the lactic acid last is because it can affect the kappa carageenan's ability to harden the cheese. I'm honestly not sure if it makes that much of a difference since I'm blending everything together before cooking, anyway, but it's a habit I picked up from The Non-Dairy Evolution by Skye Michael Conroy. If you're just learning about vegan cheese making or want to explore some new ideas, I highly recommend the book.
More Starch Water & Deli-Style Recipes
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the cashews overnight or for 8-12 hours to soften them. If you're pressed for time you can boil a cup or two of water, then add the cashews and remove from the heat. Let them sit for 30 minutes in the boiled water, then give a quick rinse in cool water.
In a high-speed blender or food processor (I used the single blender cup from my Ninja) process the cashews and starting with about a 1/2 cup of water, process until smooth, adding the additional 1/4 cup as you go.
Heat the 1/3 cup of refined coconut oil in a small pan on low heat and add the seeded, finely-chopped serrano peppers and the 2 tsp of red pepper flakes. Cook them on low/medium heat for about 5 minutes until the serranos have softened. Set aside to cool.
Drain as much excess water off your starch as possible and stir. I let mine sit in the fridge for a day or two to try to get it to really separate before using for this. Make sure your starch water is at room temperature before beginning, or it can make your coconut oil solidify when mixing.* I microwave it in 30-second increments, stirring each time until it's ready. Be careful not to heat it too much or the starch will clump.
*You can also leave the starch on your counter for several hours or overnight so it begins to ferment. The sourness and slight acidity will add more depth of flavor to your cheese.
Prepare a steamer and have a container ready for your cheese. I use these silicone molds which easily release. You may want to oil a glass container if using. Whatever you choose, make sure it can easily hold up to at least 2 1/2-3 cups of liquid, because the mixture will rise by about 1/3 during cooking.
Add the blended cashews, and all the ingredients except the coconut oil/pepper mixture and lactic acid to your blender or food processor and blitz. Slowly add in the oil/peppers and continue to blend until it is fully emulsified.
Finally add in the lactic acid and pulse the blender a bit more to incorporate.* Pour the mixture into the prepared vessel and steam for 45 minutes. Allow to come to room temperature before covering and storing in the fridge. The cheese will be hardened after about 6-8 hours of resting in the fridge and will continue to harden a little more as it rests.
Lactid acid powder is not afailable in the Netherlands.
Is it possible to substitude with liquid acid and what will be the amount? Or is there another subtitude ?
I would rally like to make this cheese
I have read that you can use 2-3 drops of the liquid in place of 1 tsp. of the powder. Hope that helps!
The chili oil is not on the ingredients list. How much do you use.
The chili oil is what I was calling the coconut oil that the chili peppers (Serrano and red chili flakes) are sautéed in. I’ll update the recipe to make that more clear. 😊
I just started doing the WTF method and have only made a couple of recipes with the starch water. This recipe is the bomb!! I licked the spoon and my eyes bugged out. It tastes like the Pepper Jack cheese I remember from 10 years ago. You hit a home run with this! A+++
Thanks and so happy you like it! 😊
How much grams you can get out with this recepie
Love the flavour of this cheese but it doesn’t seem to melt very well. Do u think I oversteamed it (45mins in my rice cooker with steam function)? I will try again but steam it a bit less.
This and the other cheeses are a great use for wheat starch water because the wheat starch gets very firm when cooked and so it yields a nice solid, sliceable cheese. That said, it isn’t the easiest to melt and it’s why I chose the steaming method over thickening this in a pot. So I don’t think cooking more or less will help, but you could try lessening the wheat starch to tapioca starch ratio which should allow for more stretch/meltability. If I were to experiment I might start with 1/4 cup less wheat starch water, add an extra 2 tablespoons of tapioca, and an extra 1/4 cup of cashew milk and keep working my way from there, but I haven’t tried so I can’t guarantee any success. If you do try it please let me know how it goes!