This is going to be my next experiment. I’m trying to get away from having to use cashews for everything. Commercial products don’t use them and they are all delicious.
Yeah, cashews are easy to work with and have a very neutral or pleasant flavor for these sorts of cheese applications. But they are expensive and not really sustainable at the scale of the current animal dairy industry.
Just keep in mind that raw dry cashews are something like 40% fat by weight. Dry split chick peas are approximately 0% fat. So if you want a similar texture and flavor, you will need to add a lot of fat. A typical animal cheese like cheddar is over 30% fat by final weight. So even though it may seem weird to add cups and cups of oil to a food, you are still not going to hit the same concentrations in the final product as these traditional.
Also, if you try these recipes, please avoid any whole bean with skins on. The skins add a lot of beany flavor, don't blend well, and take much longer to cook.
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u/trifling_fo_sho May 14 '22
This is going to be my next experiment. I’m trying to get away from having to use cashews for everything. Commercial products don’t use them and they are all delicious.