Monday, October 20, 2008

Vegan MoFo Day 20: Peanut Cheeze



PPK readers may recall my earlier experiment with the "Chedda Polenta" recipe in the Seven Secrets Cookbook by Jim and Neva Brackett. This is a vegan cheeze based on peanuts and cornmeal. (Gluten-free and soy-free people, take note: this cheeze is for you.) My first try was tasty, but looked a bit funny, as I put it in a loaf pan that was too large. This time I used my smallest individual mini-pan: much better, and the texture is also improved.


As with most vegan cheeze, this is not going to mimic dairy. But it is very tasty in its own savory right. A few recipe notes: I used smoked paprika instead of regular paprika, because I love it (and have to be physically restrained from putting it in everything). Next time, I will probably reduce the baking time by a few minutes. You can see in the photo that the edges are a little crumbly. For the peanuts, I used plain, store-brand, salted, roasted peanuts from the snack aisle. (Watch ingredients, as some brands of roasted peanuts include gelatin. Bizarre, but true.) I cut the salt in the recipe slightly, as the peanuts were already quite salty.


This is good on crackers, shredded into tofu scramble, or (as above) in a sandwich with struan, vegenaise, arugula, and tomatoes.






6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have always thought homemade vegan cheeze was so much better than dairy cheese ... it has a lot more flavour and I'm not drinking buckets of water afterward because of too much salt and fat.

Unknown said...

I think I need to add that cookbook to my list, stat.

Jen Treehugger said...

It looks lovely! The colour is especially good.

APLACEFORUS said...

I will definitely have to get my hands on that recipe! It looks really great! Thanks for doing such a great job with posts for Mofo :)

Aubade said...

Ooh that looks delicious! And much cheaper than cashews which is usually what the uncheese recipes call for. Yum.

P.S. Tag you're it! Let's see your freezer.

http://grow-peace.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-un-gardeny-freezer.html

JohnP said...

Ladybug,
Yes, that's one of the things I like about the recipe - no odd or expensive ingredients. There are a lot of innovative recipes in Seven Secrets.

And... shit! I knew I was going to get freezer-tagged! :) I'll do it this weekend!