Mobile Nachos: Easy Cheesy

I am hooked on Supreme Master TV lately if you have not heard of Supreme Master TV check it out! From their website they are described as: "Supreme Master Television is an international, non-profit channel airing constructive news and programs that foster peace and promote healthy, green living." There is countless number of vegan cooking videos from some amazing chefs available on their site.

One of my favorite chefs from Supreme Master TV is Miyoko Schinner she has such a great personality and makes everything seem simple and easy to do! I watched a video of her making vegan yogurt and cheese and it looked too easy not to try. If you had asked me a few years ago how to make yogurt I would have said "uh, you walk down the dairy aisle and pick up a few tubs." But now not only am I making my own yogurt which is CHEAP and EASY to do I am turning that yogurt into cheese!! No joke, cheap, easy YUMMY vegan cheese! This is cream cheese type cheese, you know the kind that you spend $3.50-$4.00 for 8 oz of? Just a disclaimer here the process is ridiculously easy but does take some time (about 2 days if you are making your own yogurt or 1 day with store bought).

You need to start with yogurt, learning how to make my own yogurt has been an interesting experience, I have read blog after blog on how to make dairy free yogurt. People sharing how they do it in a crock pot, on the stove top, in a picnic cooler etc... all without use of a special yogurt maker. I tried all of these methods and could never get my yogurt to set, it tasted like yogurt but was drinkable :( So finally I laid down the $40 and bought the Yolife Yogurt Maker and the very first batch of yogurt I made with it set! I was so excited! Plain yogurt is so simple to make just heat soy milk to luke warm, add your starter and incubate in the yogurt maker for 8-12 hours.

I have been experimenting with making flavored and fruit soy yogurts, once I have them perfected I will share!

If you are wondering why anyone would want to make their own soy yogurts here is a cost comparison: I use the 32 oz boxes of Kirkland Organic soy milk from Costso, they cost about $1 each and I get four 8oz yogurts from each one. FOUR yogurts for a dollar! The Whole Soy yogurt I buy cost about $1.50 each and they are only 6oz. So I can make 32oz of yogurt for a little over a $1 vs 30oz of store bought for about $7.50. That is a pretty impressive savings to me, especially if your family eats yogurt the way mine does by the buckets full! And now that I am making cheese with the yogurts as well I am saving even more money. Once you make the yogurt into cheese you end up with about half as much volume as you started with so I get about 16 oz of cream cheese from a 32oz box of soy milk. Again... about a dollar vs $3.50 for half as much store bought... bring on the savings!

If you are not quite ready to dive into the world of yogurt making a large tub of plain soy yogurt will work great too.

Vegan Herb and Chive Cream Cheese

Ingredients

32 oz homemade yogurt or one 24 oz tub of store bought plain

Lemon juice

1 bunch chives or green onions

Dried herbs (basil, oregano, parsley, thyme etc)

Nutritional yeast

Salt and pepper

Tools needed

Colander

Bowl

Cheesecloth

Put the colander into a bowl that it can sit on the rim of without falling all the way in, a pot works too if you don't have a bowl that fits. Fold your cheese cloth couple times until it fits the size of your colander, then line the colander with it and pour the yogurt on top of the cheese cloth then fold the sides of the cheese cloth over so the whole thing is covered and set it aside in a place where it won't be bothered. Let drain for at least 12 hours (up to 24).

After sitting for about 12 hours

I usually let mine go overnight and part of the next day, then around noon the following day I will dump the liquid and then tie and hang the cheese in the cheese cloth for another 6-8 hours or so.

After it has drained untie the cheese cloth and turn the cheese out into a bowl. Mix in about a 1/4 cup nutritional yeast a sprinkle of salt and a small squirt of lemon juice and with just those things you have pretty much the same thing you get when buying store bought vegan cream cheese. Like I said ridiculously simple!

For the herb and chive one we are making chop 1/2 a bunch of green onions or a handful of chives and mix with 3 tsp of dried herbs of your choice. I am addicted to thyme, I put it in or on just about everything I make so of course I put thyme in mine but just choose whatever your favorite herb mixture is and use those herbs to create your perfect cheese! Add some fresh cracked pepper and fold everything into the cheese.

If you want to mold it into a more presentable slightly firmer shape for serving to guests or at a dinner party you can do what Chef Miyoko does and scoop it into a plastic wrapped bowl and refrigerate for a while and then turn it out onto a plate and you will have a beautiful molded cheese. The hungry mouths in my house won't have any of that! They want it in their bellies STAT! So it usually just gets eaten out of the bowl I mixed it in.