Saturday, January 30, 2010

Raw Boursin Cheese


Cheese was one of my favorite foods. I always loved the flavor and texture. I can easily say giving up cheese was the most difficult dietary change I have made yet. We liked the cultured macadamia nut cheese but weren’t thrilled with the time it took to make. There are many days I am not going to want to wait 2 days for a vegan cheese substitute.

Yesterday "Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen" found its way into my  book collection. (Note:  I did buy this for those that are wondering.)  Just as I do with all  my cookbooks I read it cover to cover. It is a very interesting book. Her cheese substitutes didn’t require soaking or culturing. Needless to say I had to try one today. A tasty cheese substitute in 5 minutes, can this be possible? Sign me up. This recipe is my adaptation of a few of the recipes from Ani’s book.

Raw Boursin Cheese
Adapted from “Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup raw macadamia nuts
¾ cup raw cashews
¼ cup raw pine nuts
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon oregano
1 lemon, zested and juiced
3 cloves garlic cloves
1 tablespoon white miso
1/3 cup water (or what is necessary to process the nut cheese)

Directions:

Place the nuts, salt, pepper and oregano in your food processor and process until they are fine but not paste. If you grind them too far they can turn into nut butter. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, white miso and water and process until the nuts are ground. If the nuts have not pulverized add water a tablespoon at a time and continue to process. The nuts will eventually fall about. But adding liquid you are reducing the risk of getting nut butter. The final nut butter will be very thick, like a cream cheese.   Refrigerate in a covered container until needed.

Nutritional Information:
Amount Per Serving
Calories - 206.54
Calories From Fat (80%) - 164.29
Total Fat - 19.63g
Saturated Fat - 2.95g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 300.74mg
Potassium - 167.58mg
Total Carbohydrates - 7.37g
Fiber - 2.19g
Sugar - 1.8g
Protein - 3.91g

Comments:

This cheese has a great big flavor punch. As you may have noticed I like my food to be very flavorful. If you like heat in your food this would be great with hot crushed peppers (wet hots) added. It was also be good with sun dried tomatoes. This spread is a great palate for many different flavors.

We had this cheese today with raw vegetables to dip into it. It made a great flavorful snack. This spread would also be great as the “glue” to hold vegetables into a wrap sandwich. I can imagine many applications for this spread.

If you have a Vitamix this cheese can also easilry be made in that appliance instead.  I used the food processor to see if I could get it creamy enough without my Vitamix.  The food processor worked fine.

Unrelated note:

I will be back later with a recipe or two. I have you are all having a great day.

17 comments:

  1. I have (and love) Ani's raw dessert book -- perhaps I should look at this one, too.

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  2. Beatrice,

    I don't have the raw dessert book since we are trying to cut back on our sugar consumption (both raw and natural). Are there many recipes that are low in sugar?

    I am going to formally review this book soon, but I really like it so far. Her recipes are quick. I appreciate that they don't require a lot of soaking and drying. This is a raw book with recipes that are quick enough to be useful. We have been trying to eat more raw food, but the recipes tend to take so long they are not practical. This book is the exception.

    Alicia

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  3. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I got the stuff to try Tal Ronnen's recipe. I too am a big put off by the time it takes to make. But I do want to give it a try.

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  4. Heather,

    Variations of this cheese will be showing up frequently at my house. I love how quick it is. Tal's version has a more sophisticated flavor but this one is much easier and faster, which I know will win out most of the time.

    Alicia

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  5. yummmm...thanks for sharing this recipe! I just listened to an interview with Ani, and she seems really interesting and talented!

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  6. Anna,

    Judging from her book, I bet it was a good interview. She seems like someone I would want to be friends with.

    You should give this a try. It was the easiest nut cheese I have made yet. Definitely a winner from both a taste and time perspective.

    Alicia

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  7. Wow, this looks great. I can see playing around with the flavors too, especially in the summer when I could run out to the herb garden and grab a handful of something green and delicious to add in. Thanks for sharing!

    I'm going to see if my library has this cookbook. I like to borrow a cookbook from the library first. If it is chock full of recipes that I know I will try, then I will consider buying it.

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  8. Five minutes? Sign me up, too! And since I love big-flavored foods as well, I'm sure I'd love this, too. Nut cheeses are one of my favorite foods now that I don't eat conventional cheeses. I think I need to get Ani's book!

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  9. Aisling,

    I think you will like this book. The recipes are so much quicker than most raw books. However, I love your library trial run idea. Thanks for sharing.

    Ricki,

    Nut cheeses are my favorite now too. How I missed dairy cheese until I found nut cheese! You should take a look for this book. So far it is my favorite everyday raw food book.

    Alicia

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  10. Making me wish I had some macadamia nuts. Trip to the store may be in order for this one!

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  11. Holla,

    Use all raw cashews if that is what you have. The mixed nuts were my idea (not the original recipe). We had this again this morning for breakfast. The flavor got stronger as it sat overnight (but not too strong for us). This is a great with raw veggies.

    Alicia

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  12. Nut cheeses are so fabulous...thanks for the recipe, and thanks to the universe for giving us nut cheese:)

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  13. Rose,

    I am completely taken with nut cheese now myself. Dan and I have had it two days in a row. He is taking more in his lunch tomorrow. The flavor seems to deepen as the cheese sat in the frig, but in a good way.

    Alicia

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  14. Raw nut cheese looks and sounds incredibly healthy and yummy! I love how you made it sounds so quick and easy to make, I know for sure I can handle this recipe. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe and I feel like going to the bookstore to buy this book right now!

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  15. Oraphan,

    I am writing the review of this book now. It should be posted tonight. I also have two other recipes of Ani's in the dehydrator now for dinner. Can't wait to see how they turn out. Waiting for us to eat them before I finalize my review. So far, I am quite impressed with the book.

    Alicia

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  16. Hi, Alicia. I just quickly flipped through Ani's raw dessert book, and I don't think any of the recipes use sugar. Some of them do use agave syrup. Others (like her pear ginger crisp -- I need to try that) don't use any added sugar.

    Shoot me an e-mail if you want a test recipe or two.

    B

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  17. Beatrice,

    Thanks for looking through the dessert book for me. I really appreciate it. Sounds like another book I need to add to my collection. If I keep buying books at this rate we are going to need a bigger house soon. ;)

    Alicia

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