Dairy-free ‘cheese’ spread

I love cheese. I loooooooove cheese – fetta, camembert, wensleydale, parmesan, vintage cheddar, ricotta, triple cream brie … you name it, I love it.

Unfortunately, as I get older I notice that cheese doesn’t like me all that much. Let’s just leave the rest to your imagination in the name of good taste!

So, as well as cutting back on my cheese consumption, I have been playing around with some dairy free ‘cheese’. Inspired by a recipe on the thermomix forum, I have tweaked and tweaked (I love saying tweak!) and found a version that I think is really tasty and also tastes rather cheesy!

Even if you are not a dairy-free person, this is still a lovely recipe to make in its own right. It is delicious spread on crackers or raw vegetables.

So, this is what you need:

1/2 cup macadamia nuts

1/2 cup almonds, blanched

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon savoury yeast flakes (find it in the health food store)  what is it?

1 tablespoon red onion (you can use white, but I find it a bit too strong)

1 – 2 teaspoons (or to taste) Vogel’s Herbamare (find it in the health food aisle of the supermarket or health food store)  what is it?

So, this is how you do it:

You can soak your nuts overnight in some filtered water if you like. Why would you soak your nuts? Find out here. (I can hear you tittering !!) 😀

If you have a thermomix, throw the onion onto the running blades on about speed 7. Add all the other ingredients and whizz the heck out of it on speed 7-8 for a minute or so, scraping down as you go. It should be light and fluffy.

If you don’t have a thermomix, grate the onion first and then put everything into a strong food processor and whizz the heck out of it. It should be light and fluffy.

I like to let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours for the flavours to develop. Serve with crackers (check out these) or raw  vege sticks for a really good snack or lunch!

My kids and their friends love this dairy free ‘cheese’ spread and fight over the last bits. It’s all in the marketing with kids…. if I had told them it was a dairy free cheese alternative, they would have complained it wasn’t cheese. I just tell them it’s a yummy savoury spread !! 😛

As always, if you give it a go, come back and chat to me and tell me how you went.