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This Almond Milk Pepper jack shreds and melts. Super easy and quick to whip up. Free of Dairy, egg, soy, gluten. can be made corn-free
Eek. We are finally moved from blogger to WordPress. New theme, new platform and new everything. And while I try to learn the ropes on this, there might some hitches and delays here and there. First post published!
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A quick post today with this Easy Vegan Pepper Jack Cheese. This vegan cheese has almond milk, starches and agar to thicken and stretch, Chickpea flour for taste and texture and voila! You can also make this with coconut milk or cashew milk. The cheese with cashew milk will be whiter on melting. The almond milk cheese shreds with a large grater! Use it on a Pizza or grilled Sammie.
Even writing up the post is a learning process. The dang editor. Any who, while you all are here, please browse around the site, report any issues in the comments on the post, or on my Facebook page and let me know what you think :).
The site move was accomplished with the least amount of my hair graying with the help of Rika (veganmiam.com). Rika under Rika Studio also does web design, WordPress customizations or transfer and consulting. She is still helping me out night and day with the learning curve! I cannot recommend her enough!
More Vegan Cheese Recipes from the blog:
Try this Cauliflower Cheddar Slices
Some Cashew Mozzarella made into Mozzarella Sticks!
Green Goddess Gouda
This Pepper Jack shreds! If you want to make it really hard, try pomona’s pectin like this recipe.
Almond Milk Pepper Jack cheese
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups almond milk, divided
- 1.5 Tbsp tapioca starch or use arrowroot starch
- 1.5 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 1.5 Tbsp chickpea flour
- 2 Tbsp or more nutritional yeast
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp or more lemon juice
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder or use 1 tsp garlic paste
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 2.5 tsp agar powder, see note for agar flakes
- 1/2 tsp or more red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Grease a glass container with extra virgin olive oil and keep ready. In a bowl, whisk 1/2 cup almond milk with the starches, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, spices and salt.
- In a pan, add 1 cup of almond milk and agar powder and heat on medium heat, Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 4 mins.
- Reduce heat to low and slowly add in the almond milk starch mixture from step 1 and mix.
- Increase heat to medium and continue to mix and cook for 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add in the pepper flakes and fold in. Carefully (the mix will be hot) taste and adjust salt, tang (lemon juice) and spice. You want it to be slightly more saltier, spicier in the liquid state.
- Take off heat and pour in a well greased glass container. Let set in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Use a large grater to shred and use.
Notes
for variations: Use other plant milks like cashew milk or coconut milk. Nutritional values based on one serving
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Almond Milk Pepper Jack
Allergen Information: Free of Dairy, egg, soy, gluten. Can be corn-free
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups almond milk, divided
1.5 Tbsp tapioca starch or use arrowroot starch
1.5 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot starch
1.5 Tbsp chickpea flour
2 Tbsp or more nutritional yeast
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp or more lemon juice
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder or use 1 tsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp onion powder
2.5 tsp agar powder
1/2 tsp or more red pepper flakes
Method:
1. Grease a glass container with extra virgin olive oil and keep ready. In a bowl, whisk 1/2 cup almond milk with the starches, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast. extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, spices and salt.
2. In a pan, add 1 cup of almond milk and agar and heat on medium heat, Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 4 mins.
3. Reduce heat to low and slowly add in the almond milk + starch mixture from step 1 and mix.
4. Increase heat to medium and continue to mix and cook for 4 to 5 minutes.
5. Add in the pepper flakes and fold in. Carefully (the mix will be hot) taste and adjust salt, tang (lemon juice) and spice. You want it to be slightly more saltier, spicier in the liquid state.
6. Take off heat and pour in a well greased glass container. Let set in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Use a large grater to shred and use.
Note: if using agar flakes, use 2.5 to 3 Tbsp of the flakes and cook with the almond milk for 12 to 15 minutes in step 2 and mix to completely dissolve.
for variations: Use other plant milks like cashew milk or coconut milk.
Shredded up on a Pizza below. No that is not hair, its just onion skin. Pizza recipe here.
This is such a great recipe, thank you so much Richa! I love cheese and now I have an excuse to spend the weekend making this. Keep up the great work!
Oh…my…goodness. It WORKED! I mean, this stuff is cheese! This is so so good. I am thrilled. The flavor is awesome, the texture is awesome – perfect. I used the agar flakes since that what was in my grocery store and cooked it for the 12 minutes as you instructed. Thank you so much for an incredible recipe. I just found you and am *hooked* (and I just ordered your book on Amazon – yay!). I am so happy.
Yay!! so glad you tried it and loved it and ordered my book! 🙂 XOXO!
You are a pure culinary genius!!!! This cheese looks amazing!! 🙂 Thank you for making vegan cooking this delicious!!!
Hey, I do not have any chickpea flour and I have no access to any natural foods market or any such thing. In a falafel recipe, one ingredient was either ground walnuts or almonds, or chickpea flour. I was curious if I could use ground almond (finely ground, to a flour) in substitution of the chickpea flour. I figured this might be okay because it is almond cheese after all! I would really like your opinion on this! Thank you. (:
🙂 nope almond flour wouldnt work in this. chickpea flour acts as a thickener in the recipe and also adds a bit of flavor. You can use regular white flour as a substitute.
neat ! thanks. 😀 I just made it, its sitting in the fridge to set right now !!! so excited !!!!
I WOULD DIE TO MAKE THIS RECIPE… but i don’t have any agar agar, can i substitute it by anything else (like xanthan gum?)
thanks! xx
fruit pectin might work
I’ve made this several times over the past few weeks, and it has become my absolute favorite vegan cheese. I love the pepper jack, but I also substitute 1 tsp of liquid smoke for the red pepper. The result is a smoky, gouda-like cheese.
I have successfully used oat flour and wheat flour instead of the garbanzo flour. They all worked equally well. I also tried sweat potato starch instead of tapioca starch–the tapioca starch wins 🙂
Thank you for this recipe!!
yay! so glad you tried so many variations! i would love the smoky gouda. yumm!
Hi! Just tried this tonight but couldnt find agar and Google told me I could substitute it for gelatine powder. It came out not so great, after a few hours in the fridge still more like jello – but the taste is great! I diced up a jalapeno to add as well for more flavor, and I decided to just mush it and make it ‘cream cheese spread’. I can’t wait til tomorrow to find a store that sells agar – I’m in canada , where would I find it in a grocery store? Baking eisle? I tried bulk barn and they didn’t carry it. Would loooove the hard version to grate it.
i havent tried gelatin. you can use fruit pectin, but you would have to adjust the quantity so that it sets well. Try health food stores like Kenzington ambrosia. you can also find it in asian or indian stores. it is called china grass.
Gelatin is made from cw bones…
Hi Desiree,
I’m in Canada. T&T Market carries agar agar, as does Bulk Barn (in the gluten-free section)… but I guess it’s not in all locations. You can check out your local health food store as well. I used to live in a small Ontario town, and they had it at our local health food store. You can also order it online from Well.ca or Amazon.ca.
Good luck!
How will the cheese’s texture change if I have to omit the agar? It is unavailable to me in my city. Thank you!
the cheese will not set without the agar. it will just be creamy milk. you can use that as a sauce.
see my agar free nacho cheese for a agarfree option https://fettabbau-trim.today/2014/09/nut-free-vegan-nacho-cheese-slices.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Looks fabulous and so tempting…especially that pizza! What is the yield of this recipe…in terms of slices or weight? I have never tried almond milk. Did you make it yourself as well? Any ideas how to do that or could you recommend a brand that you prefer? Love your photography, style and creativity!
I just tried this recipe, twice. The first time I forgot the oil, so I made it again. Somehow the batch with the oil is spot-on!
I was never a big fan of regular Jack cheese except in quesadillas. I tried this recipe because I had almost all the ingredients, the process was simple, and I didn’t have to use a blender.
I didn’t have pepper flakes so I diced some red bell pepper and jalapeño and sautéed them in a cast iron pan until most of the moisture was gone. I used grapeseed oil instead of olive and lime juice instead of lemon. I also used agar flakes instead of powder.
Thank you very much for perfecting it! As the kids say: ” This is the bomb dot com!”