Crispy Vegan Parmesan Cheese
An easy vegan parmesan cheese recipe made with only a handful of ingredients. The perfect topping for salads and pasta dishes. This is a great recipe for those of you who want that cheesy flavor without the actual “real cheese”.
A Cheesy Taste without Cheese
Made with nutritional yeast flakes and pine nuts your taste buds are guaranteed that cheesy flavor. I have to admit, cheese was one of my favorite foods before going plant-based. But once over the hurdle of not having dairy-foods for a month or so it really wasn`t that difficult to live without it – actually, it is quite easy. With a plant-based diet you can enjoy so many delicious recipes and new flavors, and make substitutes for the foods you may be missing. Like this cheesy topping.
As a side story – when making the video for this recipe I needed to get some nutritional yeast, and let me tell you, this important ingredient was not easy to come by. I went to three grocery stores and none of them had nutritional yeast – I also don`t think the people working there knew what I was talking about as they looked both in the gardening section and said they only had yeast for baking… But I didn`t give up and finally managed to find my way to a health food store. Haha, I guess I really wanted to make this topping, it is that good!
Try making this recipe the next time you want to add that “little extra” to your salad or spaghetti bowl. If you make it, write a comment to let me know what you think. If you snap a picture, tag me on instagram @by.linaelisabeth – I look forward to seeing how your dairy-free cheese topping turns out!
Crispy Vegan Parmesan Cheese
Ingredients
- 50 g pine nuts
- 10 g nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- ½ tsp ground thyme
- ½ tbsp sea salt
- 100 ml water
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius, fan bake setting (356 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Add the pine nuts to your mortar and grind them well. If you don`t have a mortar you can also use a food processor.
- Mix the ground pine nuts with the rest of the ingredients for the crispy cheesy topping in a bowl.
- Cover a baking trey in parchment paper and pour the mixture for your topping onto the parchement paper. Spread the mixture out in a thin layer.
- Place the trey with the topping mixture in the middle of the oven and let it bake for 12-15 minutes. Keep an eye on it for the last couple of minutes and take the trey out when you can see that all of the topping mixture has been baked.
- Take the trey out of the oven and let your cheesy topping cool down.
- Once the topping has cooled down, use a spatula to get the topping off of the parchment paper and add your crispy cheesy topping to a glass or a small bowl.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
