Vegan Parmesan Cheese Recipe

This recipe has been in heavy rotation for the past few years around our house. If you've seen vegan parmesan cheese on the shelf at Whole Foods and balked at the price, then good on ya! It's so ridiculously easy to make at home, stores well in the fridge, and is delicious on so many meals. Just some of the ways I like to use it:

• Sprinkled on avocado toast
• Shaken over pizza
• Use it to top pesto pasta
• Sprinkle on top of air-popped popcorn
• Shaken over a delicious kale salad
• Jazz up roasted veggies by a bit of this on top just out of the oven
• Probably more ways that I can't think of at 5:30AM which is when I'm writing this!

I initially found this vegan parmesan cheese recipe from Minimalist Baker and have used it as the base for my own creation -- I'm telling you, you will want to eat this by the spoonful. It's so flippin' delicious.

But wait, before we jump to the recipe may I air a particular grievance I have? It's regarding the purchasing of nuts in grocery stores. Now, I always head straight for the bulk section of a store if they have it because the prices are lowest there. Usually you'll see pre-packaged bulk goods in a separate aisle and oftentimes the prices are double what you would pay if you got the same item in the same quantity from the bulk section! And with COVID, bulk items have been persona non grata in stores for over a year so I've taken to sourcing my organic raw cashews online -- the price is great, and we go through 2 pounds in a month usually. I also buy bulk nutritional yeast, another key staple in my kitchen. But yeah, watch the unit price when buying nuts! Organic usually runs you around $9-11/lb, but you'll sometimes see $10 bags of 8oz of nuts. And that, friends, makes me see red. UNIT PRICES, PEOPLE!!! Money doesn't grow on trees! Unlike nuts.

📖 Recipe