Even plant based eaters long for a hefty sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on their pasta bowls and now they can have it!! This recipe will teach you how to make vegan Parmesan cheese by combining 5 nuts and seasonings together for an irresistible savory sprinkle everyone in your family will love, especially your vegan eaters!
****Blog post images, video, nutritional information, and text updated 6/25/2020 – the recipe is still the original recipe published 10/5/2014.****
I have tried quite a few different variations of vegan Parmesan over the years, but this one is my favorite and it’s always a total crowd pleaser too! This plant based Parmesan is great sprinkled on pasta, salads, sandwiches, and even sprinkled over the top of toasted gluten free bread with a little dab of vegan butter. This tutorial is so easy it requires only 1 step and 5 simple ingredients to yield a full cup of vegan Parmesan that will keep in your fridge for 2 months.
Let me show you just how easy it is to make Vegan Parmesan Cheese!!
First, gather the ingredients that you will need.
Most of the ingredients are pretty basic like raw cashews, slivered almonds, garlic powder, and salt. But, the last ingredient, nutritional yeast, might not be a staple in everyone’s pantry.
Nutritional yeast is a food additive made from a single-celled organism, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, which is grown on molasses and then harvested, washed, and dried with heat to kill or “deactivate” it. Because it’s inactive, it doesn’t froth or grow like baking yeast does so it doesn’t have leavening ability. Nutritional yeast flakes do have a flavor that is very reminiscent of real cheese though which makes it the super star of this recipe!
Seriously, it is that easy!! Combine the ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until a fine meal forms. Just be sure to not over process or you will have clumpy parm or even worse…parm nut butter! Store your vegan Parmesan cheese in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 months and sprinkle a little on whenever you crave a little cheese factor!
Now that you know how to make Vegan Parmesan Cheese here are a few ways you can use it up in your kitchen..
Easy 5-Ingredient Marinara || It doesn’t get much simpler than this Easy 5-Ingredient Marinara! 5 simple ingredients + 30 minutes with minimal hands on time = weeknight dinner perfection! To make the sauce vegan simply substitute the butter in the recipe with a vegan butter substitute.
Easy Gluten Free Pasta Snack Jars || Become the master of after school snack time with these easy to prep, totally gluten free, pasta snack jars! These deliciously layered jars are completely customizable, so you can be sure to always have a delicious, healthy snack for your family on hand!
If you’ve made this Vegan Parmesan Cheese I would be so grateful if you would rate the recipe and let me know what you think in the comments below!
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How To Make Vegan Parmesan Cheese
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 5 mins
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
- Category: Vegan
- Method: Blended
- Cuisine: Vegan
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Sprinkle this plant based Parmesan anywhere you would use regular Parmesan cheese.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the “S” blade. Pulse until a fine meal forms. Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.
Keywords: vegan, vegan Parmesan cheese, cashew, nutritional yeast
Brilliant!! I am thinking this would be awesome on popcorn too.
Yes, that actually does sound great – thanks for the suggestion
What are blanched silver almonds? I only have raw almonds.
Blanched almonds have the skins removed and slivered are simply sliced into small slivers. You can use raw almonds with the skins on your ricotta will just have brown flecks in it.
Even for the non vegan like myself, this sounds delicious!
Looks like delicious vegan cheese!!! Even for a cheese lover like me!
I’ve always been fascinated by the home made natural vegan versions of cheese! Def need to try making this for my mom who is dairy free. I’ve never bought nutritional yeast before so will have to branch out and find some! IS it available at all stores or more specialty stores like Whole Foods? Am so curious to see how this tastes : ))
Love your tutorial series!
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Thanks so much Vicky! Nooch freaked me out for the longest time, but when I finally tried it I was pissed at myself for waiting so long. HA! I think you could find it at Whole Foods the easiest, I usually order mine through Nuts.com though.
Vegan or not, I bet this is a super-delicious all purpose savory sprinkle!
Should the nuts be soaked?
Nope. Just make sure that they are raw.:) Hope you enjoy it!
All I have on hand are roasted and salted. 🙁 so there is canola oil. You think that is okay??
I haven’t tried this before using roasted nuts, because they don’t really have the same texture as raw. I am not sure if it would work, but if you tried it I would omit the salt since they are already salted. Please let me know how it turns out!
i tried this with roasted cashews and did it in a coffee grinder 🙂 the only thing is you have to pluse it slowly or youll get butter.
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What would be a good alternative to almonds? Thanks so much.
You can substitute pine nuts or walnuts. If neither of those work for you either you can just increase the amount of cashews also. Just find a blend that tastes the best for you.:)
What about sea salt? Would that be okay to use?
Sea salt would be fine:) I used kosher salt which is a large grain salt, so if your sea salt is very fine I would probably add less salt.
Hmmm, I’m wondering if parm ‘butter’ would be such a bad thing 🙂
I tend to agree that it might not be a bad thing…it just probably wouldn’t be the best on a big bowl of popcorn or pasta:)
This sounds fantastic! My son is allergic to cashews though … do you have any idea what I might be able to substitute them with? I have found that attempting to substitute almonds in raw cheese recipes that call for cashews results in a disaster.
Thanks Penny! You could try raw pine nuts or raw macadamia nuts..even raw walnuts might work because they are soft like a cashew. Let me know how it turns out!
Can you tell me how many grams of all the ingredients I need, because I’m from Belgium and I have no idea what you guys mean with “cups”… 😉 Thanks a lot!
if you google (for example) 1 cup of almonds how many grams you will find sites full of conversions. either that or buy a plastic cup with american measures. good luck.
Can this be made without the yeast? I am doing the Daniel Fast and there is no yeast allowed.
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Crys, I have never tried the recipe without the nutritional yeast. I am pretty sure it wouldn’t have the same “cheesy” taste without it. Nutritional yeast is an inactive form of yeast which may be allowed on the Daniel Fast. I hope this helps!
Crys, nutritional yeast is completely unrelated to leavening yeast; it is rather a seasoning and grown as a nutritional supplement. It is in the same botanical kingdom as leavening yeasts (a rather large kingdom), and mushrooms, which we consider to be vegetables, are in the same kingdom. But neither nutritional yeast or mushrooms are leavening agents.
Thank you so very much for this Carolyn!
I am not Vegan but I decided to try this recipe. It was delicious.
Can I use almond meal (from blanched almonds) in place of the slivered almonds? Is the idea of having the slivered almonds to give it a little more texture?
Abby, I used slivered almonds for texture, but you can use almond meal. I would just stir the almond meal in at the end of the processing time instead of pulsing it in the food processor.
Would nutritional yeast powder work or is it granules/flakes??
I use flakes when I am making my vegan parm. If you are using powder I would decrease the amount called for in the recipe by half and then taste test it to see if you need more.
Thank you! I will try that!!!
Love this! I always struggle to get the balance right with nutritional yeast, I think it can have a slightly ‘off’ flavour if that makes sense…. this is really well balanced though and works great 🙂 I’ve been putting it on everything (makes a great salad sprinkle!)
Hooray Laura! I am so glad that you enjoy it. I agree that nutritional yeast can get a little weird. I love this over salad too, it really is versatile.
Hi, do you think this will freeze well? I’ve been using this recipe since you published it and love it. Great on roasted veggies!
I am so glad you enjoy it!! It is a family favorite around here too. Yes, you can totally freeze it without any problem.
I don’t have a food processor do you think it would work with a blender?
Jennifer, it should work however you will probably need to double or triple the recipe to make sure there are enough dry ingredients in the blender carafe to reach the top of the blades.
Thank you for this recipe, it’s amazing. After years of using just yeast flakes on pasta dishes instead of Parmesan (which didn’t have quite the same taste or effect) and horrible store-bought vegan Parmesan sprinkles (that had an overwhelming taste of the blue part of blue cheese), now here is something that pretty much exceeds the taste of the real deal!
However, I double the amount of yeast flakes and garlic powder and use a double amount of herb salt (like Herbamare) to give it an extra-sharp Parmesan taste. Otherwise it’s quite mild and the flavour can be lost over a spicy pasta sauce.
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Thank you I was hoping that I could have Vegan parm cheese with my Vegan pasta .
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Thank you! I made your recipe tonight with raw hazlelnuts and it is delicious. I have never tried vegan parmesan before but I’m doing the whole 30 diet and can’t have dairy for 30 days. I will still use this after it though! I had it over zucchini pasta (no grains either) and roasted eggplant with tomato sauce. Yum!
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Wow Janet!!!I love the addition of hazelnuts, I’m going to have to try that. I’m so glad you love this recipe, it’s amazing how it tricks the tastebuds into thinking you’re eating cheese right? Good luck on your Whole 30!!
Just made this with only cashew nuts, didn’t have almonds. It is incredibly delicious. Need someone to come in and stop me eating it all .
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Yay Julie – I love that you tried it with cashews!!!
So good. I will be making this again!! Can’t wait to show it off!! 😁😁😁
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it!
Just made it……..Fantastic!
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That’s so wonderful Katy! I am glad you love it too!