recipe: non-dairy (cashew) ricotta

photo from The Simple Veganista 

taken from: The Simple Veganista 

changes: skipped the nutritional yeast

ingredients list: 
- 1 & 1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked
- 1/2 cup water (reserved from soaked cashews)
- juice of 1 large lemon or 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast, optional
- 1 garlic clove
- dash of onion powder
- himalayan sea salt & cracked pepper, to taste

to make: 
soak the cashews for at least 2 hours in a bowl of water, covering the cashews with about 2-3 inches of water. 

drain the cashews, reserving 1/2 cup of the water. add reserved water, cashews, and all remaining ingredients into a blender or food processor, and process until creamy, scrapping the sides down every few minutes. add additional seasoning to taste, if needed. 

store in the refrigerator for up to a week. 

results: 
we were skeptical when we tried cashew mozz cheese, but liked it, and even still just as skeptical when we tried cashew ricotta... and liked it. we used it for a mushroom marsala pasta bake and a white pizza with mushrooms... the slight nuttiness of the cashew ricotta worked quite well on both. it was good enough that i'd attempted to make a 100% dairy-free lasagna with this and cashew mozz cheese.