4 more days to Superbowl!
I say make the Cashew Mozzarella and keep it ready to make these sticks for the big game. Go Seahawks! crispy, melty and yum.
I also wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who writes to me to say hello, with questions, a note of appreciation, and all the deluge of emails for being recipe testers! I am so so grateful for the love. It is practically impossible for me to write back to everyone, but I do try. Thank you once again and have a fabulous week!
Ok back to this recipe. The Mozzarella is cashew based with a little oil and starches to help with the stringy meltyness. Once set, the mozzarella is sliced and breaded in this delicious breading and fried or baked! I like the fried version for these sticks :). Apart from the usual addictiveness of fried anything, the frying cooks up the breading quickly enough so the cheese inside is not over heated and hence has more chances of being melty and gooey when you serve the sticks. gotta indulge some days:) You can use any vegan mozzarella block cheese.
Mozzarella is gluten-free. The sticks can be made gluten-free with flours like rice and oat and gf breadcrumbs.
There is limited oil and starch in the cheese, so the cheese stick insides cools to a soft not as stringy state fairly quickly. More oil means a bit more meltyness. Serve these right out of the fryer or the oven. Stringy or not, this is one delicious addition to the gameday line up. Make some.
These Vegan Mozzarella Sticks! The 3 sticks on the top in the below picture, are baked.
More Gameday Ideas!
Baked Jalapeno Poppers
Amaranth Black Bean Smoky spicy Burger sliders
Jalapeno Popper dip and Havarti cheese dip
Chickpea Kabocha fries
and lots more on under the Gameday Category
Step pictures:
(For Ingredients and recipe text, scroll down.)
Blend all the ingredients under cashew mozzarella and cook in a pan on stove top.
Stir frequently and cook until the cheese gets thick and starts to leave the pan or is more doughy batter than liquid.
Grease a pan with olive oil and drop the cheese mixture. Level it out, cover and let sit in the refrigerator for an hour or more.
It is reddish in color because of the red pepper flakes.
Remove the cheese from the pan when ready to make the sticks. Cut up slices of the cheese.
Prep the breading station. Roll each slice in flour, then dunk in wet mixture then in breadcrumbs. Coat with breadcrumbs liberally.
Place on parchment till all sticks are done. Freeze for 10-15 minutes.
The top right cheese slice in the picture below, is rolled in flour and ready for the next breading step. The breading adds a lot of volume to the cheese.
Fry or bake and serve immediately with marinara, ranch or other favorite dressings.
Inspiration: my Coconut Milk Mozarella, Cashew nacho cheese, Miyoko’s Better Cashew Mozzarella and Somer’s Moxarella
Mozzarella Sticks – Baked or Fried with Cashew Mozzarella Recipe
Allergen Information: Free or Dairy, egg, soy, yeast. Can be made corn-free and gluten-free. Cashew mozzarella is gluten-free
Ingredients: Makes 11-12 sticks 3 inch long sticks
Cashew Mozzarella:
1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for 2 hours or overnight
1/2 cup almond milk
2 tsp tapioca starch
1 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot starch
1/4 tsp agar powder (add 1/4 tsp more for a more set cheese)
1/3 – 1/2 tsp fine sea salt (to preference for saltyness of the cheese)
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp vegan butter (or evoo)
a generous pinch of kala namak (black salt)
a generous pinch of onion powder
1/4 tsp pepper flakes (optional, I like a bit of spice kick in my mozzy)
Breading:
1/4 cup flour
Breading Wet:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup almond milk
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp flaxmeal
1/4 tsp each of garlic powder, salt, smoked paprika
Breading Dry:
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 tsp each of salt, red pepper flakes, black pepper
1/2 tsp italian herb blend (oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary)
Method:
Make the Mozzarella:
Blend everything under mozzarella into a smooth puree. Taste and adjust salt and tang if needed. Pour into a pan and cook at medium heat, stirring frequently to avoid burning, for 8-10 minutes until the mixture is really thick and starts to leave the pan (or is at a soft lightly sticky dough stage).
Grease a small bread pan (I used 5.75 by 3 inch pan) or other pan with extra virgin olive oil and drop the mozzarella in it. Even it out using a spatula. Cool completely, cover the pan and Let set in the refrigerator for an hour or more.
Set up the Breading station when ready to fry or Bake:
Keep flour in one plate.
Mix everything under Breading Wet in a bowl.
Mix everything under Breading Dry in another deep plate or bowl.
Remove the cheese from the pan and Slice the Mozzarella into about 1/4 inch thin slices (I got 12 slices. The cheese will not be a shred-able hard cheese. It should just be set enough to slice). Keep the slices small since the breading is going to increase the size by 2 or 3 times. Roll each slice in flour. Then dip it in the wet mixture, then dip in the breadcrumbs to coat well. Place on parchment lined sheet. Bread all the slices and freeze for 10 minutes.
Fry:
Heat enough oil in a fryer or deep pan on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the sticks 2 or 3 at a time to fry. The oil should be hot enough that it takes only a minute to brown one side of the sticks. Flip and cook for another half or 1 minute depending on the heat and quantity of oil. Remove and serve immediately. Wait for a minute before adding the next batch so the oil can come back to a high temperature.
Bake:
If baking, then freeze the breaded mozzarella for 15 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Remove moxy sticks from freezer, spray oil or brush oil on the sticks. Bake for 4 minutes. Move the sheet to the top level of the oven and Broil for 1 minute or until the breading starts to brown. Remove and serve immediately with marinara, ranch or other favorite sauces.
Notes: Longer cooking time at not high enough temperature takes the cheese from set to melted to clumpy soft stage. For the cheese to be melty, it has to heated at a high temperature for a short time. Be generous with the breading and the cheese will stay nicely tucked inside. Irrespective of the meltyness, this is an awesome gameday snack!
To make it gluten-free, use glutenfree flours like oat + rice flours in place of regular flour and gf bread crumbs.
If the cheese ends up too soft, Plop it in the freezer for a few to help harden it a bit for slicing
Maria
Hi Richa,
This recipe looks amazing!. However, I was wondering if I could add carrageenan (1Tbsp) to make the cheese “grateable” and firm? I’m planning to make a Colombian snack named “pandebono” which is basically cheese and tapioca flour. The original recipe has an egg. I guess I can replace it with flax seeds.
Kind Regards,
Maria
Vegan Richa Support
I haven’t used carrageenan . It should work though
Stacy
I kmow I’ve commented here before but this recipe is just so incredible! The flavor and texture is seriously spot on. I use this cheeze in everything now, I added rosemary in the mixture and used for lasagna, made a grilled cheese (added tomato and basil) to dunk in tomato soup and I’ve also used it in enchiladas. Its so versatile and I love that it doesn’t melt all the way so you get a nice cheezy bite 💜. Thank you yet another fantastic recipe! I make all of these for my omnivore boyfriend and he doesn’t miss the dairy.
Richa
awesome!
Jeannine Anderson
Would it change the results if soy milk were used instead of almond milk? I have a pure, organic soy milk – just soy and water. My almond milk has vitamins D, E and gum in it.
Richa
should be fine
Jeannine
Thanks, it turned out great!
brooke
Good morning Richa,
Can I use Xantham Gum as a substitute for Tapioca? I can’t find the quantities for doing so…
Many thanks : )
Richa
t will not work the same, ues a different starch instead like cornstarch or potato starch
Maggie
Hi – I am allergic to wheat and rice – so what type of flour may I substitute to make the breading? I read where someone used almonds and cashew pieces in place of bread crumbs so that helps.
Richa
almond flour for breadcrumbs will work. For flour just use other flours or starches
Pien
I’m planning on making these for my housewarming, but I can’t find any kala namak anywhere. Is there something else I can use instead of it?
Richa
omit it. You can order indian black salt on amazon.
Nikki
Got everything I need to make these finally! Is there a recipe for the marinara you’re dipping it in?
Richa
I dont. Any jarred marinara will work
Elishevah
I LOVE mozzarella sticks! Thank you for this recipe. Can’t wait to try it!
Do you have a print link for this recipe like you do for your other ones?
Richa
I haven’t added this recipe to the print widget yet. i’ll do that later today. You can copy the recipe text into word or notepad and click print from there till then.
Julie
These are incredible!
Mine turned out a little pale since I didn’t dare leave them in the oven for too long, but the texture is the perfect combination of melty and crunchy <3 Thank you!
Richa
Yay! you can spray a little oil on the sticks and broil for that browning.
Julie
Yup, that did it. Still not really brown since the highest temp that my parchment allows is 10°C lower than what you use, but by golly this stuff is amazing. Less kitchen chaos the second time around, too.
Richa
Awesome! You can also use wheat bread crumbs that are brown anyway 🙂
Ashley
I’ve made these and they are amazing. I followed the recipe exactly and baked them. Best luck I’ve had making vegan cheese. Next time I’ll double the recipe. Cant say enough good things. I think its the layering of flavors at every step that puts this recipe above others. Thank you so much!!!
Richa
Awesome! So glad they worked out so well!
Anna
Hi Richa,
I wasn’t able to get my hands on tapioca starch. Should I add more cornstarch or agar?
(thank you for all the terrific recipes 🙂 )
Richa
you can use cornstarch. tapioca starch adds the stretchyness, so that will be affected. Get some tapioca starch, maybe online, as many vegan cheese recipes (mine and other bloggers) use tapioca starch.
Anna
Great – thanks!
Scott
Just made these…they were unbelievable!! Thanks for the recipe…I just shared it on my Facebook page ‘Mid Life Vegan’. I’m definitely pulling this recipe out for the non vegan friends. A friend had some tonight with us and said he wouldn’t have guessed they were non dairy if I hadn’t told him! My wife and I have been vegan for about a year now and were just talking the other day about missing haloumi. This recipe definitely satisfied that craving. Thank you!
Richa
yay! so glad they turned out so well!
Lise
I just made these last night. I left out the agar powder so they were a tad mushy….but still SO delicious!!!!! Thank you
Richa
agar is what sets the cheese. So I can imagine the mixture would just be custard without it. 🙂
Lise
But you know what? A custard texture might be very nice for a vegan lasagna layer! AHA
Richa
yes true!
Nina in CLE
Hi, Richa this sounds fantastic But today I want to be making just the cashew mozzerella recipe, not using it for the sticks’ and I have a quick question: I’ve gathered all the ingredients EXCEPT the very necessary agar to help set the cheese. I live in Cleveland OH and I went to 3 different stores with impressively inclusive International Foods sections (looking for Japanese, particularly with this) ONLY 1 store had it and unfortunately it was apretty large amount, and cost a small fortune FOR MY budget.. I’m just not going to use it for much else and didn’t buy it. (I understand that many would just turn to “AMAZON” for a cheaper price but NOT me, I refuse to be a customer of theirs,for mostly political based- Progressive/ Liberal- reasons) Bottom line: is there anything you could suggest that I could use instead (I’m NOT a vegan but a vegetarian so don’t use gelatin either) of the agar agar with a similar chemistry, maybe white vinegar mixed with something, or silken tofu? If the answer is no, than that’s O.K. I’ll just pass for this time, until I decide to try my hand at Japanese cooking! Thanks in advance.
Richa
I have other mozz recipes on the blog that don’t use agar. See https://www.veganricha.com/?s=Mozzarella
See the MARGHERITA pizza
Lisa Bell
Have you ever made these and then frozen them to oven reheat another time? I love these but I eat TOO many at one time!!
Emilie
Brilliant recipe! I absolutely loved the taste of the mozzarella. I made a few changes by boiling my cashews for 8 minutes to soften them as opposed to letting them soak in water for several hours. This recipe just looked so good I wanted to eat it as quickly as possible! I also used cornstarch to replace the flour at a ratio of 1:2. I then used ground almonds and cashews to act as the breadcrumbs. Hope that helps out other people who are gluten free 🙂
Thank you so much for the recipe Richa!
julie
what can i replace agar powder with?
Richa
you can omit it. the starches are enough to keep the cheese solid enough for slicing.
Erica
Can you make the cheese ahead of time and let it set in the fridge, and then just slice and bake when ready?
Richa
yes you can make the cheese and keep it refrigerated for up to 4 days. slice and bake to serve.
Jennifer
It freezes really well also. I make this cheese in big batches and freeze it. I use it in pizza too and it’s absolutely delicious.
Michelle
How long will the cheese last in the frig? I made it, but haven’t had time to bread and fry to finish the recipe. THANKS!
Richa
4 days
Lc
Where can I find cashew cheese?!?
Richa
the recipe for the cashew cheese is on the post.
C. Fruity
I am pretty much in love with everything on your website. I like little snacks and appetizers for entertaining!