Vegan Mozzarella Sticks – Baked or Fried with Cashew Mozzarella Recipe

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