Name: Vegan Ricotta Cheese
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: One block firm tofu, pressed + dried for 10 minutes.; 1 small lemon, juiced – about 3 tbsp lemon juice; 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast; 1/4 cup fresh basil or 2 tsp dried basil; 2 cloves garlic or 1 tsp minced garlic; 1 small shallot; 3/4 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp pepper; 1 tsp dried oregano; 2 tbsp – 1/4 cup olive oil depending on desired consistency.

By: ErinPosted: 6/28/18Updated: 9/22/20

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An easy recipe for learning how to make vegan ricotta cheese. This recipe has no cashews, is completely nut free, and is easily the best vegan ricotta recipe! We like to add it to lasagna, stuffed shells, put it on pizza, the list goes on!

Easily the best vegan ricotta cheese recipe in the world. Bold statement but it is the dang truth! Seriously, I can literally feed an entire crowd with this plant based, healthy tofu based ricotta cheese, and not one single meat eater or dare I say, Italian, in the room would flinch to think it wasn’t actually ricotta cheese.

Yep…tofu! That’s the secret ingredient here, but it works so well as a vegan ricotta cheese because the texture is literally the exact same as ricotta when you give it a pulse in your food processor. Then when you add other plant based vegan ingredients like nutritional yeast, shallot, garlic, fresh basil, it really takes the flavor to the next level.

This recipe is completely nut free, so no cashews or almonds here, and it’s loaded with healthy and wholesome ingredients that will literally make you want to find any way to eat it.

It seriously goes well on everything, like seriously everything. We put it on our pizza, make stuffed shells out of it, add it to lasagna… the list goes on.

And it could not be easier to make.

Seriously, all you need to do is press your tofu, then blend it all up in a food processor. That is it. It’s ready in less than 15 minutes flat.

Ingredients in vegan ricotta cheese:

firm tofu
lemon
nutritional yeast
shallot
garlic
basil
olive oil
salt, pepper, oregano

The ingredients are flexible and can be swapped if you want to put your own twist on it!

Common swaps and adjustments:

If you want it to have a more basil taste, go ahead and add more basil. Same with garlic, salt and pepper. Adjust to your liking.

Only have an onion instead of a shallot? No problem – just use about half a small onion

If you don’t have nutritional yeast, you can leave it out but it won’t be as cheesy.

How to make vegan ricotta cheese

The best part about it, is that it is a simple recipe and takes little to no time to make. Plus it yields a good amount, so you get to eat it for a long time!

Start by pressing your tofu, once you’ve pressed it for about ten minutes (I stick mine in between two plates and place a cast iron skillet on top!), crumble into blocks and place in food processor.

Pulse until you have fine crumbles.

Add in your shallot, basil, nutritional yeast, garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano, and blend until well combined, scraping down sides as needed.

Add in olive as it’s blending, until it reaches the consistency you like. For the above photo, I used about 2 tablespoons.

That’s it! So simple to make. You can serve it cold or warm!

If you make this recipe, be sure to comment below and let me know how it was! Also tag @erinliveswhole on Instagram and use the hashtag #erinliveswhole so I can see it and feature you!

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