Creamy, melty vegan mozzarella cheese made with just 8 simple ingredients and ready in under 15 minutes! Perfect for grilled cheese, pizza, lasagna, casseroles and more! (Gluten free + Oil free)
This. Vegan. Cheese. Oh gosh jolly– I've finally come down to the best vegan cheese that actually melts and browns. It's gooey but not gluey, and just perfect over EVERYTHING.
The inspiration
I've just had too many bad experiences with store bought vegan cheese. And other recipes I've tried online just wasn't for me– they kind of had this gluey texture that would coat the top of my mouth which I wasn't a fan of.
This vegan mozzarella cheese was in the works for the past two months and I was desperate to perfect it for my yaki curry recipe because I wanted a good dairy free cheese that actually browns and melts. Tested over 12 times with different ingredients and ratios, I'm crazy excited to finally share this life-changing recipe. You ready?
Ingredients (+substitutions)
Most vegan cheese recipes call for tapioca starch, which thickens it and gives it a slighty stretchy texture. However, the base for this cheese recipe is rice! Specifically, both cooked rice and glutinous rice flour. Why rice? Glutinous rice is another starch, giving the ability to thicken and be stretchy, much like mochi (which is where I actually drew the inspiration from!). Mochi stretches and kind of droops and melts... like cheese.
A bit of cashews are added for a creamy texture without any added oil, although you could add about one tablespoon which I find helps the cheese get even gooey-er.
For flavour, some vinegar, nutritional yeast, mustard and salt is added. Some optional ingredients you can add to make it even more flavourful are garlic powder, onion powder, sugar and black pepper. If you wanted a spicy melty cheese, add a dash of cayenne!
How to make melty vegan cheese
Making homemade vegan cheese is incredibly easy. Simply just add all the ingredients to a high speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy. It takes about 3-5 minutes on high speed and you do want it to warm up just a bit because that will thicken up the mixture.
It can be used straight out of the blender (two top photos) for things like casseroles, lasagna, anything baked or to dip in. However, if you want to use it for something like pizza, toast or grilled cheese then I highly recommend heating it up over the stove to thicken it isn't too loose (two photos on the bottom).
Transfer the cheese to a saucepan over medium low heat and just keep stirring with a whisk until thick. Never stop stirring or the bottom will clump relatively quickly. Once thickened, remove from the stove immediately and transfer to another bowl. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes and then scoop it onto pizza or spread it over bread for toast and grilled cheese.
Does this vegan cheese brown?
Yes! This cheese bakes and browns wonderfully. If you just toast or bake it in the oven, it will brown– but to get a rich deep golden brown I've found that a little oil and broiling does the trick.
After baking or toasting it until the cheese is slightly matte, spray with a little oil and then broil for 3-5 minutes. Keep on eye on it cause it can go from perfectly browned to burnt in minutes.
How to store vegan cheese
Once cooled, cover and then keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. It also freezes really well! I like to pour it over a lined baking sheet, freeze and then cut them up into small chunks for easy and convenient usage. It will last for up to 2 months in the freezer.
What to use this melty vegan cheese for:
- Cauliflower Gnocchi Mac and Cheese
- Yaki Curry
- Japanese Macaroni Gratin
- Mexican Stuffed Pepper Casserole
- Instant Pot Burrito Bowls
- No Boil Baked Pasta
- Vegan Cheesy Cauliflower Casserole
SAVE IT FOR LATER! ↓
If you recreate this Melty Vegan Mozzarella Cheese recipe let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below or by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!
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Melty Vegan Cheese
Stretchy, melty vegan mozzarella cheese thats incredibly easy to make with just 8 simple ingredients! Perfect for pizza, pasta, grilled cheese, and more!
- Prep Time: 8 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 13 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Category: homemade
- Method: blending
- Cuisine: vegan, gluten free, north american
Ingredients
- ½ scant cup hot water (100ml)
- ½ cup oat milk (120ml // or soy milk)
- 2 tsp vinegar or lemon juice (10g)
- 1 ½ tbsp nutritional yeast (10g)
- 1 ½ tsp mustard (7g)
- ⅓ cup cooked short grain rice (65g)
- ¾ cup glutinous rice flour (100g)
- ⅓ cup cashews, soaked (45g)
- 1 tsp salt
Optional
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp olive oil (will help with a better browning and stretch)
Instructions
- Add everything to a high speed blender on high for about 3-5 minutes until smooth and creamy. There should be no visible cashew or rice bits.
- It's ready as is and can be used as is over casseroles, mad and cheese, pasta bakes, pizza and anything you would top cheese with.
- For a firmer cheese, transfer the mixture to a saucepan over medium low heat. Use a whisk to stir continuously as it will thicken relatively quickly. Do not stop stirring once it is hot or it will burn at the bottom and leave clumps. Once thick, remove from the heat immediently and transfer to a storing container. Allow it to cool and then use it for grill cheese sandwiches, pizza and more.
Notes
- Helpful Equipment: high speed blender, oil spray, spatula, whisk
- Nutritional Information Disclaimer: Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated on an online tool (Cronometer).
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 tablespoon (30g)
- Calories: 55.6
- Sugar: 0.21g
- Sodium: 161mg
- Fat: 1.5g
- Saturated Fat: 0.29g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0.98g
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 9g
- Fiber: 0.5g
- Protein: 1.6g
- Cholesterol: 0
Keywords: vegan cheese, vegan mozzarella cheese, melty vegan cheese, vegan grill cheese, dairy free cheese
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Taylor George says
I was making lasagne and realized I didn’t have any mozzarella, but remember seeing this on your Instagram. Luckily enough I had all ingredients on hand..except mustard. I ended up adding Japanese hot mustard powder and it was great! I boiled the cashews in water quickly to get them to soak up the water and blend nicely. I was surprised how good this one was...the rice really gave it a great texture. I should have added a little more oil to help it brown up better, but I try to avoid adding oil to my recipes. Definitely a great addition to my recipe, will use again!
★★★★★
Angel says
What substitutes can I use for cashews? Unfortunately, I have a nut allergy 🙁
Lisa Kitahara says
Hi Angel,
I've had some people say sunflower butter works but the flavour is slightly different. If you're not too fussy about the flavoue of sunbutter, it'll work! 🙂
Angel says
Can you use sunflower seeds instead of cashews? I'm allergic to nuts
Lisa Kitahara says
Hi Angel,
I haven't tried so can't guarantee great results but in most cases, you can swap these two butters. However, sunflower seeds take on a different flavour and colour son please keep that in mind!
Julie says
I had to try it as soon as I saw it! I’ve been looking for ages for the perfect vegan “mozzarella” for my pizza, and this was exactly what I was looking for! I love the way it gets crispy on the surface while staying cheese and streachy on the inside! I have also used it with roasted vegetables and it was amazing!
Thanks, Lisa for this recipe 🙂
Julie
★★★★★
Ines says
I cannot wait to try this recipe!! Looks really bomb AND it’s gluten free + oil free? You’re really spoiling us Lisa haha! Thank you for all the good work!
★★★★★
Lisa Kitahara says
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy– let me know how it goes!
Starbirch says
This is absolutely fabulous! So easy and quick to make, and utterly delicious. It is now my melty "cheese" go-to recipe. I love to top all my casseroles with it, so comforting in this season. Thank you for creating and sharing your inspirations. I'm looking forward to trying more of your recipes!
★★★★★
Lisa Kitahara says
I'm so glad you love this cheese recipe!! Thanks so much for the review 🙂
Lidia says
We tried this recipe and had a bit of a mixed experience - first we used it on a lasagne straight from the blender and most probably due to our own mistake aka spreading it too thin/baking too long, it got crisped up and dry. Not to worry, it was still tasty, just definitely not the texture it was supposed to be. Later though, part of the same batch, after warming up and thickening on the stove, was used by us in grilled cheese and worked perfectly! I literally made a comparison then with a store bought vegan mozarella and they were slightly different but barely and not in ways which would make one worse than the other. Throughout it all, Lisa was super helpful (gave me advice via instagram dms) and absolutely a pleasure to talk to. The next time I try to make it for a lasagna/other oven baked dish, I will not skimp out on it and keep an eye out to not dry it out - but for a grilled cheese I can already attest it was exactly as I expected it to be - really tasty, mild and melty.
★★★★★
Lisa Kitahara says
Thanks for sharing your experience Lidia! I'm so glad it worked out in the end, always happy to help <3
Ashley-Delphine says
This recipe sounds amazing and I can’t wait to try it! Is another flour an option I could use? For some reason I can eat rice without issue but rice flour makes me sick.
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Lisa Kitahara says
Hi Ashley,
Hmm, i'm not too sure. Perhaps tapioca starch? The rice flour is what gives it its mochi-stretchy consistency. If you try tapioca starch let mw know how it goes! 🙂
Rachel Krause says
Hi Lisa,
I'm excited to try your recipe! What type of vinegar and mustard do you use?
Lisa Kitahara says
I use apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar! Mustard wise, I'll use dijon or regular– honestly whatever you have on hand! I do like dijon better but its def preference. Hope this helps!
Şulenur Bilgin says
Can we use topica instead of rice? 🙂
Lisa Kitahara says
Rice flour? I think it'll work! But please use grain rice for that portion 🙂
Rosemary says
What a cool use for glutinous rice flour! I'd bought a large bag to make mochi and was happy to have another use for it. I added this cheese to baked eggplant rounds and it worked fabulously as little vegan 'pizzas.' Following the amounts of each ingredient is key for that complex 'cheezy' flavor. Yum!
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David Colman says
So quick and easy! Cleaning the blender was the hardest part 😂. I'll definitely keep this as a staple in the fridge.
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Nonnie says
Used it for chili cheese fries. Only swap was almond flour for cashews. It was delicious, but didn't really brown under the broiler. Any idea what I could do to get it to brown better? I did add the olive oil.
Thanks!
★★★★★
Tamara says
Okay. I'm French so I tried soooo many different recipes. This is the best I tried EVER. HANDS DOWN.
I salted it a bit more because French cheeses are salty af, and used lactic acid (1/8 tsp) and it's was puurfect ! 🤩 I'm in love.
I tried it with pizza and burger for the moment.
★★★★★
Drew says
This vegan cheese was such a game changer for me. My body can be very sensitive to fat, and fake cheese is LOADED in saturated fat and little to nothing else.
This recipe is not only delicious, but provides more nutrition than store bought fake cheese.
It was amazing on a homemade pizza I made. I cannot recommend it enough. A+ for texture and taste!
★★★★★
Sabine says
Hello.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
I finally have vegan mozzarella cheese down pat.
I literally just finished making this for a Caprese salad. It is so good, stretchy, and delicious.
One thing, though, I used tapioca flour instead of rice flour, and it achieved the same consistency.
Thanks, again, for an excellent recipe.
★★★★★
Kat says
Such a clever and great recipe! Didn't change a thing, although I maybe should have heated it for a little longer on the stovetop to get even thicker, but it worked great on everything we used it for! Super yummy popped over mustard on toast, put under the grill for a couple minutes and then topped with tofu scramble, or just in a toastie done in the machine!
★★★★★
Katie says
The best vegan mozzarella ever!! It took me a few goes to perfect it but once I did it was amazing😍 never buying cheese from the store again!
★★★★★
Julie R says
Hello, i just found your recipe because i am very curious about this rice flour cheese thing!
My question is, how this cheese behaves when putting on pizza. do i need to thicken/cook it first? if so, is it possible to then put chunks on the pizza that will melt apart while baking? or should i just drizzle the uncooked/unthickened version out the mixer on the pizza?
thanks in advance 🙂
VeggieTater says
Wonderful, the best yet! Last time I used 1/2 cup of my homemade oatgurt (yummy IP plant based yogurt made from oats, hemp seeds, and a some cashews) mixed with the water to replace the milk and and lemon juice, and it was even more convincingly cheesy! I made quesadillas for the grandkids and nobody was the wiser that it wasn't "real" cheese! Kudos!
★★★★★
Amanda says
Hi I am going to try this today!! I was wondering does this freeze well? I would like to make a big batch because I know I’m going to love it
Juniper Swallow says
This is such an interesting recipe! I made it maybe 2-3 months ago and mine came out totally wrong. While it did thicken, it didn't really seem usable right away as it was very grainy and more like soup. The taste was fine, but it didn't feel like mozzarella to me. I was pretty desperate to save it though so I threw it in freezer. Today I was really craving cheese so I pulled it out in hopes that maybe it had transformed. It was pretty off putting as it was grainy again and as it was defrosting it was also melting and just falling apart. I was pretty sad and out of curiosity nuked it in the microwave for a min.......and it came out amazing! I don't know what dark magic happened in there, but it was the perfect texture chewy and stretchy, I WAS FLOORED. Anyway hopes this helps anyone if there's isn't going well like mine did.