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You heard that right. The Cheddar “Cheese” in this sandwich is made of Cauliflower! No nuts! It is sliced, and has limited oil. Loads of flavor in the cheese. Paired in this sandwich with some fresh pesto, grilled zucchini and juicy tomatoes. Summer in a panini. The way I use cauliflower these days, I should plant half my yard with cauliflower. No?
The awesome part about the recipe, no wait required except for the setting time. And you can keep tasting as you go to change up the flavor profile, make it stronger, add more flavors, make is smokier with liquid smoke, sharper with more miso or sundried tomato, and so on. Some tips to keep it less cauliflower-y tasting. Use fresh cauliflower, do not over cook the cauliflower. If the taste still stands out, add more non dairy milk, and flavors, and add a tsp more agar so it sets the added liquid. If you can have nuts, then add some soaked cashews.
The thick saucy cheese is spread on parchment into a thin layer where it sets nicely and is then cut into squares and stored. You can also make a block of the cheese. It is much much easier to cut it up when already set on the parchment.
And this sandwich. is. amazing. Fresh basil, zukes, and double slices of cheddar. Perfect!
As with the agar cheeses, they melt, but are not necessarily stringy and oily. For a Stringier cheese you will need more tapioca starch and oil and maybe use fruit pectin.
More cheeses from the blog
Melty Cashew Mozzarella and Mozzarella sticks – baked and fried versions
Green Goddess Gouda
Cashew millet Nacho cheese
Coconut Milk Cheddar and Mozzarella
Messy grilled panini. Messier the better.
Steps:
Layer the pesto, cheddar, zucchini, tomato, more cheddar.
Top with a buttered/oiled slice and grill.
Serve hot!
Cauliflower Cheddar Grilled Cheese with Zucchini Pesto Tomato
Allergen Information for Cheddar: Free of dairy, egg, corn, soy, gluten, nut.
Cheddar slices: Makes 10 to 12, 3 inch slices
Ingredients:
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, chopped
3 cups cauliflower florets (1.5 to 2 inch pieces)
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp hemp seeds
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup non dairy milk
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp chickpea miso or other miso
3/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp prepared mustard
1/2 pickled jalapeno, 3 slices (optional)
1 Tbsp flour of choice (omit to make gluten-free)
2 Tbsp Tapioca Flour
/Starch
2 tsp Agar Powder
Sandwich ingredients:
Basil pumpkin seed pesto (Basil, pumpkin seeds, salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice)
Sliced ripe tomato
Sliced Zucchini, raw or grilled
salt, pepper and sriracha
Method:
Make the Cheddar:
In a large pan, add 1 tsp oil and heat at medium heat. When the oil is hot, add chopped garlic and cook for a minute. Add the cauliflower, water and salt and cover and cook for 8 minutes or until cauliflower is tender crisp. Cool slightly. Drain the water into a bowl (reserve for later use). Add cauliflower and the rest of the ingredients (hemp seeds to flour) except tapioca starch and agar to the blender. Blend to a smooth thick puree. Add a Tbsp or more water for the blending only if needed. (Blend 2 to 3 cycles so the hemp seeds get blended). Taste and adjust salt, tang if needed. (add 1 Tbsp sun dried tomato for sharper cheddar).
Add tapioca starch and agar and blend again. Transfer mixture to a pan and cook at medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes. (Once the mixture starts bubbling, keep cooking for 6 minutes so agar gets activated). The mixture will thicken.
Pour this onto parchment lined sheet immediately and spread into a 1/8 inch thick layer using a spatula. (or you can pour in a greased container to make a block, slicing that will not be easy though:). Keep the slices thick as the thin slices will break too easily.
* The mixture starts thickening more as it cools, so spread when it is still hot. Spray oil on the spatula and on the cheese mixture to help with spreading.
Refrigerate for at least an hour to set. Cut into squares, peel each slice carefully from the parchment and store between square parchment papers in an airtight container. Keeps refrigerated for upto 4 days. Can also be frozen.
Make the Sandwich:
Brush oil or butter on the bread slice. Add a thick layer of pesto, add a slice of cheddar, then layer tomatoes, layer raw or grilled zuccini slices, sprinkle salt and pepper. Add Sriracha for spice. (optional)
Add another cheddar slice. Top with a bread slice. Brush oil on the top slice and grill. Serve hot.
Add other veggies, greens, or burger crumbles etc for variations. If the cheese doesnt set or anything else goes wrong, use it as a spread or make mac and cheddar cheese 🙂
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This chart about the carbon footprint of different foods. Read more about how the diet impacts climate and environment here. And how one diet change can tale upto 46 million cars off the road.
I see agar is a vegan gelatin substitute. Any idea if this would turn out using unflavored beef gelatin? Same amount?
My husband and I are not strict vegetarian… but use mainly vegetarian recipes. We have loved EVERYTHING we’ve made of yours! Thank you!
Yum! I love this sandwich! The cauliflower cheese was easy to make. My daughter also used it to make a quesadilla. Thank you!
Awesome
Can I put these slices on the top of a pasta bake, and then bake the whole thing? Will they brown?
They wont melt much but will brown. Broil for a minute.
Can I substitute flax seeds for hemp seeds?
no, use sunflower or pumpkin seeds instead or nuts like cashews
I gonna show this to my wife, Hope she will give it a try. 🙂 Our son will love it.
What is the nutrition information? Haha, I mean like calories, fat, protein, etc.
thanks!
I have been adding that to the newer recipes. all posts will eventually get it in a couple of months. You can use cronometer.com or calorieount.com to calculate inthe meanwhile
Hi,
I really like your recipe. I was just wondering how you managed to get such a consistence. I even user a bit more of agar, but my cheese in block form isn’t hard. It is still a bit creamy, but I’m sure that the agar was activated since it got somewhat more solid and I cooked it a bit longer then needed. I would be really grateful about a reply since I had the same problem with two other cheese recipes in the past. Thanks!
The cheese is somewhat soft because of the moisture of the cauliflower. You can use more agar powder for a more set cheese.
Also agar activates better when heated just with water to activate, then add the activated mixture to the rest of the mixture. Let me know if these steps worked
Thanks! I didn’t have the time to test it yet and I still have some cheddar left from the last time I did the recipe. But your idea seems pretty logical to me. Further I liked you cheese, but non the less it tastes good, but not like cheese. I’m only vegan for a few weeks, but until now I couldn’t find a recipe which really tasted like cheese. (Not that they tasted bad…) Do you have any recommendations?
For the very authentic flavor profile, you have to make cultured cheeses. See Miyoko schinners books (artisan vegan cheese and vegan pantry) for those recipes that culture the cashew or other cheese mixture over the counter for a few days to develop the cheese culture or spores just like dairy cheese. Recipes that use miso or non dairy yogurt also taste closer. Try my vegan pizza dip with vegan mozzarella.
You can also buy some of miyokos cheeses before investing in making them. Many are available in whole foods or other stores if you are in the US. There are other brands like treeline, kite hill etc with artisan cheeses as well.
It also is a getting used to process. Cheese is pretty addictive because of the fat, protein, flavor combination which is very pleasing and liked. So its one of the harder foods to transition from. It takes a while to start getting used to the vegan versions, some might have the flavor but not the fat, might have the fat but not the texture or right protein etc. After a while, your tastebuds adjust to it and the same vegan versions start to taste/feel better :).
Hi – how many servings does this recipe make? Trying to figure out how much I need to make.
Makes 10 to 11, 3 inch slices
This looks amazing and we are so excited to try today. We have both a rice miso and also a chickpea miso from Whole Foods – they are both great! The rice one seems a bit saltier. Do you think alright to omit the hemp seeds with no sub for the cheese or is it crucial to have the 2 Tbsp. of some kind of nuts or seeds? Thanks!
Another question about tweaking ingredients. What do you think about adding smoked paprika for the paprika ingredient? If yes, do you think sweet or hot paprika (or combo!) would be better with the vibe of this? Also, you mention leaving off the flour if making gf. Do you think it would work to add rice or chickpea flour instead or better to leave out the 1 Tbsp. flour completely if gluten-free flour? Thanks again!
I would use all smoked hot paprika but if you are unsure of how hot it would be, use a combination. Use rice flour.
Thank you so much, Richa!
We did 1/2 hot and 1/2 sweet and could have done all hot. 🙂 You knew! Still great withe smokiness. All of it was so yummy! My daughter’s quote: “That was a really solid sandwich!” The layering of flavors (your specialty!) was amazing from the pumpkin seed pesto to sauteed zucchini to cheese to tomatoes. Thank you so much!
it would be good to have some nuts or seeds for the volume. It adds a slightly meatier texture to the cheese rather than just a gelled texture. But you can omit it if you are ok with the texture a bit here and there.
Will do…thanks again!
Added roasted pumpkin seeds to the cheese rather than hemp seeds. Worked out beautifully!
Awesome!