Almond Ricotta Cheese

Not only do you get Almond Ricotta Cheese from making this recipe, but you’ll also get greek yogurt and cultured cream cheese. Which one would you like?–your choice!

This recipe happened to me in the middle of my experiment to make better vegan cheeses. I spent a lot of time reading how people make dairy cheeses, and learned that they coagulate the milk and use the milk curd to make all the cheeses. 

Hmm..I was determined to have incredibly soft cheeses that can melt on my tongue!

What should I use to coagulate the milk without buying the solution?

Yes, it’s simple–I’d use the same method I use for making my own sprouted tofu. I know that lemon juice works well with soy milk, but I had no idea if it would work with other kinds of plant milk.

So, I started with almond milk.

I made the milk, boiled it and used lemon juice to coagulate it. I had high hopes to see whether  the milk would curdle up the same way dairy milk does, but it doesn’t work the same way with plant milk.

The milk only thickened and I could see that the whey was separated. It didn’t look too promising but I decided I might as well strain it and try using the coagulate solution next time. 

 Despite my uncertainty, the whey went through the cheesecloth and left me a nice milk curd!

I was so happy to find that lemon juice worked to coagulate almond milk too.

As I like to culture most things I eat, I decided to add rejuvelac to the curd and ferment it for one night. The next day I got a very thick yogurt that is the same as greek yogurt and stopped there. We ate it as greek yogurt and cream cheese. 

Once I got the method down, I wanted to make it tastier for my next batch, so I added a little bit of salt to the milk. It’s hard to believe that with only a little bit of salt, the greek yogurt tastes a lot better.

Later I got a comment suggesting me to make smoked ricotta cheese using Full of Plants recipe. I looked up the website and decided to go another step further turning the greek yogurt into Almond Ricotta. I’ll turn the cheese into smoked ricotta using the Full of Plants recipe soon–stay tuned!

Ready to try making Almond Ricotta Cheese? Let me show you how!

Ingredients for making Almond Ricotta Cheese:

1. 2 cups (480 ml) raw almonds
2. 4 TBSP (60 ml) fresh squeeze lemon juice (from my experience, 1 medium size lemon makes perfect 4 TBSP (60 ml) of lemon juice)
3. 1 tsp (5 ml) salt
4. 4 TBSP (60 ml) rejuvelac
5. 6 cups ( 1,440 ml) of filtered water for blending + for more for soaking the almonds

Special equipment:

1. A cheese mold. Note: I don’t have a cheese mold, so I use a small bamboo basket. It works great. 

How to make Almond Ricotta cheese?

Instructions:

Preparing the milk

1. Soak the almonds for at least 8 hours or overnight.
2. The next morning, dump the soaking water and rinse well. Remove the skin if you prefer. Rinse well again and let the water drip. If not, skip to the next step. Note: I like to have creamy white cheese and prefer to do it. It doesn’t take long to do it after long hours of soaking.
3. Use half of the almonds with 3 cups (720 ml) of water and ½ tsp (2.5 ml) of salt at a time. Blend on high speed until very smooth. Transfer it to a nut milk bag or cheesecloth, squeeze as much milk as you can.
4. Put the milk in a saucepan. On low-medium heat, stir frequently and bring it to a boil. Note: while waiting, you can dehydrate the almond pulp and prepare the lemon juice.
5. When the milk reaches a boil, turn the heat down and let it simmer for another 3-5 minutes and turn the heat off. Let it sit for at least 5 minutes.
6. Add the lemon juice and gently mix, let it sit to curdle. It takes anywhere from 2-3 hours or longer.
7. When you see the whey separated, it’s time to strai. Put a cheesecloth one a strainer, then on a container to catch the whey, and gently scoop the curd and strain it. Note: try not to pour it all at once as the curd will break and turn into liquid milk. It will strain right through the cheesecloth, leaving only a little bit of the curd.
8. Jiggle the cheesecloth from time to time. When you see that the whey doesn’t come out easily anymore, bundle the cheesecloth and gently squeeze to help re- enforcing the whey. Be sure not to squeeze it too hard as the curd will come out along with the whey.
9. Tie the cheesecloth with rubber bands, insert a stick and hang it tolet the whey drip for a few hours. I hang it over the sink and it’s very convenient. Note: doing this late in the evening is convenient as you can let it hang overnight.
10. When the whey stops dripping, if you want it to be fermented cheese, culture it with rejuvelac. If you prefer not, skip and move one to the next step.
11. To culture it, put the curd in a container, add rejuvelac and mix well. Let it ferment at room temperature for 24 hours.

Forming the cheese

1. After 24 hours of fermenting, you have cultured milk curd. You can eat it as cream cheese/ greek yogurt or go another step further turning it to almond ricotta cheese.
2. In a container, put something that a cheese mold can sit on for further draining. Gently pack the curd into a cheese mold. Loosely cover it and put it in the fridge to drain for another night. Note: this step makes the whey drain more and the curd will become a firmer cheese. It also makes it look appealing. You can use any kind of cheese mold, I use a small bamboo basket I have. The appearance of the cheese depends on the texture of the mold. 
3. The next morning, most of the whey has drained through the mold. You finally have Almond Ricotta Cheese. Put a piece of parchment paper on it, turn the basket over. Gently push the cheese and remove the mold. Note: The parchment paper makes it easy to handle the cheese. If you don’t finish eating it in one sitting, you can simply pick it up and easily put it in a container, then refrigerate it.
4. Now, you can use the cheese for your favorite recipe or simply eat it–be creative. My favorite way to eat it is to make finger sandwiches, with sourdough bread, fresh tomatoes, and basil. It’s so good, I hope you try eating it this way too. Enjoy.
   

   soaking almonds overnight

   

   remove the almond skin (optional)

   

   squeeze out the milk as much as you can

   

   add lemon juice to the milk

   

   gently strain it through a cheese cloth

   

   hang it in the sink to drip overnight

   

   add rejuvelac to the milk curd

   

   now you have cultured almond cream cheese

   

   pack the curd in a cheese mold

   

   carefully remove the cheese mold

   

   enjoy!

Have you made Almond Ricotta Cheese? Please share it with me, I’d love to hear about it!