Best Vegan Cottage Cheese – Original Taste, Just Two Ingredients

What is Vegan Cottage Cheese made of?

SOY MILK

Soy milk is the basis of this recipe and it is the best milk to make vegan cottage cheese. So far I tried two other milks (almond and oat milk) and unfortunately I wasn’t very successful. Soy milk has high amount of protein compared to other plant milks. That is why it curdles very well when treated with heat and acid.

If you find any other milk with more than 3g protein per 100ml you can give it a shot. I read about pea milk which is high in protein, but I didn’t have a chance to try it yet.

To make natural vegan cottage cheese use unsweetened soy milk. If you want to bake vegan cheesecake use vanilla sweetened soy milk. You will get delicious sweet vanilla cottage cheese, which is amazing for various desserts.

LEMON JUICE

In order to make the milk curdle we need two things: heat and acid. Lemon juice is perfect for that. It has gentle enough taste not to be noticeable in the final product.

If you don’t have lemon, but still want to prepare vegan cottage cheese you can use apple cider vinegar in a bit smaller amount. 2.5 tbsp should be enough. The cheese may have slightly more acidy flavor.

You can transform soy milk into this delicious vegan cottage cheese in a very simple and quick process.

Vegan Cottage Cheese

Recipe by VegnFitCourse: Breakfast, DessertCuisine: VeganDifficulty: Easy

Cook time

10

minutes

Resting Time

1

hour 

Total time

1

hour 

5

minutes

This vegan cottage cheese has a nice soft texture and tastes just like original dairy version.

Ingredients

• 1liter (1/4 gallon) unsweetened soy milk

• 4 tbsp lemon juice

• EQUIPMENT NEEDED

• pot with thick bottom

• plastic or glass bowl

• silicone or wooden spoon

• cheese cloth / clean white tea towel / coffee filter

• strainer

Directions

• Prepare all the equipment you will need. Shake soy milk carton well, so that thickened liquid on the bottom of the carton becomes mixed with rest of the milk.
  Juice your lemons, so that there’s no pulp or seeds in the juice.
  
• Pour all the soy milk into a pot (preferably with a thick bottom). Bring it almost to the boil (when you see the steam and small bubbles rising take it off the stove).
• Pour your soy milk into the bowl and add 4 table spoons of lemon juice. You will see the milk curdling right away. Mix using silicone or wooden spoon for about 1 minute.
• Leave curdled soy milk in a bowl for 10-15 minutes.
• In the meantime, line the strainer with cheese cloth or clean tea towel. Put it over bowl or pot. Pour curdled milk through cloth.
• Wait till all the liquid goes through the strainer. Your cottage cheese will still be wet.
• Wrap the cloth over your cheese and put something heavy on top – for example another bowl filled with water. We need to press all the excess liquid to form our cheese.
• Press the cheese for at least 30 minutes – preferably one hour. The longer you do it the firmer and drier your cottage cheese becomes.
• After pressing you can eat your cottage cheese or use it in another dish recipe.

Notes

• I lined tea cloth additionally with paper towel. You don’t need to do that.

Serving suggestions

What’s so great about this soy cottage cheese is that it’s a base for various sweet and savory dishes. You can simply use it as a spread for bread. You can substitute it for ricotta in spinach pasta sauce. You can prepare many desserts with it.

Where you can use Vegan Cottage Cheese:

Best Vegan Cream Cheese

Vegan Cheesecake

How does it work?

CURDLING PROCESS

Curdling is the process that’s initiated in milk by adding acid. When pH of the milk drops suddenly proteins start to form lumps (milk proteins get separated from the water and come together). Why do we heat the milk up? Because this process works best in warmer temperatures.

Will this work if we add other type of acid? Sure, we can use acid cider vinegar, but I like the taste better when using lemon juice.

WHAT MILK TO USE?

You can use any unsweetened soy milk. Unfortunately you cannot substitute it for other plant milks.

IS IT COTTAGE CHEESE OR RICOTTA?

This recipe is describing the process of making soy cottage cheese. Ricotta has a bit different texture and is produced slightly differently. If you want to learn about exact difference between ricotta and cottage cheese you can read about it here.

INSPIRATION WHERE TO USE VEGAN COTTAGE CHEESE

Soy Cottage Cheese can be used the same way as the regular cottage cheese. Here are some great ideas:

1. Mix in chopped radishes and spring onion, add salt and pepper and use it as a bread spread.
2. Add agave syrup with chopped strawberries and other berries for a healthy breakfast.
3. Add to stewed spinach, just like ricotta, to use in lasagna and other pasta dishes.
4. Spread it on crackers with some crunchy veggies for delicious party snack.
5. Use it as a sweet or sour filling for crêpes.

HOW TO STORE VEGAN COTTAGE CHEESE

You can store your soy cottage cheese in an air tight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.

Let me know if you like my Vegan Cottage Cheese! How did you use it?

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