It’s so easy to make your own vegan parmesan cheese. And it’s so tasty you’ll want to sprinkle it on everything! Simple 4 ingredient recipe ready in 5 minutes.
Yep, you’ll definitely want to sprinkle this on everything.
And I mean everything.
We sprinkle it on baked potatoes, on salads, on roasted veggies, on the no-cheese thin crust pizza take-outs we buy, on pasta dishes (of course) and whatever else we can think of.
If it’s a savory dish then chances are it’ll be even more delicious with a sprinkle of this on top.
And for more delicious homemade vegan cheese check out our vegan cheddar cheese, our sliceable cashew cheese and our cashew cheese sauce!
So what is Vegan Parmesan?
Well, you can buy vegan parmesan that you can grate over things and that is delicious. But this homemade version is made from cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and sea salt. The nutritional yeast, along with the garlic powder and salt combine to make those cashews really taste cheesy! It’s kind of amazing really.
It’s not something that will melt or anything like that, but it’s wonderful as a sprinkle and it tastes wonderfully cheesy.
How To Make It
All you need to make your own vegan parmesan is a food processor. You simply put in the S blade, add in your cashews, nutritional yeast, salt and garlic powder and pulse it until it’s super fine like you see in the photos.
Pulse, don’t blend.
You don’t just want to run the food processor on this one because, ya know, cashews when processed for too long can start to turn into cashew butter, which you definitely don’t want here.
So pulse it. Don’t set it and forget it.
Does It Need To Be Refrigerated?
No it doesn’t. You can keep it in a sealed container at room temperature for a few (3-4) weeks. However, you also can keep it in the fridge if you like. As long as it’s in a sealed container, either/or is fine.
What can I use instead of Cashews?
If you have a cashew allergy you can make this with walnuts. It also works amazingly well! Use walnuts in the same quantity as the cashews and you have a great alternate version of this vegan parmesan.
More Vegan Cheese!
- Vegan Mozzarella Cheese
- Creamy Vegan Cheese Sauce
- Vegan Cream Cheese
- Vegan Ricotta
- Vegan Feta
- Vegan Cottage Cheese
Vegan Parmesan Cheese
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 5 mins
- Yield: ~1 and 1/4 cup
- Diet: Vegan
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
It’s so easy to make your own vegan parmesan cheese. And it’s so tasty you’ll want to sprinkle it on everything! Simple 4 ingredient recipe ready in 5 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (150g) Raw Cashews*
- 1/4 cup (15g) Nutritional Yeast Flakes
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 3/4 tsp Sea Salt
Instructions
- Add the ingredients to the food processor and pulse it on the S blade until it reaches a fine consistency.
- Keep it in a sealable jar in the refrigerator where it will keep for weeks!
- Sprinkle it on pastas, pizzas, casseroles, salads and anywhere else you can possibly think of!
Notes
*If you have a cashew allergy you can also make this with walnuts. Just use walnuts in the same quantity (1 cup).
*Keep it stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge. It will last for a few (3-4) weeks.
*This recipe was first published in January 2016 and has now been updated with new photos and text.
- Category: Savory, Side, Gluten-Free, How to
- Method: Food Processor
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Tbsp
- Calories: 48
- Sugar: 0.5g
- Sodium: 111mg
- Fat: 3.5g
- Saturated Fat: 0.6g
- Carbohydrates: 2.8g
- Fiber: 0.5g
- Protein: 2g
Keywords: vegan parmesan cheese, vegan parmesan
I have a nut allergy can I use seeds instead?
Hi Renel, Cookie and Kate have a recipe that uses hemp seeds. 🙂
A totally indispensable stable, and adaptable, too! When I ran out of cashews, I made this with blanched almonds to great success.
★★★★★
Agreed! And thanks for the great tip about blanched almonds Hannah!
I ADORE every single one of your recipes ! Simply THE best!!!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Celeste! 🙂
I used to make this exactly as you posted it, but now I cutback on the salt from 3/4tsp to about 1/2tsp. I also add 1/4t onion powder, and few shakes of smoked paprika and dried parsley flakes. It’s so delicious, and you can’t even tell there is less salt! I love it on vegan pizza and pasta.
Sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing Donna!
Hi Alison,
Made your parmesan for the first time today. So easy and so delicious! Looking forward to sprinkling it on everything!
Awesome! Thanks Andrea! 🙂
Really simple. Really good.
Thanks Lisa! 🙂
The cashews in your photos seem to be a lot darker than the raw cashews I have access to. Are you sure they are not dry roasted unsalted cashews?
In any case what is your opinion about using roasted cashews, salted or unsalted on the flavour profile?
Hi Don, yes, this seems to be a thing in South Africa, the cashews are often a darker color. They are definitely still raw though. I think you could absolutely use roasted cashews, it would just add a roasted flavor, could be delicious! If you are using salted cashews, then maybe just reduce the amount of added salt to the recipe.
All sounds good ta!
Is a blender acceptable if I don’t have a food processor?
Yes, I’m sure it would be fine, just make sure you ‘pulse’ blend it.
I made this, and while really good, it needs that “bite” that cheeses like your sliceable cashew cheese has. Citric acid powder or lactic acid powder gives it that slightly acidic taste that dairy Parmesan has. I thought about ordering (from Amazon) a lemon powder, but they seem to have citric acid as an ingredient and not sure if the flavoring would be too much. I used lactic acid (food grade) and it added a nice bite with no other flavors. You’d have to experiment with the amounts. I didn’t measure, just added til it tasted right.
Big thumbs up on the sliceable cashew cheese from my husband this morning. This will be perfect on Veggie Delight Subway sandwiches which are really missing something when you leave off the cheese. In fact, it will likely taste a lot better than the dairy cheeses. You’ve done an amazing job on developing this recipe! And big points for it being so fast to make.
★★★★
Hi Joanne, thanks for the feedback and the info on using lactic acid with this, will be interesting to try it! Thanks for posting! 🙂
Greetings all! First – I love this site!! 🤗
For Citric Acid check in the home canning section of a grocery store. I just saw it here (Washington State, U.S.) a couple days ago (March 2020)
Best wishes!
Thanks for sharing Marguerite, and so glad you love the site! xo
I stumbled into your recipe because the recipe I initially found called for hemp seeds which I didn’t have.
Used slightly less garlic but other than that followed to the letter. It is SOOOOO good! I’m so excited to find something new and simple. I foresee yummy vegan Ceasar salads, zoodles and rosemary vegan parm popcorn on the horizon!
Hi Denise! Awesome, yes this has SO many uses! So glad you like the recipe. 🙂
If I wanted to make this into a sauce to go on gnocchi, would I just add some cashew milk in a high speed blender until desired consistency? Would you do anything else?
★★★★★
Hi Christy, this works best as something that you sprinkle over your food, I haven’t tried to make it into a sauce. If you want a cheesy sauce, maybe check out our vegan alfredo or our cashew cheese sauce, that might be more what you’re looking for. All the best! 🙂
Would this also work with roasted unsalted cashews?
I think it would be fine – just go easy with the processing – definitely pulse and don’t just run the processor – roasted cashews will want to start turning into cashew butter quite quickly. ?
This is delicious! Also can be made with English walnuts, equally as good. Great on butternut squash bisque, popcorn, steamed veggies, or anything else!
★★★★★
Awesome! I must try it with walnuts! And totally agree – it’s great on so many things! 🙂
Do you use nutritional flakes or seasoning?
It’s nutritional yeast flakes. I usually have Bob’s Red Mill brand.
Thanks for your quick reply. ? It is much appreciated.
Hi! Do you soak the cashews first?
No, definitely not, you want it to all be very dry which is how you get it so crumbly like that. If you soaked them first, it would make a cashew cream instead of a parmesan.
Fab – thank you. I see so many recipes using nutritional yeast and I’ve never seen any here in dxb (or at least I never remember to look for it when I’m at OC). Good to know its at Geant too.
Not that I am anywhere near being vegan currently, but I do want to move in that direction and the thought of missing out on parmesan is pretty awful so it’s great to have a recipe for an alternative. Yay!! Thanks!
Sure, it’s a pleasure! Yes, I think you’ll like this, nutritional yeast is very ‘cheesy’ in recipes 🙂
Hi Alison
Where do you buy nutritional yeast from in Dubai?
Thx
Hi Rachel! I’ve bought it from the Organic Cafe before, but most recently just from Geant. They have an organic foods section and it’s in there. 🙂
Been waiting for this for ages – absolutely simple and delicious.
★★★★★