Meltable dairy-free cheese: a cassava-thickened stand-in that actually stretches

Dairy is off the table here, and most dairy-free cheese alternatives on the shelf either do not melt or do not taste like much. This one does both. Cassava flour is the trick: whisked into seasoned coconut milk and cooked, it pulls the mixture together into something genuinely stretchy.

Nutritional yeast carries the savory, slightly cheesy note, and garlic and onion round it out. This will not fool anyone into thinking it is dairy, but it melts, it stretches, and it does real work on a pizza or a plate of nachos.

Ingredients

• 1 cup full-fat coconut milk
• 2 tsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp red palm oil (or another cooking fat)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp cassava flour
• 3/4 cup water

Method

Whisk the coconut milk, nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, apple cider vinegar, and palm oil together in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just comes to a simmer.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cassava flour into the water until fully smooth, with no lumps.

Pour the cassava slurry into the simmering coconut milk in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Keep whisking as it cooks; the mixture will thicken quickly and pull away from the sides of the pan into a stretchy mass, usually within a minute or two.

Use it warm, right away, for the best melt and stretch.

How to use it

• Spooned over pizza dough before the second bake
• Melted onto zucchini pizza bites
• Warmed and used as a dip with the sweet potato crackers at A grain-free cracker with a real crunch, or raw vegetables

Storage

Refrigerator: 3 to 4 days. It firms as it cools; rewarm gently over low heat, whisking, to bring back the stretch.

*Adapted from thecuriouscoconut.com by Amanda Torres*