Cheese was never a big part of my diet and so I did not really miss it when I started AIP. I have seen some nut free and AIP cheese recipes like this zucchini cheese by Gutsy by Nature and this AIP Mozarella cheese by BonAipetit. As I started health coaching last year, many of my clients on AIP missed cheese and so I would share Jaime and Beth’s recipes with them.
For my family, I tried making a couple different types of cheese using nuts like cashew nuts and hazelnuts. I found this wonderful cookbook named ‘Dairy Free – recipes and Preparation‘ by Angela Litzinger. It is a beautiful book with absolutely delicious and stunning recipes. I highly recommend this book for dairy free recipes!
So in this book she has a recipe for a firm cashew cheese. And under this recipe she mentions a nut free substitution recipe using cauliflower. Seeing cauliflower in it, I immediately thought of my clients and thought I should test it out!
It’s an easy recipe which comes together quickly and you only need a good blender or food processor. So without further ado, let me share the recipe. I made some slight changes to the amounts of flavorings like nutritional yeast and used coconut milk instead of coconut cream etc.
This ‘cheese’ tastes delicious and you can adjust flavors to your liking (by adding more or less of the nutritional yeast). This slices rather nicely and it is also ‘shreddable’ – you can shred it using a large size box grater. This is great as a topping to my AIP Pizza Crust 
You can watch my video tutorial for this recipe here:
- 2 cups cauliflower florets (about 7 oz or 200g or ½ of a medium size cauliflower)
- 2 large garlic cloves
- ¼ cup full fat coconut milk
- 3 tbsp powdered gelatin
- 3-4 tbsp nutritional yeast (I like to use 3 tbsp as 4 gives it a very strong cheesy flavor)
- 3 tbsp tapioca flour
- ¾ tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 1 tbsp coconut milk
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 1 -2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- Measure 2 cups of cauliflower florets and place that along with the whole garlic cloves in a steamer and steam for about 10 minutes until tender.
- While the cauliflower is steaming, take a shallow bowl and add the coconut milk to it. Sprinkle the gelatin on top of the coconut milk. Stir lightly using a fork to make sure all of the gelatin is wet by the coconut milk. (Add a tbsp of water if some of the gelatin is dry). Keep aside for 5 mins.
- Once the cauliflower is cooked, transfer that (while it is still warm) along with the garlic to a blender or food processor. Add the bloomed gelatin or the gelatin coconut milk mixture to the blender(or food processor) too. Then add all the rest of the ingredients (except the extra virgin olive oil)and blend until you get a smooth creamy mixture.
- Pour this blended mixture into a sauce pan and place on low heat stirring often. Cook for about 5 minutes stirring continuously until it thickens slightly. Turn heat off.
- Take a glass storage container and brush with 1 tsp of the olive oil. Pour the cooked cauliflower mixture into the container. Pour the remaining 1 tsp olive oil and spread it on the top with a brush. Cover the container and place in a refrigerator for at least two hours until firm.
- Slice the 'cheese' by placing on a cutting board and by using a sharp knife. This cheese is also 'shreddable' and you can shred it using a large size box grater.
[…] keep your AIP ketogenic burger as low carb as possible, I suggest using this Cauliflower Cheese recipe from the blogger Cook 2 Nourish! It’s low in carbohydrates but full of flavor. It slices and melts beautifully and will have you […]