Although I’ve made melty vegan mozzarella cheese before with success, getting the texture just right for a solid mozzarella cheese has been a bit of a challenge. You need the right ratios of agar for firmness, xantham gum for binding, tapioca flour for stretchiness and potato starch or arrowroot for bulk to get that firm-yet-springy texture of real mozzarella cheese. This version hits the mark not only in texture, but also in taste, and looks lovely skewered caprese-style with some fresh basil and tomato, and finished with a few drops of fresh balsamic vinegar.
VEGAN MOZZARELLA, CHERRY TOMATO AND BASIL SKEWERS
- Yield: 10-14 cubes, depending on the size of tray used
Ingredients
for the mozzarella
- 1 TB potato starch powder or arrowroot powder
- 1/2 TB tapioca flour or starch
- 5 TB water
- 1 can good quality, full-fat coconut milk (403 mL)
- 3 tsp agar powder
- 1 1/2 tsp coconut vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 TB coconut oil
- 1 tsp xantham gum
to serve
- cherry tomatoes
- fresh basil leaves
- balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- Combine the potato starch and tapioca flour or starch with the water in a small bowl and stir until fully dissolved. Set aside.
- Heat the coconut milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a low boil.
- While you are waiting for the coconut milk to boil, place the coconut oil and xantham gum in a Kitchen Aid mixer on its highest setting and blend for a few seconds.
- Once the coconut milk has achieved a low boil, add in the agar powder and whisk briskly until dissolved, then add in the vinegar and salt.
- Reduce the stovetop heat to its lowest setting, then add in the flour mixture and the xantham gum/oil mixture, whisking very quickly to combine, then transfer to a small-cubed silicone ice cube tray before it gets too thick to pour. Speed with this step is very important. Then place into the refrigerator to fully set for a few hours.
- When ready to serve, assemble the mozzarella cubes with the tomatoes and basil leaves on skewers or a toothpick. Spoon or pipe some fresh balsamic vinegar over the top and serve immediately.
Basil says
Oh, wow! This looks amazing… you have my full admiration. Gorgeous pictures, gorgeous recipe. Looks like I need to get my hands on potato starch!..
erinwyso says
Thanks Basil! You can also use arrowroot in place of the potato starch if you have that handy …
Mary Banducci says
Oh my! I used to love caprese salad and this would work just perfect! Thank you for another wonderful recipe.
erinwyso says
Thanks Mary — I hope you enjoy it!
Tami says
I'd say you got it. Those are stunning.
erinwyso says
Thanks Tami!
Amey says
wow, you are so amazing. I really need to track down some coconut vinegar and get to work on these recipes you've been posting. They look incredible! I love all the food science fun behind it too!
erinwyso says
Thanks Amey!
sybaritica.me says
Those look *SO* elegant… and beautifully photographed!
Jen @ Savory Simple says
I'm so intrigued by your mozzarella! This is definitely going on the to do list.
erinwyso says
Thank you Jen!
Danielle says
Could the mozza be poured into a larger mold and sliced after, or are the small cubes necessary?
erinwyso says
Yes, that would work too!
Danielle says
Perfect, thanks Erin!
christine says
is the coconut flavour pronounced? I like coconut, but I wouldn't want a cheese substitute to taste of it! I hope the answer's no – your photo looks good enough to eat:)
erinwyso says
Thanks Christine! It's a valid question, and I'm happy to say that, no, coconut is not a pronounced flavor here at all! Once the coconut vinegar hits the coconut milk, it transforms everything into a cheesy, mozz-like non-coconutty flavor.
Angie's Recipes says
What a different and delicious vegan appetizer!
Fantastic photos!
Julie says
I just ordered a $12 bottle of coconut vinegar specifically to make this! Is there by any chance a substitute for xanthan gum? I have had weird reactions to it in the past – will use it if I have to but would love to avoid it if at all possible.
Thank you for the recipe! I'm excited to try it.
erinwyso says
$12! That must be some fancy-schmancy coconut vinegar, Julie! Totally excited that you are going to try this. You could try to double the potato or arrowroot, or sub guar guam for the xantham gum, but I can't guarantee the same result, as I haven't tried that out myself.
You could also try this in its queso form: https://olivesfordinner.com/2012/04/vegan-queso-blanco-dip.html
or on a pizza:
https://olivesfordinner.com/2012/03/fresh-vegan-mozzarella-pizza.html
which doesn't require any xantham gum. Good luck and let me know how it goes! : )
Julie says
LOL! I've never seen coconut vinegar in a store around here, so I ordered it on Amazon – had no idea if that was a normal price or not. As soon as I can track down some agar powder I'm going to get on this train 🙂
Ezra says
i normally buy it in asian stores, where i pay about 6 dollars for a liter, and i also buy my argar argar powder in asain stores
★★★★★
Caitlin says
Wow, this looks so amazing! And what a beautiful photograph. 🙂
Elle says
I'm desperate to make this cheese! Sadly, I haven't been able to locate coconut vinegar anywhere in Australia. I know it's already been asked, but can you think of any other kind of vinegar that may produce similar results? If not, I'll see if I can order some coconut vinegar through Amazon. 🙂
erinwyso says
Thanks Elle! This is a super-picky recipe, almost similar to baking. All of the components have to be really precise, or it won't work. However! I do recall someone else making the vegan queso dip with apple cider vinegar and it turning out okay, so if you have that around, it may do the trick! Good luck!
Elle says
If any other Australian's are interested, I discovered Nature Pacific are selling Coconut Cider Vinegar for $6.50 + postage. 🙂
Erin, I'm curious as to whether you've ever tried making tofu-misozuke?
erinwyso says
Thanks for sharing that brand, Elle. I've seen all kinds of ranging in pricing for ACV (up to $14!), but Nature Pacific's sounds reasonable.
I've read about tofu-misozuke (I believe The Recipe Renovator did this), but it just sounds so unsafe as a home DIY project — however, if I spotted some pre-made professionally, I'd buy tons of it!
Elle says
Unfortuantely I've since discovered that the postage price isn't quite so reasonable… $14 to post a tiny bottle! Ah well, these are the things we do for cheese! 🙂
You're right, I discovered the tofu-misozuke via your blog link to The Recipe Renovator. What makes you feel it's unsafe as a home DIY project? I was wary of the tofu feta recipe, in which the tofu is left to ferment at room-temperature for a few days, but as the tofu-misozuke remains refrigerated, I figured it would be quite safe(?).
erinwyso says
oops! Oh well, these recipes all usually use 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp, so hopefully that bottle will last awhile. ; )
The misozuke kind of intimidates me because of the whole mold/bacteria aspect. Even if it is refrigerated, I don't know enough about food safety to this myself. However, I would gladly purchase this made by an expert — it does sound like pretty amazing stuff!
Victoria says
These are beautiful!
Leila A. Fortier says
I have been meaning to make these for quite some time. Initially, I could not get a lot of the ingredients. Over time I have ordered much of the specialty items online, and then sometimes forget which recipes they were for. Recently, when I referenced your full recipe index I saw the picture and was reminded. Still, I did not have potato starch or arrowroot powder–so I thought I would try with EnerG? I think that may have effected the result just a little–and that I neglected to use a silicone tray *note to self for future* Anyhow, the final result was still quite pleasing despite my own little glitch. I expected to taste more coconut, but did not. The texture was close to the buffalo mozzarella I use in vegetarian recipes and caprese stacks. So for this alone, and the smooth taste, I definitely want to make it again. I will order some arrowroot online, as there were a few little clumps in the cubes that had almost a waxy nougat kind of texture, and I am wondering if that is why, or if I did not whisk and pour fast enough? What do you think? I want to perfect this one because visually it is stunning and a very surprising comparison (coming from an Italian is definitely a compliment). So happy I stumbled on this one again. Served it tonight for dinner alongside your vegan scallops over white wine cream sauce and pasta. Yum!
erinwyso says
Ener-G as a sub makes sense here, as it contains potato and tapioca starches! The only thing I can think of re: the clumps is maybe it didn't fully dissolve in the water before you added it to the mix? Glad that it was a good experiment — actually cheese making like this is a test/trial-and-error exercise for myself as well — always room for subbing/experimenting to see what you get. Thanks so much for trying this out, Leila!
Lexi says
I just tried this out and the texture is a tiny bit soft for my liking, is it supposed to be a softer sort of mozzarella or is there a way I can tweak the recipe to get it a firmer, chewier texture?
erinwyso says
Lexi, you can up the agar by a tsp, which should give you a firmer texture. If you want it “chewier” slightly up the tapioca and potato/arrowroot by 1/2 TB each … good luck!
Lexi says
Awesome, thank you! I’ll give it a try!
Deepak says
I have recently turned full vegan, and m missing cheesy pizzas, breads and cheese in general… 😉 this recipe is a hope, although getting xanathan gum and coconut vinegar is challenge, will definitely try and post you a picture!
Kimberly says
Amazon baby! They have everything. That’s where I get almost everything I buy.
Jill says
Vitacost.com has slightly better prices on some of these items than Amazon (the coconut vinegar for one)
Kimberly says
I made these for Christmas and they turned out amazing! No one even knew they were vegan. Thank you so much for this recipe! I took pictures, I’m happy to share if you like.
erinwyso says
Kimberly, I’m thrilled that you liked the recipe, and thank you for sharing! I would love to see photos! If you are on instagram, please tag me (@olivesfordinner) or email them to erinwyso [at] olivesfordinner [dot] com. 🙂
Sara says
After trying many kinds of non-dairy mozzarella and making a few I came across this. This is by far the best! Its got the taste the others including Daiya are missing, although the next test will be on pizza. I did use the guar gum since it was a lot cheaper but can’t imagine this recipe getting any bettet.
erinwyso says
Sara,
Thanks so much for your feedback, and that you had good results with the guar gum. So happy you like! 🙂
Anita says
Made this and was thrilled at how easy it was! (Much easier than making traditional mozzarella.) So .. it was tasty but mine had a pretty strong coconut flavour. Your recipe yielded a lot more than I expected — I got a full silicon tray plus an extra ball about the size of a fist. So I’m brining/marinating the excess in olive brine, olive oil and spices. Will try to remember to update you in a few days in how that worked. Thanks for a great recipe!
erinwyso says
Anita,
Glad you found this easy and, yes, the coconut flavor can be mostly neutralized by coconut vinegar, but sometimes it still can come through. Curious to know how your brining/marinating experiment goes!
Anita says
The brining worked very well! The coconut flavor was well-masked (really, obliterated) by the olive juice, olive oil and herbs. I also just made a batch of this with rice milk sted coconut milk — and I added some nutritional yeast to give it that umami hit I think it needs. It already looks like the rice-cheese is going to be chewier, which I also like. However, I can already tell that it has a bit of starchiness/doughiness to it (I just put it in the fridge to start setting, so hard to say how it will end up), which I guess is unavoidable.
Next time, I think I’m going to try dropping the hot proto-cheese from the saucepan into a bowl of salted ice water, to get something that looks more like bocconcini. I used cake-pop molds for the f first batch, which came out quite cute, but a little too “perfect.”
Thanks for this recipe — really inspiring!
Janelle Kessler says
Wow, this is really coconut forward. Even the balsamic can’t cover it up. Anita, will you share your brine recipe?
Thank you
Anita says
Sure, but my brine recipe is pretty … loose. For the best batch, I used the brine from a jar of green olives, a few tablespoons of olive oil, a sprinkle of dried lavender and some salt. Let it sit for about four days, I think? When I took it to a friend’s house, they honestly could not tell it wasn’t “real” cheese.
Anita says
Oh, and can I add:
Rice-milk cheese: nope nope nope nope nope.
Janelle Kessler says
Lavender! I would not have thought of that. I don’t have 4 days, but I can do 2. So… I am going to add a little more agar and potato starch to make it firmer and then brine it. Thank you SO much!
Janelle Kessler says
Hi. The recipe says to serve immediately, but I need to make about 400 for a fundraiser. Can I refrigerate the cubes for a few days?
Thank you
erinwyso says
Janelle, wow, so cool you’ll be making this for that big of a crowd! My very strong recommendation would be to make a test batch first, refrigerate for a few days and see what happens so you can have predictable/consistent results. Good luck!
Janelle Kessler says
Thanks. I will try that, but potato starch is hard to come by and my Amazon 2-day deliver has now stretched to 7. I’ll be cutting it close! This is a large lunch event that Il Fornaio caters so we volunteers are making “fancy” appetizers. Yours fit the bill!
Jill says
I don’t work for Vitacost, but they have several brands of potato starch, including Bob’s Red Mill
https://www.vitacost.com/bobs-red-mill-potato-starch-unmodified
If you have a Whole Foods or other health food store nearby, they should have it
Andrea Eisenberg says
FYI to everyone, the context in which I see potato starch is when it’s sold for Passover. So if you want to try to find it not online, check the Kosher section of a grocery store. You may find it year round, but positively in March/April. Other than that, I’ve seen it in stores with a super-complete selection of Bob’s Red Mill products.
Janelle Kessler says
Test batch was way to soft and coconut forward. I am going to increase the agar and potato starch and then brine as per Anita. Thanks, Jill for the tip!
Janelle Kessler says
Sorry, I did forget to say that refrigeration is not a problem. It is just the same after 2 days.
Janelle Kessler says
OMG I got it! Erinwyso thank you and Anita and Jill! I just made 100 of the little critters and they are great. I increased the agar, potato starch and vinegar and added 12 drops of smoke flavoring (vegan) for a 5xrecipe batch. They taste like cheese. They have the greasiness and firmness and barely a hint of coconut. These will be a hit. Thank you so much EVERYONE!
Janelle Kessler says
oh gee, I messed up. I am so sorry. I was cleaning up the kitchen and found I had not added the xanthan gum/coconut oil mixture. The cubes have turned out very nicely without it and I will make the next two batches the same way. Erinwyso, I apologize for corrupting your recipe.
Jill says
Cool! I might consider leaving out the xantham gum/coconut oil next time. I just made this today – I get a noticeable coconut flavor.
I was thinking of trying the recipe w/ my homemade cashew milk instead of coconut milk.
Andrea says
Am I missing something or are you saying to put a Tbl of coconut oil and a bit of xanthan gum in a Kitchen Aid stand mixer? I mean I have the 6 quart size, but no way it’s going to mix such a miniscule quantity. I am going to try this though. For those who can’t find potato starch, it’s sold for Passover everywhere, so grab some in the spring and it keeps forever. Any store with a kosher section should have it all the time.
Markus says
I liked the texture, and the look, but mine tasted a bit to much coconut.
Maybe I’ll try halv Coconut & half almond/soy milk next try!
I used white wine vinegar instead if CV
Great blog!
Dione says
Hi, I would really love to try this recipe.
I am used to using weights instead of tbs or tsp to have a more precise measurement.
Do you have any idea what the weights are? Because I have no idea how big a tbs or tsp is…
Thanks al lot!
erinwyso says
Hi Dione, I agree, weights sound so much more precise instead of tsp, etc. I unfortunately don’t measure that way, but there are tons of converters out there that would give you equivalents. If you can find a good one, I hope you can get good results and enjoy the recipe!