Cheezy, nutty, umami flavoured and incredible over pastas, pizzas, risottos, lasagnas, salads or anything you wish really! This easy vegan parmazen will be a versatile staple to your vegan quiver of condiments, and only takes 5 minutes to whip up!
The main hero of this dish is nutritional yeast. If you haven’t made dairy-free cheese substitutes using this ingredient, you’re missing out! Be sure NOT to buy bakers yeast, that’s totally NOT the same thing! We have both been there, and we don’t want you to make the same mistake. ‘Nooch’ is the common nickname of this delicious golden dust, and now you’ve heard of it you’ll see it everywhere.
So what is nutritional yeast?
The specific strain is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the same type of yeast known as baker’s yeast or brewer’s yeast in its active form. However, nutritional yeast is grown specifically to be harvested and dried.
Nutritional yeast isn’t just delicious, and feels like is sent from the heavens above for vegans, but subtly implied by its namesake, it’s a nutritional powerhouse too!
“With nutritional yeast, you get more protein per calorie than cheese, plus a little bit of fiber as well,” says Cate Ward, PhD, RD, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford Medicine who consults patients on nutrition through her private practice.
Nutritional yeast is fat-fee (in much contrast to many types of standard cheeses), it’s also sugar free, gluten free and sodium free.
Many nutritional yeast brands are fortified with vitamin B12, an essential vitamin that promotes a healthy nervous system. Vitamin B12 is an essential vitamin to either supplement or to consume fortified foods if practicing a plant based diet. It’s also rich in vitamins such as B1 (thiamine), B3 (niacin), and B9 (folic acid). Additionally it has substantial levels of selenium and molybdenum.
Cheese vs Cashews – who wins?
From a sustainability standpoint, we’re going to have a bit of a chat about the dairy parmasen vs our plant based cashew parmazen alternative.
From an emissions perspective, nut production is far more beneficial for the environment, with approximately 5 times more emissions associated with dairy production versus nut/cashew production. This is mainly due to the methane produced by the cows who produce the milk for the cheese.
From water perspective, dairy and nuts and similarly on par. There is usually a lot of hate for nuts being bad for water use, but they often forget to mention that they only have issues with water use in specific areas of the world.
If you also take into account some of the atrocities of the dairy industry due to milk production (which we’re not going to go into here but there are many resources out there showing just this) nut cheezes are a clear winner for the planet from an ethical, environmental and health perspective.
So on that note, grab some cashews from the back of the cupboard and head to your local health store (or even supermarket if you’re lucky) to pick up some of nature’s cheese powder nutritional yeast and get blending!
Easy Vegan Parmazen
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup raw cashews
- 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 3/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to the food processor or bullet blender. Enusure your cup or processor is extremely dry, no moisture or liquids present.
- Blend until combined on pulse setting or in a pulse like manner. Do not overblend as you want the mixture not to produce oils so that it clumps together, but so that it is mixed and fine and crumbly.
- Sprinkle over your favourite meal of choice – lasagna, pasta, whatever! Enjoy!
