Description
Make your own vegan ricotta from scratch the traditional way of Italian ricotta- with just 2 simple ingredients (none of which are tofu nor almonds!). This ricotta is creamy, delicious, and perfect for spreads, cannoli, lasagna, and more!
Ingredients
Scale
- 48 ounces (1419 mL) pea milk (or soy milk or almond milk)
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) rice vinegar or lemon juice
- Optional: 1 pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Heat: In a large saucepan, add in the pea milk and vinegar. Stir to combine. Then place the saucepan on medium high heat, and let the pea milk mixture heat and boil until the curdles have bubbled to the top and puffed up (see photos). This will take about 5-7 minutes.
- While the pea milk is heating: Grab a large bowl and place a sieve over the top of it. Place your cheesecloth in the sieve (see blog post photos). Make sure you have enough cheesecloth to twist the ends together and squeeze the curdle mixture liquid out.
- Strain: Once the pea milk mixture has boiled, remove the saucepan from heat, and pour the mixture into your cheesecloth lined sieve over the bowl. Allow the liquid to drain from the clumps of pea milk, and let the mixture cool off for 10 minutes before squeezing out more liquid. The pea milk curds will be really hot, so allow it to cool first for 10-20 minutes before straining anymore.
- Squeeze the remaining liquid from the cheese curds: Once the mixture is cool enough to handle, clump the top of the cheesecloth together with the curds inside and gently squeeze any remaining liquid from the curds into the bowl. Remove the cheesecloth from the bowl. You’ll see that the curds inside should almost resemble ricotta.
- Mold the ricotta: If you want to add the salt, add the pea milk curdles to a bowl, along with the salt. Mix together with a spoon, then spoon the ricotta into a ramekin or small bowl for shaping. Press the ricotta down into the ramekin so that it’s fitting the form and is well packed in. Cover and refrigerate until completely cold.
- Serve and enjoy: Once cold, you can either keep stored until ready to use. When ready to use, flip the ricotta onto a plate, carefully tapping the ricotta cheese out of the bowl. Use as you would regular ricotta.
- For whipped ricotta: If you’d like to make whipped ricotta, place the chilled ricotta in a bowl, and use an immersion blender to blend the ricotta until creamy. Use for your desired recipe or serve as a whipped ricotta dip.
Notes
Pea milk: I use Ripple pea milk- do NOT use the shelf stable, unrefrigerated kind, as that will not curdle.
Soy milk or almond milk: I give this option, as pea milk curdles just like soy milk and almond milk, so these are good substitutes if you can do soy (or nuts) and don’t have access to pea milk. Of course, that would make this recipe not soy free nor nut free, so keep that in mind.
