Vegan “Robiola” cheese
In other words… compact vegrino lovingly embraced by a sort of flower made of red chicory, successively grilled!
I told you that I would have continued to experiment, didn’t I?
Ingredients:
1 vegrino each person (obtained from 200 g or even more of soy milk)
table salt
mix of white, green, black, rose pepper
extra virgin olive oil
strong paprika (optional)
4 leaves of red chicory per vegrino
green pesto to decorate
Tools needed to “manufacture” a vegan robiola:
bowl to collect the serum
kitchen towel to contain the yoghurt
“pulses draining board” to give vegrino the shape of a “robiola”
mallet* (which I dubbed “Vegan-cheese compactor”, yeah! For me this is the only sustainable way of conceiving the use of this tool, as well as pounding garlic tablets that I give to my cats in case they’re cold…)
Method:
as usual, I prepared a vegrino (you all know by heart how to prepare it!!! There is no need for further explaination about it), but this time, as from the list above, I poured the yoghurt on a kitchen towel I lined the pulses draining board with (put on the bowl), something that I bought at the supermarket just for this purpose. very useful indeed for many uses, including for shaping vegan burgers! I leveled the yoghurt and folded the towel up, at last I placed a mallet/vegan-cheese compactor on, so that its weight could compact the vegrino, for the purpose of obtaining a sort of “robiola” cheese. I left it in the fridge for 5 days.
Here are some photos:
This is the pulses draining-board, in case it wasn’t clear, or maybe you have got one already:
and here’s the “Vegan-cheese compactor” at work!!! 😉
Therefore, after 5 days in the fridge always with weight on, this morning I got this wonderful vegan robiola:
I nestled it gently onto a plate for dressing with salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and paprika (no lemon juice/peel this time!):
it’s compact but still soft enough, so please, “handle with care” if you want to keep it safe 😉 I left it some minutes on the plate to flavour, meanwhile I prepared his “dress”, that is I boiled some leaves of red chicory for about 1 minute, or 1 minute and a half, then I drained and rinsed them in cold water to stop cooking:
I gently dried and arranged ’em radially on a flat plate (a soup plate will suit as well), to form a flower, and I set the vegan robiola (already seasoned) on its center:
I closed the red chicory’s petals on it very easily, because the short cooking allowed me to bend them without problems, forming a kind of packet. So, I have anointed slightly a frying pan with a litlle bit of extra virgin olive oil (unfortunately I don’t have a grill 🙁 the result would have been aesthetically much better if I had one!), I heated it and set the packet, “grilling” it for about 2 minutes per side, even less.
Here it is before cooking:
and here it’s ready and served!
I decorated the plate with a green pesto made with basil, cashew nuts and a few spoons of broth made of carrot, potato and onion. Basil is not typical of Winter, i know but, at least it was organic! Actually this morning I was looking for organic brocoli but I haven’t found any! So I opted for the exception… The decoration is a bit crazy, just like me! 😉
In the end another photo of the inner side:
* We received the mallet as present when we got married and at that time I couldn’t imagine that, shortly, I would become vegetarian (in december 1993, and we got married a month before!). I became vegan in December 2001, so I always thought it was a kind of tool absolutely useless for me but, on the contrary… can you see as it scored its place even in my vegan kitchen? 😉
Enjoy your Vegan Robiola!!!! 😀
Anto… this is perfect as usual! Absolutely amazing, everything, from the recipe to the pics and the way you exlpained it! I love your vegan cheeses… I remember in my “past” life I liked very mich this kiend of dishes, I mean, heathed and melting cheeses! So thanks for this!!!
I was also wondering… how hard is it? I mean, can you spread it or it’s slightly harder, i.e. as mozzarella cheese?
Hi Cassandra! Cheers for your nice words!
When I write a recipe I’m always afraid to be too…well…. how to say… mmmhhh, “Italian”! 😉 Yes, ITALIAN, I mean, the way I write in English may sound strange to English native speakers, therefore sometimes I doubt my words are clear!! O_O
But if you tell me you understand every step, well, I’m soooooo glad!!!! 😉 The aim of my presence here is to share my recipes with you all, so, if I’m able to be understandable, it means I reached it!
To answer your question, yes, you can spread both “Vegrino” and “Robiola”, the consistency is soft, It can be compared with processed cheese, rather than with mozzarella.
Thank you for asking! 😉
Cassandra’s right, this recipe is amazing as all of yours are! So well described step by step and a lot of pictures… they really make me lick the monitor each time 😛
You’re great! Please keep on experimenting with cheeses then :-)!