Vegan Halloumi can easily be made from home with just a few ingredients. You can then grill it and use it in all your favourite halloumi recipes. Find out how to make it below.
Supermarket vegan cheese can be really hit and miss so I've taken to making it myself.
When I was vegetarian I loved halloumi so I decided to learn how to make my own. And now you can too!
If you're interested in making your own cheese then why not try some of these other vegan cheeses:
The range from incredibly easy to intermediate. Give them a go and let me know how you get on in the comments.
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Ingredients
To make vegan halloumi you need 9 ingredients (plus water and also oil for frying).
- Cashew nuts
- Lemon juice
- Nutritional yeast
- Tapioca starch
- Agar powder
- Salt
- Garlic powder
You can find the exact amounts in the recipe card below.
You might think that the recipe uses a lot of salt but halloumi is quite a salty cheese so its essential for the flavour, as is the lemon juice, nutritional yeast and garlic powder.
The agar powder is what helps the vegan cheese to set. The tapioca starch gives it that stretchy, oozy quality as it cooks. Both of these can be bought online quite easily.
Instructions
Now you've gathered all of your ingredients, in just 6 straightforward steps you can have your own grilled vegan halloumi. It requires a little resting (either 5 - 6 hours or overnight) but its otherwise a really quick recipe to make!
- Step 1: Soak (1 hour) or boil (10 mins) your cashews until plump.
- Step 2: Drain your cashews and add them to a high speed blender along with the other ingredients. Blitz on high until creamy.
- Step 3: Pour the mixture into a saucepan and cook on low, stirring constantly until it thickens.
- Step 4: Line a container with cheesecloth, cling film or baking paper.
- Step 5: pour in the cheese mixture, spreading it so that it is flat then chill for 5-6 hours or overnight until it is firm.
- Step 6: Cut into slices and grill/fry until crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.
Hint: don't flip the vegan halloumi too quickly when grilling/frying you want it to form a nice crust first!
Substitutions
There's only one substitution I'd recommend making for this recipe. The rest are all essentials. That substitution is:
- Nuts - you can try using other nuts to make this recipe. I know blanched almonds work well but I've not tried any others. If you do give it a go let me know in the comments below.
Variations
For extra crispy halloumi you can coat it in breadcrumbs first, like I did in this recipe for crispy fried halloumi. Please note this recipe uses regular halloumi and is therefore a vegetarian recipe.
Equipment
A high speed blender like a Nutritbullet or Vitamix is essential for this recipe.
You need this so that there are no lumps left in the mix. All of the nuts need to be blended with the other ingredients until its completely smooth.
Storage
You can keep the uncooked vegan halloumi in the fridge for up to 5 days. Just cook it when you want to eat it.
Top Tip
You will know when the cheese is ready to remove from the heat and place into the container to set because it will be pulling away from the sides of the pan and when you mix it, it will be starting to get stiff.
FAQ
There are two possibilities here: (1) you didn't use the correct amount of agar-agar powder which is what helps it to set. (2) you didn't let it get hot enough and cook it for long enough, agar-agar powder needs to get hot before it activates.
The recipe
Homemade Vegan Halloumi
Equipment
- 1 high speed blender e.g. Vitamix or Nutribullet
- 1 small rectangular container
Ingredients
- 150 g cashew nuts soaked for 1 hour or boiled for 10 minutes
- 225 ml water
- 75 ml lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 2 tablespoon tapioca starch
- 1 tablespoon agar powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 0.5 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the soaked cashew nuts.
- Place the nuts into a high-speed blender along with all of the remaining ingredients (except the oil which is for frying).
- Blitz on high speed until it is completely smooth.
- Add the creamy mixture to a saucepan and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Stop as soon as the mixture gets thick and starts coming away from the sides of the saucepan.
- Line a container with cheesecloth, cling film or baking paper.
- Pour the mixture into the container and smooth until it is flat.
- Chill in the fridge for 5 or 6 hours, or overnight, until it has set completely.
- Once set, remove from the container and cut into 8 slices.
- Heat your oil in a pan and then cook the slices over a medium-high heat for 2 - 3 minutes either side or until crisp and golden. Remove from the heat and serve immediately.
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