All you need to make this non-dairy cottage cheese is the ingredients on your counter and five minutes of your time. Below are easy step-by-step instructions.
Step 1: Prepare the Tofu
Firm tofu comes packaged with liquid. So, drain the water and then use paper towels or tea towels to soak up the extra moisture. You don’t want your cottage cheese to be too liquidy, so take your time to get as much excess water out of the tofu as possible.
Once you’re satisfied with your tofu’s moisture content (or lack thereof), place it in a medium-sized bowl.
Step 2: Whisk Away
Using a small bowl, you’ll need to use a whisk to mix the following ingredients:
- Vegan mayonnaise
- Miso
- Water
Once the mixture is nice and smooth, you can add some salt. If you’re not the type of person that’s good at guessing the quantity to throw in a recipe, we recommend starting with ⅜ of a teaspoon. You can always add more if you feel the recipe needs it.
Alternatively, use less or no salt if you’re trying to cut back on sodium.
Important Note
We suggest using up to a half-cup of vegan mayonnaise in this recipe. However, starting with at least half the amount is best, and gradually mixing in more if your cottage cheese seems too thick.
The reason being is that vegan mayonnaise differs in how liquidy it is. But it almost always has a more liquid consistency than non-vegan mayonnaise.
So, put your cooking skills to the test and use the motto that less is more as you play around with finding the right balance of mayonnaise. Make sure to jot it down for next time if you’re the type of cook that loves specific measurements.
Step 3: Add Savory Ingredients (Optional)
Should you wish to use onion powder or garlic powder in your cottage cheese, this is the time to add them.
Personally, we love the flavor of mixing in both of these spices. However, you’re welcome to experiment with whatever dry spices you’d like. May we suggest adding a little cracked black pepper?
If you want to use fresh herbs in your cottage cheese, hold yourself back from adding them; there’ll be time for that shortly.
Step 4: Mix the Tofu and Wet Ingredients
Pour the wet mixture you just whisked together into your bowl of tofu. Then, use a masher to chop up the tofu. Doing so will automatically blend the vegan mayonnaise, miso, and water into the tofu to evenly spread around the flavor.
It’s important to find a balance between mashing the tofu well but not overdoing it. Otherwise, your non-dairy cottage cheese will turn into a thick soup rather than the small chucks reminiscent of traditional cottage cheese.
At this point, you should also mix in your one to two tablespoons of fresh chopped herbs, should you wish to add them. It’s important to wait until after you chop up the tofu so that you don’t go overboard with mincing the herbs.
Step 5: Chill the Mixture
Although you can technically eat your vegan non-dairy cottage cheese immediately after making it, we recommend sticking it in your freezer for a couple of hours.
Between the cold temperature and giving the ingredients time to soak into the tofu, the flavor becomes more cottage cheese-like once the mixture spends some time in the fridge.
If you manage not to eat all your cottage cheese in one sitting, store it in an airtight container. That way, it’ll prolong its refrigerator life, which is up to around three days.
