Sprinkle some love!

One of the ingredients I missed most when I became vegan was Parmesan cheese. It wasn't necessarily the flavor I was most lamenting, but that finishing touch. Something rich to sprinkle on top of pasta or soup...

Of course, you can buy vegan Parmesan substitute, but it's so easy to make your own and avoid those highly processed cheese substitutes. An old recipe standby is 1 to 1 toasted nuts or seeds and nutritional yeast, ground together with a pinch of salt, but I wanted something a little more hearty and crumbly. Here's what I came up with:

Cashew Sprinkle

3 T olive oil

1 t mild miso

1/2 t umeboshi paste

1 c. small cashew pieces

1 c. nutritional yeast

Heat oven to a slow temperature, about 250 degrees.

Whisk the oil, miso, and umeboshi paste together in a medium sized bowl. Add the cashews and nutritional yeast, and stir to coat everything with the oil mixture. Spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet, and let the mixture dry out in the oven 40 minutes or so. Everything should be smelling nice and toasty, but obviously, you don't want it to burn. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Grind by pulsing in a food processor until the mixture looks like coarse sand, but don't let it turn into a paste! Store in the refrigerator in a covered glass jar.

Sprinkle on salad, soup, or pasta. You could also use this mixed with breadcrumbs to fry eggplant and make eggplant "Parmesan".