This simple, fresh Vegan Ricotta has a fresh, thick, and creamy texture and tiny granules of curds, just like classic milk-based ricotta!
I love making all sorts of creamy pasta, like my Cauliflower Pasta, Vegan Creamy Mushroom Pasta, or Hidden Veg Pasta Sauce. But to achieve a real creamy texture, you have to use vegan ricotta. And making vegan ricotta is much easier than you think!
This recipe uses just a few basic ingredients and can be turned into ricotta in just about 5 minutes with a blender!
While the whole recipe is just below, don’t miss all my tips further down, including ingredient swaps, my cooking tips, and step-by-step shots!
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Almond Ricotta Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups Slivered Almonds - blanched, no skin
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
- ½ cup Water - + 5 tablespoons to add gradually
- ¼ cup Almond Milk
Optional – to create different flavors
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
- 2 tablespoons Fresh Italian Flat Parsley - or fresh basil or
- ¼ teaspoon Paprika - or cumin
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients into a food processor: slivered almonds, lemon juice, water, almond milk, and salt.
- Blend until almost smooth. You will have to stop the blender, scrape down the sides of the bowl and repeat until all ingredients are evenly combined. It can be difficult to blend or too thick, so you can add extra water, up to 5 tablespoons. You want to form a thick, fluffy mixture with almost no bites of almonds, just a grainy texture as regular ricotta. Blend between each addition and stop when it reaches a fluffy and creamy, slightly grainy texture. The whole process of blending and scraping the bowl takes about 2-4 minutes.
- Taste and adjust by adding some of the recommended flavorings. Add more nutritional yeast to enhance the cheese flavor, more salt for savory cheese, and more lemon for tangy ricotta.
Nutrition
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Slivered Almonds – It means thin pieces of blanched almonds with no almonds skin and golden-white color. They don’t contain the almond skin, and they are small, so you can easily blend them into a creamy, cheesy texture without pre-soaking. Do not use whole almonds with or without skin. They are too hard to break into a creamy cheese without soaking them or sliced almonds with skin if you want to use sliced almonds, make sure they are blanched. You will also need to watch out for the blending time! They turn really fast into a creamy paste, and you will lose some grainy texture.
- Water – tap filtered water, no need to use hot water.
- Unsweetened Almond Milk – I found that the best vegan ricotta is made from a combination of water and unsweetened almond milk. The touch of almond milk adds the light sweet taste that mimics the classic ricotta cheese even more!
- Lemon Juice – You can use fresh or bottled lemon juice. Lime juice can also be used.
- Nutritional Yeast – For a light cheesy flavor, but you can omit this ingredient as ricotta is mild in flavor, and you don’t expect a strong cheese flavor. Nutritional Yeast is a vegan-friendly ingredient.
How To Make Vegan Ricotta
There are many ways to make vegan ricotta recipes, including nut-free tofu ricotta cheese or cashew ricotta cheese. Here I am sharing an almond ricotta cheese recipe that tastes like the real thing.
I highly recommend using a high-speed blender rather than a food processor to make vegan cheese from nuts. In fact, nuts are strong and hard to break and turn into a creamy texture. As a result, the tall and narrow jug of a blender is much more powerful, keeping the nuts close to the blade all the time, turning them into cheese in less than 3 minutes. A food processor has a wide bowl and a less powerful blade. It makes it very difficult to get the creamy, fluffy ricotta texture you see here using a food processor.
This is not a complicated recipe, but you must be patient and repeat the same steps a few times to achieve the right ricotta texture.
- First, add the ingredients below into the blender.
- Blend all the ingredients for 30 seconds, stop the blender, scrape down the sides of the jug with a silicone spatula and repeat!
- You will have to repeat these steps 3-5 times until it forms a fluffy, creamy ricotta cheese with a grainy texture.
- I usually start the recipe using 3/4 cup of liquid – 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk. Then, I add more water, up to 1/4 cup of extra water, to achieve fluffy, creamy ricotta. But again, this is up to you! If you want thicker ricotta with more texture like in the picture below, don’t add more water.
Flavoring Options
You can play with this dairy-free ricotta recipe and create a range of different flavors by adding some of the ingredients below to the end product.
- Fresh Chopped Herbs – Add up to 1/3 cup of basil, cilantro, or dill.
- Fresh Chopped Garlic – 1 or 2 garlic cloves finely crushed.
- Nutritional Yeast – The original recipe uses some, but you can enhance the cheesy flavor of this ricotta by adding 1-2 extra teaspoons. Nutritional yeast is a great source of plant-based iron.
- Pepper – Add 1 teaspoon of crushed pepper or chili flakes to make it spicy.
Serving Suggestions
This vegan almond milk ricotta recipe is the best gluten-free, vegan alternative to ricotta! It has all the texture and flavor you expect from ricotta, including the light nutty, sweet flavor specific to classic ricotta. It’s fresh, thick, creamy vegan ricotta cheese with a mild cheese taste and light nutty flavor. You can eat this raw almond ricotta recipe as:
- A spread similar to cream cheese spread it onto toasted bread.
- A vegan appetizer to dip raw vegetables, crackers, or pita triangles.
The best is to serve the ricotta in a wide bowl with a drizzle of fresh olive oil, ground pepper, and fresh chopped basil. You can also use this recipe as a vegan substitute for ricotta cheese in any plant-based recipe, including:
- Vegan Lasagna
- Stuffed Pasta Shells – this is the perfect recipe for stuffed shells! Simply spread the cold ricotta in the pasta shell and bake the shells in tomato sauce.
- Vegan roll up
Storage
You can store this ricotta in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 5 days. Also, this recipe freezes very well in a Ziploc silicone bag. Thaw the ricotta in the fridge the day before and use it in any vegan recipe as a vegan replacement for ricotta like in vegan lasagna.
More Vegan Appetizer Recipes
If you love vegan dips or appetizers, I listed some of my other recipes to try:
Iโm going to try a baked zoodles stuffed with almond ricotta. Onions tomato kalamata olives. I think it will be fabulous
What a great idea!