Vegan parmesan cheese with cashews

Vegan parmesan was the first vegan cheese I ever made.

It’s super quick and easy to prepare. Great for beginners!

It’s simply made by grinding nuts & seeds with nutritional yeast and spices in a food processor.

Start to finish, it’s ready in only minutes.

When I first started making vegan parm, I’d always use walnuts for the nuts.

But over the years, I moved to raw cashews and hemp hearts instead.

Their flavors are more neutral and creamy, which really lets the other ingredients shine.

It’s delicious on pasta dishes or sprinkled over a hot slice of ‘za. It adds cheesy flavor and flaky texture.

In this post:

Here are the simple ingredients you will need for this cashew parmesan cheese recipe.

Salt: A little salt makes all of the flavors pop.

Here’s how to make the recipe at a glance. For complete ingredient amounts and instructions, keep scrolling to the recipe card below.

Replace the raw cashews or hemp hearts

You can either make this recipe entirely with raw cashews OR hemp hearts. 

Or you can replace either one or both with walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, or pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds).

To make this recipe nut free, use hemp hearts, sunflower seeds, and/or pepitas. In total, you’ll need ½ cup of the seeds of your choice.

Omit or replace the seasonings

If you don’t want additional seasonings & spices, simply leave any or all of them out.

Or replace all of them with 1 teaspoon of your favorite Italian spice blend.

I do NOT recommend making this recipe without nutritional yeast flakes. It’s the dominant flavor and main source of cheesiness.

Change the grinding method

Instead of processing the ingredients with a food processor, use a clean spice or coffee grinder.

Since coffee grinders are small, I recommend grinding the raw cashews and hemp hearts separately.

Then combine them in a bowl with the spices. 

Cashew parm is great anywhere you’d use standard non-vegan parmesan.

• Sprinkle it on pasta with marinara, air fryer lasagna, or roasted gnocchi.
• Use it as a seasoning on air fryer radishes.
• Add several dashes to a slice of pizza or pizza bagels.
• Use it in the breading of eggplant parmesan. (It’s great with noodles or in an eggplant parmesan sandwich.)
• Add a spoonful to cilantro basil pesto for extra cheesiness.
• Add a sprinkling to veggies like air fryer asparagus or air fryer spaghetti squash.
• Use it as a finishing salt on popcorn.
• Sprinkle a little on creamy vegan tomato soup just before serving.
• Give a jar of cashew parmesan as a vegan food gift along with local pasta and jarred marinara in a basket or colander.

Vegan parm doesn’t melt. It’s closer to a finishing salt.

It adds cheesiness and spices right on top of a dish, making those flavors more pronounced.

To keep the ground raw cashews and hemp hearts fresh, store cashew parmesan in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer. 

It will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator. And the freezer will extend it even further (up to 3 months).

I like to store the vegan parmesan in a covered jar or shaker jar. That makes it easy to transport to the table.

Or if you’re freezing it, you can keep it in a sealed freezer bag instead.

Keep the vegan cheese love going with any of these homemade non-dairy cheeses.

• Tofu ricotta
• Vegan feta cheese
• Vegan chili cheese dip
• Jalapeño cashew cheese
• Vegan blue cheese dressing