This is my own thoughts and modifications of a recipe that runs around on the net for making a tofu cheese thing by blending tofu with miso and letting it sit for a few days.
Does it taste like cheese? Depends on your expectations. It's not something that a cheddar fan would say "Wow, I thought it was real cheese!" It fills the niche of things you do with cheese well, it is very tasty, great on sandwiches, doesn't melt, but works nicely if you don't expect it to. Nice glopped on eggs, on top of veggies, makes a halfway decent tasting pizza although it doesn't melt so make it a wetter batch that will kind of flop and ooze.
Is it vegan? Can be.
Does it have to be? Nope, mine usually isn't, I like butter in it.
I'm a concept cook, I don't measure anything, and almost never make things the exact same way twice, so don't expect a recipe from me!
I use firm or extra firm tofu because that's all that the store in this tiny town carries. Soft or medium may work better for some things. I use a medium red miso, because that's the kind I like and keep around. I do it in a food processor, lets me mess with it and taste it and adjust it till I like it. I keep it in a stainless steel container with a clippy lid that is airtight. These are all variable for whatever you have or like.
The basic idea is you mush the tofu up well, add miso, cover tightly, and let it ferment at room temperature for a day or three (depending on how sharp you want it and the ambient temperature in the room) and in the fridge for a couple of days (depending on how mellow you want it.)
After that part of it, the rest is all my opinion! Depending on my mood and what I want it to taste like, I add various mixes of ingredients. These are in no particular order, just how I thought of them.
If you think of how various cheeses taste, they have varying levels of creamy, firm, oily, sweet, salt, umami, sour, amount of protein, and spicing. So I have things I use to affect all of those.
To make it creamy: use soft tofu, coconut
milk, half and half, some probiotics affect that too
To make it firm: chia seed, oat flour, tapioca flour, masa
To make it oily: coconut oil, butter, any oil you like, tahini (or ground sesame seeds,) ghee
To make it sweeter:
honey, sugar, molasses (works surprisingly well in small amounts! Adds umami too,) applesauce
To make it salty: The miso will add salt, add salty things carefully! Salted butter, soy sauce, amino acids, spice mixes
To add umami flavor (the deep mellow bass tone in food) :
mushroom powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, smoke flavoring, dark soy sauce, use a dark miso
To add sour flavor: lime juice, lemon juice, citric acid, lactic acid, vinegar of any type (balsamic is very good in it, adds umami and slight sweetness too,) tomato juice
To add protein: quinoa flour, cooked beans, whey powder, collagen peptides, gelatin
Spicing: The sky is the limit, try anything that appeals to you! Things I have liked: kala Jeera (Indian herb seed that tastes like smoked cumin,) Tom Yum paste (oooh!! Rowdy!!) horseradish, red chile of any type, garlic, chives, dill, basil, ginger, cardamon, mint, chopped dried fruit, chopped tomatoes or tomatillos, bacon or ham would be good too.
Most of these will do more than one thing, examples:
Oat flour makes it more adhesive so it's firmer, also adds a smoothess to it, and calms any rowdy flavors that you added too much of.
Sesame seeds or tahini add nutrition, add a deep tone to the flavor, work very well with a sweetener like balsamic vinegar, and add a neat taste that works well with spices like ginger and cardamon.
Some things if you add one, you need to add another, example:
If you use butter, coconut milk, or half and half, it has a
water component to it, so adding a firming agent will help it be not so wet. Choose something that complements the flavor you want. Tapioca is a pretty neutral flavor, but I'm not a fan of the texture it gives, I can't come up with words for it, but use it sparingly until you know what it does.
So! I have the tofu and miso in the food processor, and I know what I want this batch to taste like, and I add various things to affect the factors.
Making up a random one, I want something sort of sour cream and onion-ish, but firm, and a good deep flavor. So I'd add: coconut milk, chia, ground sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, liquid smoke, onion powder, chives, citric acid, and olive oil. Then taste it, see what I think. If I don't like it, keep dinking with it till I do. That one may want oat flour, possibly some mushroom powder, maybe garlic, bit more acid of some sort....
Making up another, I want a deep toned one for a smooth cracker spread that I'm going to serve red wine with. So I'd add nutritional yeast, butter, kala jeera, garlic, masa, amino acids, tomato puree, and then start tasting it.
Making pizza? Add Italian herbs!
Making a vegetable sauce? Add rowdy spices!
Making sandwiches? Add any of it, I have yet to make a batch that was bad in a sandwich :D
Now that you are good and hungry, get some tofu and miso, try something random, and tell us what happens!
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