National Spaghetti Day with Homemade Vegan Parmesan Cheese

Hands down I am definitely more of a savory eater…I do like sweets sometimes, but I am absolutely more drawn to flavorful and comforting dishes.  My all-time favorite has to be spaghetti 🍝 This was also very convenient when I transitioned to vegan, because most store bought dry pasta and spaghetti sauces are vegan.  P.S. I am celebrating my 1st Veganniversary this month 😉

Going vegan wasn’t difficult for me, but I will say the hardest thing to give up was dairy.  I was already a vegetarian, so dairy was really my final hurdle.  I made it a mission to find my favorite substitutes for all of my regular staples…one of them being Parmesan cheese 🧀  I took to Pinterest and found a few decent recipes and over time have developed my own version of vegan Parmesan cheese that I come back to time and time again.  It’s super duper easy and literally takes two minutes.  Keep reading to get my secret vegan parmesan cheese recipe to celebrate National Spaghetti Day!

I like to use dry roasted almonds, but these can be easily substituted by cashews or raw almonds…totally a personal preference 🌰  You don’t like turmeric?  Skip it!  Do you want to add a pinch of nutmeg?  Go ahead…Actually I may try that in my next batch…it sounds pretty good!

1 cup dry roasted almonds

3 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp pink Himalayan salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp turmeric

1/8 tsp paprika

Directions:  Place all ingredients in a food processor or bullet and combine.  I highly recommend doing it in bursts and stirring things around in between as you really want the almonds to break down but not to the point of creating almond butter.

My experience has been that there will always be a few small chunks of almonds remaining in the mix, but I am OK with that, because I enjoy finding them in my spaghetti 🍝

Store the mixture in an airtight container and keep refrigerated ❆

I love to add mushrooms to my marinara 🍄  What veggies or secret ingredients do you add to your spaghetti dishes?