Queso Blanco

[plantoneonme]

I had some extra milk that was about to expire and instead of wasting it, I decided to make Queso Blanco. Queso Blanco can be used as a substitute for tofu (and quite frankly we think tastes better) in many recipes. Tonight we will be having vegetarian stir fry with Queso Blanco for dinner. I posted directions on this extremely easy to make cheese on my blog. Kim
http://plantoneonme.blogspot.com/2009/04/queso-blanco.html

[ecogirl]

I never knew I could make cheese in my kitchen! Thanks for the great recipe!

[plantoneonme]

I never knew I could make cheese in my kitchen! Thanks for the great recipe!


This is a really good cooking cheese as a replacement for tofu or in recipes calling for ricotta or cottage cheese as well. I picked up 3 gallons of milk for only $1.77 today and made another larger batch. For dinner we had some mixed into spaghetti sauce over noodles cooked in the whey...it was another fantastic vegetarian dinner. We are not vegetarian but I am looking for ways to cut down on our meat eating in order to econimize and eat a little healthier. I am thinking it would be fantastic also in lasagna in place of ricotta cheese...a 3 cheese, veggie lasagna sounds oh so yummy! I plan on using this cheese at a minimum of 1 meal a week.

Another very simple "cheese" to make is yogurt cheese. You take plain yogurt and put into the muslin or fine cheese cloth and let the liquid drain out. This turns out to be more of a cream cheese consistency. Yogurt cheese can also be flavored in so many ways and used as a spread on bagels and other breads much like the flavored cream cheeses....again much healthier and for me, much cheaper. The cost of 8 oz of store brand, sugar free, low fat yogurt is .40 and the flavored cream cheese is $2.59...a big difference in both price and calories.

BTW, if it gets a little too dry for your taste, you can simply stir back in some of the liquid drained off. Kim

[ecogirl]

Thanks for all this knowledge! So queso blanco is just basically cottage cheese? I thought queso blanco was just another type of cheese! So if you wanted to flavour your cheese with vanilla would you put vanilla extract or vanilla pods into the process of making cheese, that sounds really easy to me! Thanks!

[plantoneonme]

Thanks for all this knowledge! So queso blanco is just basically cottage cheese? I thought queso blanco was just another type of cheese! So if you wanted to flavour your cheese with vanilla would you put vanilla extract or vanilla pods into the process of making cheese, that sounds really easy to me! Thanks!

It depends on how much you let it drain (the Queso Blanco)...it is actually more of a mozzarella type cheese but it does not melt. I crumbled it into the spaghetti sauce for dinner last night and then thought I could also crumble it as a layer in a lasagna. I haven't tried to flavor it yet but was going to with the next batch...right now I have a quite a bit from the last batch made from a full gallon of milk. If you plan on flavoring it, you would have to do so when it is still milk and not yet curdled and dried.

I am also looking at brining a piece to see if it will taste at all like a Feta substitute... I am a feta fiend and would love to make something less expensive but have relatively the same flavor.

The YOGURT cheese can be flavored easily before you turn it into cheese by simply stirring in the flavorings and then draining. I am planning on making an herb flavored cream cheese substitute this week for use on bagles.

If I have time, I will take some pics and post them to my blog. Kim