Moreish Melty Mozzarella – Perfect for Pizza, Pasta and Panini
Rooted in Italian tradition – the essential melt for pizzas, pastas and perfect panini
Table of Contents
✨ Before We Begin
Stretchy, creamy, and totally dairy-free – this plant-based mozzarella melts like a dream and plays beautifully with heat. It browns in the oven, pulls in sandwiches, and turns a pizza into something properly inviting. It’s quick to make, a joy to use, and won’t leave you missing the original. This one’s a fridge essential.
‘Must be best food offer, of any genre, in Kendal. Hugely accomplished cooking and very much recommended.’
Tony P, Kendal; Food Customer
The Cook’s Mind
This recipe teaches transformation – how a few soft, pale ingredients can turn into something stretchy, molten and properly exciting. You’ll learn to trust the process, handle heat gently, and spot that magic moment when the mixture shifts from blended to melty. It’s cooking with feel, not just formula – and that’s where the good stuff lives.
Make-Ahead
Vegan mozzarella sets as it cools but softens beautifully when reheated. Make it a day ahead and chill it in a jar or container. To use: scoop or slice and warm gently, or melt directly into your dish.
Freezer-Friendly
- Freeze in small portions or blobs.
- Defrost in the fridge, then stir or melt to re-loosen the texture.
- Best used in baked dishes or sandwiches once thawed.
Key Substitution Ideas
- Arrowroot can mimic some of the stretch, but tapioca is the gold standard.
- Use unsweetened oat or soy milk for a creamy base – coconut can add too much sweetness.
Ingredient Focus: Tapioca Flour
Tapioca flour – silky, light, and starch-rich – is the not-so-secret trick behind that plant-based mozzarella stretch. When heated with fat and liquid, it turns smooth and stringy, mimicking dairy melt with surprising joy. It has a neutral flavour, so it supports savoury, creamy blends beautifully without shouting.
✨ The stretch that makes it sing.
My Favourite Way to Eat
Hot and bubbling on a homemade pizza, just pulled from the oven and still stringy at the edges. It’s also beautiful spooned warm into a baked pasta dish or oozing out of a panini with roasted veg. And sometimes, just quietly eaten with a spoon before it even gets to the table.
Multi-Purpose Recipe
This mozzarella can be used in pizzas, toasties, baked pastas, or stirred warm into risottos or creamy grains. Shape it into small rounds and chill for caprese-style salads, or dollop onto roasted veg as a finishing flourish. It also freezes well – a batch in the freezer means instant cheese when you need it most.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It melts, stretches, and behaves like cheese should – no rubbery texture, no weird aftertaste – just soft, mild, creamy goodness.
- It’s free from dairy, gluten and soy – gentle on the system, generous on flavour.
- It’s versatile and beautifully neutral – works with bold sauces or delicate flavours without overpowering.
- It’s easy to make once you know the trick – A little heat, a little whisking – and the texture transforms.
- It feels quietly miraculous – one of those recipes that makes you do a double-take (in a very good way).
What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?
- How to soak and blend cashews to the right texture
- How tapioca flour creates that signature stretch
- How to flavour subtly, for maximum melt-with-everything versatility
- How heat changes the mixture – and when to stop
- How to work confidently with alternative ingredients and get brilliant results
Handpicked to Go With This One
A few recipes that play well together — flavour friends, not just neighbours.
Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!
Got something spare – a handful, a spoonful, or the end of a packet? These tags help you find other ways to use it. It’s a small step toward cooking intuitively and wasting less❣️
Moreish Melty Mozzarella Recipe
Moreish Melty Mozzarella – Perfect for Pizza, Pasta and Panini
Cashews are blitzed and gently cooked with tapioca flour to create this soft, stretchy vegan mozzarella. It melts, browns, and pulls just like the dairy version – but with a clean, mild flavour of its own. Ideal for pizza, pasta bakes, or sandwiches with a bit of theatre.
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
Ingredients
Ingredients for Step 1
- 120 g cashew nuts | pieces are cheaper to buy!
- 500 ml water | approximate amount; to soak the cashews
Ingredients for Step 2
- 54 ml lemon juice
- 30 g tapioca flour | you can make your own by finely grinding tapioca
- 4 g nutritious yeast
- 2 tsp salt
- 170 ml water
Ingredient for Step 3
- 15 g coconut oil | deodorised
Instructions
1. Soak the cashews
- Pour the boiling water over the cashew nut pieces and leave to stand for 10-15 minutes. Please no overnight soaking – it alters the colour considerably. If you have whole cashews, be sure to chop them roughly into pieces to allow the water to penetrate.120 g cashew nuts, 500 ml water
2. Add ingredients to blender
- Not including the coconut oil, add the remaining ingredients to the blender cup.54 ml lemon juice, 30 g tapioca flour, 2 tsp salt, 170 ml water, 4 g nutritious yeast
3. Add drained cashews to blender
- Drain and rinse the cashews in a sieve under cold water. Shake off the excess water.
- Add the nuts to the blender and blend until super-smooth. You want the mozzarella to have a very smooth texture on the palate.
4. Cook
- Melt the coconut oil in a small frying pan on a very low heat until it's only just melted. You are about to pour water into the oil so the oil needs to be as cold as possible to avoid spitting.15 g coconut oil
- Slowly pour the contents of the blender into the oil, scraping everything into the pan with a spatula. Proceed to cook, allowing the mixture to thicken. You will see on the video how the mix thickens. Always keep the mix moving with the spatula, and cook for at least 5 minutes to ensure the tapioca flour is cooked through. Press the mix against the heat to keep everything smooth.
5. Set
- Pour into a clingfilm-lined measuring cup, pull up the sides of the clingfilm, twist the ends, and put into a bowl of cold water to set for 2 hours in the fridge. Repeat. You will have 2 balls with roughly 8 slices. Ideally, leave to set overnight.
Video
Nutrition
Calories: 229kcalCarbohydrates: 17gProtein: 6gFat: 17gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 7gSodium: 1192mgPotassium: 234mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 1IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 18mgIron: 2mg
Nutritional values are estimates only and will vary depending on specific ingredients used. Nutrition is per serving. Information is for the main recipe, not optional accompaniments.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
COPYRIGHT
© The Golden Polar Bear, 2025. Recipes and photography by Julia Savory. If you share this, please pass it along with kindness and if possible share a link back to this site. #ForTheAnimals
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
Next Steps?
You’ve got the full recipe — now take it further. Inside Black Labrador, you’ll find structured video courses and an ever-growing cookbook designed to help you cook with understanding, not guesswork. Learn, revisit, and deepen your skills at your own pace.
‘Totally recommend the cookery course. The meals are really tasty and full of flavour (not like most of the vegan mush I make for myself).’
Kerry B, Cumbria
