Dairy Free Ricotta Cheese Substitute
This easy & delicious 5-minute dairy free ricotta cheese substitute is vegan, keto, and tastes just like the original! Creamy, tangy, perfect ricotta! Use this tasty “cheese” in your favorite Italian recipes.
Table of Contents
What Makes This Recipe Great
To make dairy-free ricotta, you typically need blanched whole almonds, but I didn’t have any on hand. As I was thinking about it, I realized that almond flour is exactly that, super fine blanched whole almonds!
So, making it even easier for you, I have created the yummiest dairy-free ricotta cheese recipe using the almond flour you probably already have in your pantry! Add in just a few more ingredients, blend them up, and that’s it!
Use this ricotta substitute in your favorite recipes like Dairy-Free Keto Lasagna, this delicious Whipped Ricotta dip, or any other recipes that call for ricotta cheese!
Recipe Highlights
- 5 Minute Recipe
- Only 5 Ingredients
- The perfect ricotta cheese substitute
- Dairy-Free & Keto
Ingredient Notes
Almond Flour: Make sure you’re using almond flour, and not almond meal. Almond meal is made from whole almonds with the skin still on. All almond flour is made from blanched almonds. My favorite almond flours are the Costco Kirkland brand, Thrive Market, and Anthony’s.
Lemon Juice: You could use white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or lime juice in place of lemon in a pinch. Same quantities. I prefer lemon juice.
Nutritional Yeast: Nutritional yeast gives that “cheesy” flavor to this ricotta substitute without adding any dairy. No substitutes for this sadly. If you don’t have it, you can leave it out. Won’t have as much of a cheesy flavor, more of a neutral, mild flavor.
Recipe Step by Step
- In a blender, combine the almond flour, water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, kosher salt, and garlic powder.
- In your high-speed blender, blend on high for 60 seconds. Stop, scrape down and blend again.
- If needed, add up to another 1/4 cup of water (or more) to get your ricotta substitute to a smooth consistency. All almond flour moisture levels vary a bit. You want the consistency to be smooth and creamy like real ricotta cheese.
Expert Tips
How to Serve: Use as a 1:1 substitute for regular ricotta cheese. I love it on my keto dairy-free lasagna, or dolloped on top of pasta, as a dip, or dolloped on top of dairy-free pizzas. So many possibilities!
Storage: Transfer to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator. Use within one week.
Heating: You can heat this in the oven as I do in my dairy-free keto lasagna!
Blender: I love my Vitamix. You *could* use your food processor, but it may take longer to blend and get it extra creamy.
Recipe FAQs
I tried freezing this, and after thawing it was more crumbly. Wasn’t as smooth. But still edible! Worked fine with I made and froze a dairy-free lasagna using this ricotta substitute.
Yes! All ingredients in this recipe are vegan, so this is a great vegan ricotta cheese substitute.
Yes! There are just 2.5 net carbs per serving of this dairy free ricotta cheese substitute!
More Dairy Free Recipes
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Dairy Free Ricotta Cheese Substitute
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 3/4 cup water, or more to desired consistency
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, from roughly 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Equipment
Instructions
- In a blender, combine the almond flour, water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, kosher salt and garlic powder.
- In your high speed blender, blend on high for 60 seconds. Stop, and scrape down and blend again.
- If needed, add in up to another 1/4 cup of water (or more) to get your ricotta to a smooth consistency. All almond flours moisture level varies a bit. You want the consistency to be smooth and creamy like real ricotta.
- Transfer to an airtight container. Will keep in an airtight container for 1 week.
- Use as a 1:1 substitute for regular ricotta cheese. I love it on my keto dairy free lasagna, or dolloped on top of pasta, or as a dip, or dolloped on top of dairy free pizzas. So many possibilities!
- As always, lots of tips, FAQs and substitution info in the Recipe Notes!
45 Comments on “Dairy Free Ricotta Cheese Substitute”
Could I use regular flour if there is a tree but allergy?
Used this for a VERY old Zucchini Lasagna recipe to make it vegan for my daughter and it was perfect. I only had a cup of almond flour, so I added a cup of cashew meal and it totally worked. Next, I’m going to make it without the yeast and garlic and sub a bit of nutmeg and a teaspoon of honey or sugar to use with dessert recipes or to eat with berries.
So happy to hear this! Also, great tip on the cashew meal! Please let me know how your dessert version turns out- sounds delicious!