Vegan Halloumi, or Malloumi made from MUNG BEANS! Easy, Tangy and Grilled to Perfection!

Here’s a sneak peak into my upcoming book, the Vegan Creamery.

Malloumi
Makes 14 ounces

I’ve been vegan so long that admittedly there are some cheeses I’ve never had, halloumi being one of them. A Greek cheese that has recently gained popularity as a savory option for grilling, halloumi apparently holds its shape when heated and doesn’t melt , making it similar to paneer but with a different flavor. I was curious what it was like, so I read up on its characteristics and came up with an alternative. I doubt my golden-hued “malloumi,” made from mung beans, is an exact replica, but it hits the mark when it comes to a tasty, creamy option that can be grilled. Consider it the halloumi’s plant-based cousin.

1 ½ cups water
½ cup (4 ounces or 112 grams) split mung beans
¼ cup (50 grams) avocado or refined coconut oil, melted
2 tablespoons (9 grams) nutritional yeast
1 ½ teaspoons (9 grams) sea salt
¼ teaspoon Thermophilic culture
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
2 tablespoons potato starch

Combine the water, mung beans, coconut oil, nutritional yeast, and salt in a blender and process until smooth and creamy. Add the culture and process again.

Today we’re making malumi what is malumi you may ask well it’s the plant-based cousin to halumi made with mung beans therefore malumi now this is actually a recipe that’s going to be in my upcoming new cookbook the vegan creery that’ll be out in 2025 and I thought I’d just give you a

Sneak peek now I got to make a full confession here because halumi I’ve been a vegan for so long I’ve been a vegan for 40 years halumi is a cheese that I have never had but recently it’s become so popular so I read up on it I read

That it was Tangy that it didn’t melt that you could throw it on a grill put it in a schwarma uh Grill it and toss it on a salad Etc and it just sounded is so intriguing I got to playing around I found that most plant-based recipes out

There were basically just made out of tofu so I thought can I make it better can I make a cheese that holds together that grills that doesn’t melt but is still creamy and delicious inside while still having that Tangy flavor and so I think I got it it’s golden hued it’s not

White so I call it malumi it’s not halumi it’s the mung bean malumi so we’re going to get started it’s a really easy cheese to make uh and uh wow we’re going to have some fun today all right getting started uh I told you we’re making this out of mung beans so these

Are split mung beans I’ve got a half a cup of split yellow mung beans and they are going to go into my blender with a cup and a half of water I’m going to add 2 tablespoons of nutritional East that’ll give it slightly cheesy flavor and then I’ve got 1/4 cup or 4

Tablespoons of avocado oil you can use coconut oil if you like or any other liquid oil um hard or liquid if you use coconut oil make sure it’s deodorized or refined coconut oil you do not want that coconut flavor all right uh and then I’m

Going to add about a teaspoon and a half of salt that’s an exact teaspoon and a half I just want to assure you of that and now we are going to blend This all right that is about done now what we have to do is ferment this for anywhere between 16 and 24 hours meaning that we’re going to add a probiotic actually not a probiotic we’re going to add some bacterial cultures lactic acid bacterial cultures that will bring down the pH

Meaning will make it more acidic and that’s what’s going to give this malumi its characteristic Tangy Flavor now you could culture it different ways you could just add a couple of tablespoons of a commercial vegan yogurt that would be one way to do it uh but I’m going to

Add a really special one so in recent years uh cheese culture companies have been making vegan cheese cultures uh made out of several different uh uh bacteria that will give cheese vegan cheese more flavor and so this is one of them I was able to get this from the

Cheesemaker decom so you can go there and buy your own this is the thermophilic culture there’s both a mesophilic and a thermophilic which means well Theos means love so Thermo means heat so it’s lover of heat bacterial cultures that are thermophilic like warmer temperatures and mesophilic like lower temperatures so this is a

Thermophilic one that we’re going to use and we’re going to sprink a little bit in here about an eighth of a teaspoon is about all we need I think that’s good and we’re just going to reblend it for just another [Applause] second okay now we’re going to pour this into a jar I have a mason jar right here make sure it’s nice and clean you don’t want other things growing in it and then we’re going to put this in a warm place at about 95 to 100° for 16 to 20 4 hours

Until it reaches a really low PH meaning somewhere below 4.6 ideally for that Tang maybe around 4.3 4.4 now if you do not have a meter to measure the pH I’m going to show you what that looks like so this is a pH meter if you don’t have

One and most people don’t just have one lying around the kitchen you can just taste it and see if it’s Tangy enough for you if it’s not Tangy enough just let it culture even longer so now we’re going to put a lid on this and and we

Are going to put it in an incubator now if you have a warm place in the summertime all you have to do is wrap a towel around this cuz it’s already fairly warm because of the friction from the blender and you can just put a heavy

Towel or a vegan down jacket around it or a blanket or something and put it away in a warm place where it’ll retain that temperature for 16 to 24 hours you can put it in an oven that’s been turned on and turned off you could put it in a

Yogurt maker you could put it in in pot at the yogurt setting which is usually around 110 but with a thermophilic culture that’ll also work you can put it in a proofing box that’s another place to keep it warm so there’s a variety of places that will keep this warm

Somewhere between uh 90 and you we can go up to as high as 110° for about 16 to 24 hours all right so this has been fermenting now I’m going to just check the ph and it’s around uh it’s about 4.6 all right so I think it’s ready you

Can make it lower but we’re going to get started I’m going to take the milk and what I’m going to do now is strain out the pulp U that just takes a minute cuz I don’t want a gritty malumi uh okay so I’m straining that now

There’s a little bit of sludge here at the bottom see the sludge there going to pour this into my pot and get as much milk out of this as possible and what you do with this is uh you can toss it you can compost it you

Can uh save it to make crackers watch my other episode of the Almond cow to learn how to make the best pulp crackers ever all right so I’ve got two tablespoons of potato starch that’s going in here and 2 tblspoon of tapioca starch and now we’re going to put this

On the stove and cook it until it is really really Thick I shouldn’t have walked away but I did all right it’s fine it’s all going to come Together All righty so when you get this lovely thicken Mass that’s gooey and stretchy and a little bit shiny with a little bit of Sheen to it that’s when you know it’s ready and now it is ready to go into our dish and just chill and Harden all right put it into my dish

Here and it’s a little darker but as it cools it will lighten up in [Applause] color all right and this is going to go in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight until it gets all firm and Sliceable oh I think I’ll get some cilantro I’ve got young garlic I could do that I could put a little garlic in there too wouldn’t that be good all right I’m going to do a little garlic there we go okay I know Tracy the garden lady is going to kill me for this

But I just want a little bit of this at the bottom okay that’s all I want so I’ve stolen uh a couple of things from the veggie garden and now I’ve got a dirty hand okay oh you got love you little boy no not dandelion either I’m striking

Out today nobody likes my weeds it’s hard to control you know it’s like us like we’re all in a mood for different foods at different times okay my malumi has nice and chilled it’s nice and firm now and I can slice it and Grill it so

That’s exactly what we’re going to do uh I’m going to grill these I’m going to cut these maybe oh I don’t know a third of an inch half an inch thick and as you can see they’re firm they have some elasticity and they don’t melt so I’ve

Got a cast iron indoor grill right here on my burner I also have just another pan here so I can cook them two different ways so they they have grill marks and they don’t have grill marks Oh yes oh yes my malumi is about done okay that one fell apart but as you can see they are staying together they’re not melting on the inside they’re holding their shape okay so now we’re going to put these on a plate you can put them on toast have it with avocado

Toast it’s so good with avocado um but I’m just going to make a little little a little bit of a condiment put on top with some cucumber and tomatoes and the onions that I just picked from the garden uh some spring onions and we’ll top it with that and just have a little

Appetizer so we’re just going to make a little topping to put on top of the halumi so we can enjoy them in all their glory and so we’ve got the the the spring onions and the red Italian garlic that I picked from the garden I stole from the garden uh Tracy our garden

Director is probably going to go what happened to my onion so uh but anyway they’re here I think I’m going to slice it like this on the bias uh I’ll use the tops later for soup or something I’m going to do a combination that is the garlic for sure I can smell It okay I’ve got some cilantro that I also picked from the garden so we’ll just chop that up nicely and I did something I never do which is uh to buy a tomato in February uh but I did that because uh I just wanted the pop of color and I

Thought they would go so nicely with the malumi so I’m going to dice these up very very fine and A Little Cucumber so just chop that up I’m going to get all of that into my bowl a little olive oil little sea salt all right so let’s top the

Malumi okay my malumi is all dressed up and ready to be devoured so I’ve got the grilled one here I’ve got the pan fried one here I’m going to take a butt of the grilled One m so good wow that’s a delicious appetizer right by just like it just like that but I could also Imagine It On A Christini with some avocados um on top of a salad add a little bit of protein and richness and creaminess wow this is a hit so hey guys

Give it a try uh this will be in my upcoming new cookbook uh the vegan Creamery and if you enjoyed this video please like like And subscribe and if you make this and post this on your Instagram please tag me uh and uh you know share me your pictures of your

Malumi so until next time