The Best Vegan Mozzarella Sticks

Yep, you heard me correctly. Vegan. Fricken. Mozzarella. Sticks. Can you tell I am very excited about them? They were relatively easy to make and you can either deep fry them or bake them. If you want my honest opinion though do the deep fried it’s just better.

A good mozzarella stick starts with the cheese. Now obviously vegan cheese we are a little bit limited in our choices. The best vegan cheese I have ever had in a mozzarella stick was the Violife brand. However, I can’t seem to find that in stores so I went with the Follow Your Heart vegan mozzarella and it worked out wonderfully. But you can really use any vegan mozzarella you like. For the vegan parmesan cheese I used the one from Go Veggie but I also love the one from Follow Your Heart. If you can’t find vegan parmesan you can just use nutritional yeast. If you would like to make this gluten free simply use gluten free breadcrumbs and gluten free all purpose flour.

You’ll Need:

• 1 1/2 blocks of vegan mozzarella
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 cup of panko breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup vegan parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened, original almond milk [or any plant milk]
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil for deep frying method
• 1 tsp olive oil for baking method

Instructions:

1. Cut your vegan mozzarella into rectangles.
2. You can make them as big or as little as you want.
3. You can also make them into little cubes and make a bunch of mini mozzarella bites.
4. Then make your breadcrumb mixture by adding the panko breadcrumbs, vegan parm, salt, paprika, garlic powder and parsley into a bowl.
5. Mix it all together to get it well incorporated.
6. Next prepare your dredging station by adding flour into a bowl, almond milk into a bowl and then you will have your breadcrumbs.
7. Before you start dipping decide what will be your dry hand and what will be your wet hand.
8. I like to use my dominant hand as my dry hand.
9. Take a mozzarella stick, roll it around in the flour using your dry hand, drop it into the almond milk and roll it around using your wet hand, then drop it into the breadcrumbs and roll it around using your dry hand.
10. To make sure everything is very crispy and coated well dip it back into the almond milk and then back into the breadcrumbs.
11. Repeat with all the mozzarella sticks.
12. Freeze for 1 hour.

FOR BAKING METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and then place mozzarella sticks onto the sheet.
3. If you would like use olive oil to lightly cover the tops of the mozzarella sticks.
4. You don’t have to do this but the little bit of oil will help to make them a bit golden.
5. Bake for about 18-20 minutes.
6. Allow them to cool before eating as they will be a bit soft and will just fall apart if you pick them up too soon.

DEEP FRYING METHOD:

1. Heat up 1 and 1/2 cups of vegetable oil in a small pot.
2. I like to keep the oil on medium heat and it will take about 10-15 minutes for it to get hot enough.
3. You can test if the oil is hot enough by throwing in a small piece of bread or small piece of the mozzarella stick and seeing if it bubbles and stays at the top when it is in there.
4. If it doesn’t it is not hot enough and if it makes a giant splattering mess then it is too hot.
5. Then simply use a fork and place 2 mozzarella sticks in and let them cook for about 5-7 minutes.
6. Until they get nice and golden.
7. Then put it on a dish lined with paper towels to let them drain out.
8. Repeat until all mozzarella sticks are done.

NOTES:

• Will make 14 mozzarella sticks.