Stretchy, chewy, cheesy — and made from sesame?! I’ve never seen this fresh mozzarella-like texture from vegan cheese before and it developed completely by accident while I was trying to make sesame tofu.
🎥 Watch “Mozzarella from SEEDS?! Has Will It Tofu Gone 2 Far?” on YouTube
You’ll see exactly how the mozzarella-like curds developed, using both organic and conventional sesame seeds, plus the usual chaos that comes with every Will It Tofu? episode.
Plus, huge thanks to Saje for sponsoring the video and keeping me sane through the chaos. This blog post is not sponsored but I would never keep a discount code from my readers! Use “MARYSTK” at checkout to get 20% off sitewide plus free shipping at Saje.com (the US store) or Saje.ca (the Canadian store).
Current Vegan Mozzarella Options
At the moment, vegan mozzarella tends to fall into three main categories:
- 🧀 Saucy-style mozzarellas, like Miyoko’s Pourable Mozzarella or Vedged Out’s Foxy Moxy recipe, which are creamy, tangy, starch-thickened sauces perfect for pizza and lasagna.
These are typically made from potato starch, tapioca, or cashews, and they “stretch” visually — but in reality, it’s more of a goopy pull than a true cheese stretch.
- 🍥 Firm, sliceable mozzarella, which usually melt under heat (though never quite like the dairy version) like Miyoko Schinner’s recipe for Easy Vegan Buffalo Mozzarella. Or my Creamy Garlic Cultured Mozzarella recipe. They slice cleanly and can be pan-melted or layered in caprese salads.
These are often set using a combination of starches and agar or kappa carrageenan so they can be firm at room temperature and melt under heat. - 🧩 Commercial vegan cheese shreds, such as Violife Mozzarella Shreds, Daiya Cutting Board Mozza, and Follow Your Heart Mozzarella, which are designed to melt for pizza or pasta.
They’re convenient and melty but don’t quite replicate that fresh mozzarella chew that dairy cheese lovers remember.
All of these can be delicious and versatile — but this stretchy sesame curd I stumbled upon is completely different.
It wasn’t made with starch, agar, or gums. Just one ingredient: sesame seeds.
How I Discovered the Mozza in Sesame
If you’ve been following the Will It Tofu? series, you know I’ve been using the traditional tofu-making method (soaking, blending, straining, and curdling) on non-traditional ingredients. The results are often surprising (sometimes inedible, sometimes amazing).
In my first sesame tofu experiment, the flavor was bitter. I suspected it might have been due to the seeds themselves — maybe old, maybe improperly stored — so I decided to retry the experiment with two new batches: one conventional and one organic.
After soaking and blending the seeds into sesame milk, I heated the liquid — expecting tofu-like curds. Instead, something wild happened.
At around 170°F, the sesame milk began to self-coagulate — no coagulant added — and formed two distinct textures:
a soft, creamy curd and stretchy curds that looked exactly like fresh mozzarella curds.
When I picked it up with my spoon, it even had that cheese-pull effect. No starch. No agar. No magic tricks. Just sesame seeds.
Naturally, I pressed the curds to see if the feeling would endure.
In the first batch (conventional), I harvested all the visible curds. But there was so much leftover whey that I decided to heat it up again. The curds that developed during that round were more rubbery and firm.
I put both types in the same press.
For the organic batch, I boiled the milk for a longer time. The same two textures developed: one creamy and clumpy, one stretchy and bouncy. All went into a tofu press as well.
The results
The conventional batch had the two separate textures: one side was firm but creamy like the original sesame tofu! But it was not bitter at all.
The other side, made from the second round of boiling, was more firm and bouncy. The inside texture was layered, making me think of vegan chicken! The mouthfeel was meaty as well.
Same ingredient — completely different results.
So now I have even more questions:
- What made the original batch of sesame curds behave differently?
- Can we maximize the yield and use those stretchy curds on pizza or lasagna?
- Also, how can we separate the creamy curds from the stretchy ones? What kind of vegan cheeses can we make from that?
- What about vegan sesame chicken?
I’ve already restocked on sesame seeds so please subscribe because this is just the beginning!
