Bad Manners Pantry Parm

“We don’t need to sell you on how great Parmesan is on just about everything,” is how Bad Manners, the Los Angeles, California-based vegan cooking duo behind numerous New York Times Bestselling cookbooks, a podcast, and a newsletter, introduce the vegan Parm substitute in their cookbook Brave New Meal. But the fact that Parmesan is so good means it’s usually hard to find a substitute that mimics the flavor and texture of the real thing.

That’s where Pantry Parm comes in. As Matt and Michelle, the two cooks behind Bad Manners, put it with their signature irreverence (in both presentation and language), “Parm without the cheese? It’s not only possible, but it’s so godd&*n delicious you won’t miss the other stuff.”

Their formula uses almonds for nuttiness, nutritional yeast for a cheesy, umami flavor, lemon zest for brightness, and garlic powder for that unmistakable sharpness. If you’ve never used nutritional yeast, it’s sold as flaky yellow shards that aren’t active but are delicious.

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor for a few seconds, and you’ve made yourself a vegan Parmesan dupe that’s delicious on pizza. We’d recommend it with Beeteroni, Ooni’s classic pizza sauce, and classic pizza dough for a vegan take on the classic pepperoni. You really don’t miss animal-derived products with recipes this good.

Fair warning for reading a Bad Manners recipe, as you may have guessed from their name and tagline, Davis and Holloway tend to swear. We typically keep things pretty family-friendly but in this case, their food might just be d@mn good enough to repeat.

BioBad Manners is the irreverent duo Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway, two home cooks dedicated to making delicious, nutritious, plant-based food. Since they started blogging in 2012, they’ve brought vegan food to the masses with their New York Times Bestselling cookbooks, their podcast, Forked Up, and their newsletter, The Broiler Room. Follow them on Instagram @badmannersfood.