Who’d ever thought there would be an upside to being stuck at home? Well if you’re trying to go vegan or even just eat less dairy, it gives plenty of time for experimenting with new dishes and condiments. I thought I’d share a few of my favourites that I’ve discovered over the last month.
I have to say I thought giving up dairy would be a real struggle, but it has actually been quite painless, especially when eating at home. Eating out is definitely harder, but every day I am seeing stories on social media of fast food chains and grocery brands introducing new vegan alternatives, so there is hope that vegan will become more mainstream – even in Asia!
Butter
I thought I’d given up on butter, then I tried the vegan butter from Jakarta brand “The Good Gut” (who also make my favourite coconut yoghurt). Their butter is made with cashew and pumpkin, which was a surprise ingredient, but the result is a really delicious, slightly sweet tasting spread. The texture is more grainy than dairy butter, and a bit harder to spread, but the taste is great, and most importantly it goes great with Vegemite!
I did also buy a sunflower oil margarine for making sauces with. Plain olive oil wasn’t quite cutting the mustard. Be warned not all sunflower oil spreads are vegan – check the labels!
Cream Cheese
I was browsing you-tube one day, and a video link popped up for vegan cream cheese. I had seen a video a few days earlier for a vegan camembert, which was actually a proper cultured cheese alternative involving real mould, and months and months of daily cheese turning. I had no idea where I could buy the mould and I wasn’t quite ready for that sort of commitment, but I figured cream cheese had to be a quicker process. The cream cheese video I watched involved curdling soy milk to make curds, which I thought sounded a lot like making tofu, so why not start with tofu? I googled more recipes, and many use a cashew nut base, but I found the one below from “The Edgy Veg” which looked like just what I was after.
https://www.theedgyveg.com/2020/03/31/tofu-cream-cheese-vegan-recipe/
I used a silken tofu instead of firm, and so I didn’t need to add extra soy milk. Other than that I pretty much followed the recipe as it is. The result was pretty good, and tasty as a dip or spread. Whilst it does keep well in the fridge, it is definitely best when fresh.
Cheese
I was quite excited when Grand Lucky (our local supermarket) started stocking a few vegan cheeses. As a show of solidarity and to encourage more vegan products, I thought I’d pick up a couple and see what they were like. I bought a vegan parmesan, a vegan smoked cheddar and a vegan soy-cheddar.
The parmesan is Madree brand, and made with ground cashew and nutritional yeast. The flavour is not super cheesy, but as something to sprinkle on top of Italian dishes it does the trick. It was quite expensive however, and reading the ingredients it seems like it would probably be quite simple to make myself. Watch this space for future reports on how that goes!
The Soya-Cheeze has a texture similar to those nasty cheese slices that come wrapped in way too much plastic, and the taste is very bland. I shan’t be reaching for this to add to a cheese board anytime soon, and even in sandwiches it doesn’t add any flavour. I’d rather eat hummus or peanut butter to be honest. I haven’t tried melting this on anything yet, maybe thats where it comes into its own?
The Madree Smoked Cheddar does have some flavour, mainly due to liquid smoke seasoning (another magic ingredient I recently discovered). The texture is again a bit rubbery, but better than the Soy-Cheeze. I am more likely to buy this one again, but again it hasn’t really blown me away.
Maybe you folks in Europe or America have better vegan cheese alternatives available, but I have to say that so far, I have not been very excited by any of these. These cheeses have reinforced my original intent to find complete alternatives to replace cheese. Let me know if you have a favourite brand you have found that I should look out for that may change my mind!
That’s it for this post. I hope these tips are useful. Stay tuned for more ideas on how to reduce dairy products in your diet, and more links to my favourite recipes.
Letter from Jakarta. 