Even the shit-to-average stuff we have now is so expensive (even though it probably costs cents on the dollar to produce vs dairy)
Best vegan cheese I've had is from a fucking 16th century cookbook, a recipe from like 500 years ago...
Dont have a link, cause its a physical book but I will paraphrase. To make mock ricotta and butter from almonds: Get two pounds of peeled almonds and soak them for twelve hours. Grind them in a mortar, moistening them with reduced pike broth (here you substitute with mushroom, or dashi, or whatever vegan substitute you want. ) so that the mixture becomes like milk. Strain, adding to it three ounces of finely ground sugar, three ounces of starch and four ounces of rose water. Put it in a pot, salt and cook, stirring constantly until it thickens. When its firm take it out and put it in a ricotta mould (or any type of mould really), but before you do that sprinkle the mould with rose water. Leave in cool place until it is cold and settled. Serve with sugar and flowers on top. Instead of using starch, you can cook rice in the above mentioned broth.
You can also make a pseudo butter from above mixture, by making it slightly looser and coloring it with saffron.
Dont have a link, cause its a physical book but I will paraphrase. To make mock ricotta and butter from almonds: Get two pounds of peeled almonds and soak them for twelve hours. Grind them in a mortar, moistening them with reduced pike broth (here you substitute with mushroom, or dashi, or whatever vegan substitute you want. ) so that the mixture becomes like milk. Strain, adding to it three ounces of finely ground sugar, three ounces of starch and four ounces of rose water. Put it in a pot, salt and cook, stirring constantly until it thickens. When its firm take it out and put it in a ricotta mould (or any type of mould really), but before you do that sprinkle the mould with rose water. Leave in cool place until it is cold and settled. Serve with sugar and flowers on top. Instead of using starch, you can cook rice in the above mentioned broth.
You can also make a pseudo butter from above mixture, by making it slightly looser and coloring it with saffron.
Dont have a link, cause its a physical book but I will paraphrase. To make mock ricotta and butter from almonds: Get two pounds of peeled almonds and soak them for twelve hours. Grind them in a mortar, moistening them with reduced pike broth (here you substitute with mushroom, or dashi, or whatever vegan substitute you want. ) so that the mixture becomes like milk. Strain, adding to it three ounces of finely ground sugar, three ounces of starch and four ounces of rose water. Put it in a pot, salt and cook, stirring constantly until it thickens. When its firm take it out and put it in a ricotta mould (or any type of mould really), but before you do that sprinkle the mould with rose water. Leave in cool place until it is cold and settled. Serve with sugar and flowers on top. Instead of using starch, you can cook rice in the above mentioned broth.
You can also make a pseudo butter from above mixture, by making it slightly looser and coloring it with saffron.
Whenever I make vegan food I never try to recreate stuff like meat or cheese because that tends to be the fast train to Disappointment Town
Literally the only good one is the Bio Cheese Vegan Feta, and even then its way too overpriced for what I imagine is coconut milk and lemon juice.
We need a space for vegan shitposting, moral superiority and struggle sessions.
Totally. The amount of “cheddar” flavoured slices I’ve bought that literally taste of coconut lol. And shit just doesn’t melt and stretch properly. The fake meat has gotten so good, how can the cheese tech be so far behind??
I've dropped the fake meat for the most part, a little bit of seitan if I can get my hands on it cheap, but for the most part I just took the time to learn to cook tofu a little better and have a mix of legumes and the like in my meals.
As for cheese - just replace that shit with olive oil most of the time. It's like a million times tastier than most vegan cheeses. I'm starting to get real iffy about the amount of capitalist buy-in vegan shit has had recently, trying to learn to strip things back to the basics.
Nutritional yeast has a nice cheesy flavor too. There's a recipe for a queso style dip I've done a few times that involves cashews, cumin, jalapenos, and a ton of nutritional yeast and it's actually pretty fuckin good. I might be forgetting an ingredient or two. I can dig it up if you want
I live in Nooch. I'd fucking marry Nooch.
That dip sounds incredible.
https://minimalistbaker.com/roasted-jalapeno-vegan-queso-7-ingredients/ sorry for late reply, I'm lazy af lol. But this is what I use. It's goooooooood
That looks so god damn good. Maybe I'll whip up a batch tonight, light some candles, get nude and go to town on it. Damn. Cheesy.
Seitan is worth learning to make on your own. It's easy and super cheap. And the ingredients keep forever.
I might give it a go. Just read you can make it from scratch from whole meal flour. Got tonnes of the stuff for baking so that sounds best.
Apparently you make that with the flour and then the seitan with that.
Love doing things from scratch, so I'll go the long way round, haha.
Hold up what's wrong with olive oil that's 30% of my diet
The only good one I've had was Violife Smoked Flavour one, and that's because it mostly tasted like smoke and only a little like coconut.
Also
We need a space for vegan shitposting, moral superiority and struggle sessions.
Yes.
I was told c/vegan is in the works but it's since been delayed for reasons unknown.
It's hard to find good theory on animal welfare, so in addition to patting each other on our backs for our very clear and rightfully earned moral superiority, I'd like a place to share reading suggestions too.
Also i want vegan cheese that's a source of protein and not just coconut oil.
Good old Peter Singer is a good place to start for theory. I'll see if I can pull together a larger list at some point.
Kinda hard to think of theory based on this, as it's basically "murder is wrong"...
Also, nutritional yeast, as mentioned below. Just mix some in with literally everything you eat if you like that cheesy taste. Good source of B vitamins and protein.
thanks! of course i worship at the alter of nooch, but it doesn't stretch when you put it on a damn pizza!
also yeah singer's a great starting point, but i lose him when i try to flesh it out with larger leftist frameworks. he puts a hell of a lot of responsibility on individuals' actions over larger systemic change (iirc he argued they're morally one in the same at some point). also his some of his ethical arguments kinda dance around fashy when it comes to people with disabilities. would be great to have a dedicated community where we can try to compile resources like they do in other coms. and if you've personally got a list to share, please do make a post - it would be super helpful!
Singer is always a good first step for people as he's written easily and makes some really obvious points.
Very critical support though. For ever good point (speciesism), he seems to follow it up with a fucking stupid point (bestiality is ok, animals can consent)
I know his whole shtick is to stick to his philosophical guns, but god damn it gets tiring.
I have noone else though - I think Singer was my first, I continued to ignore veganism, I grew the fuck up and then decided one day that I don't hate animals.
Of you have anything share away!
Violife has some good offerings.
Chao cheese is amazing if you've never tried it
Miyokos also has good brands of slide and shredded
Also surpsingly enough whole foods brands vegan cheese is acceptable as well, I enjoy their gouda but it expires really quickly
Ugh I wish I could try all this stuff but (1) I'm not in the US so we always get new vegan products months/years after they first debut in the states and (2) I'm gluten and corn intolerant so I mostly can't eat anything but daiya products rn. Sucks bc corn is so incredibly subsidized so its in fucking EVERYTHING
I'm not sure how widespread it is, but there is a place here called Blaze Pizza that has a vegan cheese which is better than their standard. So it is possible, but idk how and I've never found similar at stores.
There is a community on reddit /r/vegancheesemaking that you should check out if you haven't
the only good vegan cheese experience is whatever they put on vegan pizzas. that shit actually melts and tastes good but idk what brand they're using
I had some from trader joe's years ago and they were indistinguishable from meat corn dogs
we're closer than ever though. A different thing but I'm pretty happy with beyond meat
The new beyond burger recipe fucking slaps. I liked the old one too but the new one is substantially better 👌
Some ingredients, like Kappa Carageenan, are a bit hard to find. I'd recommend Modernist Pantry, but if you can source them cheaper or locally or whatever, totally do.
The initial cost, to get the ingredients, is higher, but it's much cheaper in the long run.
And since he's just a guy developing recipes and selling cookbooks, if you find them useful, consider properly purchasing it.
Vegan cheese fucking sucks but honestly I'm mostly happy to just remove cheese entirely. I miss pizza though…
I make a really excellent cheese sauce that’s great for like Mac and cheese or on pizza. It can be a little runny for a burger or sandwich but it’s still good there too. I’ll describe how I make it but I rarely measure too much.
Soak a mug full of cashews in hot water. Put chopped onions, carrot, and peeled potato in a pot with a nice layer of a coconut milk (I use watered down canned coconut milk in my house cause it’s cheap and good for Smoothies). Then I add enough stock to cover all the veggies (better than bouillon garlic stock has been my preferred.) throw in a little garlic and black and red pepper And EVO and get the sauce simmering. I add the cashews after it’s been boiling for an hour or along with the water they’re soaking in, lotta good oils in there. The goal is to reduce the liquid until the vegetables are extremely tender and there’s very little liquid left. I add a clove of garlic every half hour 40 minutes or so to help keep a fresh garlic flavor in the sauce. Once it’s reduced down enough you immersion blend the shit out of it until it’s smooth and adjust the flavor till it’s perfect with your black and red pepper and a little bit of cumin and smoked paprika. Then after it’s smooth blend in a cup of nutritional yeast to help thicken it. The idea is to take some really strong sharp flavors like garlic and red and black pepper and just bury that in the starchy flavor of the veggies and the flavors of all the different fats until you end up with a flavor approximating something like queso or sharp cheddar. The yeast is also really important because sometimes you’ll actually get some yeast growth in your sauce which takes it to a whole other level. It’s a fairly cheap sauce and it’s easy to make a lot of. I’m pretty proud of this recipe so let me know if you try it!
