Recipe!

One addition I had to make to this was that I added 3 tablespoons of nooch. I could not have gone without it! It's amazing. I added a hint of sriracha while eating it as well. Would recommend!

  • Default_Defect@midwest.social
    ·
    2 months ago

    I'm no vegan, but based on reading the recipe, I assume vegan cheese has improved quite a bit? I tried some years ago out of curiosity and IMO it was nothing like cheese, like eating cardboard.

    • Angel [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 months ago

      It depends on what you're eating it with honestly. I don't think that most vegan cheeses are "good" either, but I find it easier for vegan cheeses to do their job with something like macaroni and cheese more than it is for them to do so with, say, a sandwich. Also, adding nutritional yeast really is the main game changer here. It adds an extra degree of more addictive "cheesy" flavor. It was most certainly very good for me either way.

      • Default_Defect@midwest.social
        ·
        2 months ago

        Makes sense, would it be fair to say that a lot of these vegan alternative meals are usually greater than the sum of their parts? Like, I didn't like the vegan cheese on its own, but this dish (even if it isn't quite my expectation of mac & cheese) would hit a lot closer to what I might expect? I know tastes differ, so I'm not necessarily expecting an emphatic yes or no.

        • Angel [any]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 months ago

          To me, it tastes pretty "cheesy" from the angle of someone who hasn't consumed actual dairy cheese in ages.

          • seeking_perhaps [he/him]
            ·
            2 months ago

            Agreed, put cheese out of your brain and just eat and you'll enjoy it. (5 y.o. vegan)

    • Owl [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      There are good vegan deli slices and vegan cheese sauces, but no vegan cheeses that are so good on their own that you'd put them on a cheese board.

      Also you can't melt the deli slices into cheese sauce, they're actually completely different things.

      • Eco [she/her, he/him]
        ·
        2 months ago

        there's a vegan cheesemonger in london that i bought some stuff from before. absolutely was cheese board-worthy, though so expensive

        • Owl [he/him]
          ·
          2 months ago

          Exciting!

          ...really far away though, darn.

        • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
          ·
          2 months ago

          There's a local couple that hits up farmers markets in town from time to time thar make earth shattering vegan fancy cheeses. It's totally something that exists, but I can admit it's rare.

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
        ·
        2 months ago

        There absolutely are cheese board worthy vegan cheeses, I've had them and as someone who really really really loved fancy cheeses prior to being vegan, what I've had slapped milk cheese out of the water. However, what I had was very local and didn't keep long. I'm not exactly sure what they did and they didn't wanna tell anyone

        • Owl [he/him]
          ·
          2 months ago

          Darn it, vegan cheesemongers! Go open source!

          • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
            ·
            2 months ago

            I tried to pry them based on pretending to care about allergies and it seems potato starch is the key and they're generally nut based. I have a vague idea of what to do but generally haven't had the time or equipment to fuck around. It's also based on my guessing pretty labor intensive.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      What folks have said is true but genwrallt speaking vegan cheese has advanced quite a bit. It's not around where I am, but I work at a pretty fancy pizza place and our chef goes to an annual international pizza contest held in Vegas and it kinda doubles as a trade show, it's absurd but there ya go. Anyway, there was a vegan cheese product being demo'd that was specifically made for a crazy hot brick an stone pizza oven that starts out as a liquid and turns into a cheesy texture as it heats up and is made of non sketchy ingredients that inforget rn cause it was march that I was told about it. I guess it's delicious and it's working it's way north and east and gaining solid momentum as a product. There are also a lot of really good and not too difficult recipes for cheese substitute at home. Like a strategically brined and crumbled tofu isn't too different from cold feta for example.