Vegan Practically

Among the most frequent comments people make when the subject of veganism comes up is, “I could never give up cheese.” Indeed, for some people this is the number one reason that makes the very prospect of becoming vegan unthinkable.

I used to feel that way, too. Convinced that the transition from vegetarian to vegan would be too hard, I felt I could never do it even if I understood that all of my reasons for being vegetarian counted equally against eggs and dairy as they did against meat, poultry, and seafood.

Back in 2011 I decided to try an experiment while travelling to a conference in Manchester. I would try to eat vegan the majority of the time I was away, just to see what it would be like. I put a bunch of books about becoming vegan onto my kindle, and read a couple of them on the overnight flight to London Heathrow. One of them, The Ultimate Vegan Guide by Erik Markus, contained a strategy that changed my perception of how hard it would be.

He suggested that if you’re feeling that you “can’t live without” something, say it’s cheese (since that’s a real sticking point for so many), try to be more specific. It’s not that I can’t live without all the cheese. It’s that I think I can’t live without the 13-year old white cheddar that I get at the specialty market around the corner. And maybe the house-made fresh mozzarella from my favourite Italian market. The list of things that “I’m not yet ready to…” let go of could be long. But the main thing he suggests is to make it specific and really narrow it down.

I’ll talk about that strategy more at a later date because I think it’s important. But what I really want to say today is, “OMG have you tried vegan cheese lately?” It has come a long long way.

For a long time it was just horrible. I mean, they tried, but you really couldn’t enjoy it on a cracker. It had to be tucked into something else, or on a pizza, and even then it didn’t melt all that well. And when it did melt, it was sort of an oily, rubbery mess.

But over the past decade or so, vegan cheese has come into its own with exceptionally delicious cashew-based cheeses. My first encounter with it came when Nuts for Cheese was just starting out as a small outfit. Margaret, the owner and creator, worked as a chef in my then-favourite (now-defunct) vegan restaurant in London, Ontario called Veg Out. Going from there to a market stall, to local supermarkets and now reaching international markets, she has developed a line of delicious nut-based cheeses, including Un-brie-lievable, Chipotle Cheddar, and Super Blue. She’s even got a line of plant-based butters now.

I feel as if I really lucked out where I live because some years after I got to watch and cheer on the growth of Nuts for Cheese, I stumbled across the very best blue cheese I have ever tasted (dairy or non-dairy) from Main Vegan Deli, in Glencoe, a small town just outside of London, Ontario. Here was a cheese with that sharp, crumbly, luxurious cheese-board character, amazing on a cracker with some hot red pepper jelly.

Back when I first became vegan, I used to make my own pizza using hummus instead of cheese. It was amazing but now I use the Violife shreds, available in the plant-based section of my regular supermarket, and they’re excellent. Easy and melt-y, tasty and not greasy, and one package goes a long way. I use the mozzarella-style for pizza, the cheddar-style for nachos.

I’ve hit upon other brands that have really done the job. Green Goddess Fromagerie in Guelph has a full line of “artisan vegan cheese without compromise.” Their cheeses are reasonably easy to find. I especially like their Irish Cheddar, and they have a yummy seasonal cranberry that I could eat all day long.

Fauxmagerie Zengarry is another gem, turning out outstanding cashew cheeses with great recipes to go along with them. Their Double Creme makes a great addition to a vegan cheese tray, and you can even bake it and serve it with a crusty baguette.

These aren’t the only options. Field Roast’s Chao cheeses are tasty slices that melt well. They make a grilled cheese to rival any other I used to eat and again, they’re widely available. Daiya, though often maligned, was a real pioneer in the vegan cheese (and non-dairy in general) market and they have evolved a lot, both in their recipe and in their product line. It used to be that the best you could say about Daiya was that it melted. I now have many vegan friends who use it faithfully for pizza and nachos, and who love their frozen pizzas and boxed mac and cheeze. I’m partial to Annie’s vegan mac myself. But they all bring me right back to my grad school days of eating Kraft mac & cheese dinner.

You’ll also find some cream cheese on the market these days that is indecipherable from its dairy cousin. Spread ’em and Sheese both make excellent cream cheeses that do very well on bagels.

This long discussion of the many and varied cheese options is my way of saying the “what about cheese?!” argument has less teeth than it used to (if it ever had any, but I will save my discussion of what I’ve seen called “the tyranny of taste argument” for another day). There are loads of good vegan cheese options to try these days. The photo above shows the relatively recent plant-based mini Babybel, complete with the wax cover (in green though, not from bees). I picked up a bag of 20 the other day and it’s a great snack. It’s not cashew-based, but rather coconut-oil based, which is another successful direction that vegan cheeses have gone of late.

So, if you haven’t tried vegan cheese lately, I encourage you to give it a go regardless of whether you are considering going vegan. If you are an ethical vegetarian who has been contemplating vegan but felt daunted by a future without cheese, take heart. The world of vegan cheese has changed in the past decade. As Fauxmagerie Zengarry’s tagline says, “Finally, cheese you can feel good about eating.”

What are your favourite vegan cheeses?