But What About Cheese?
A brief intro on how to find your vegan cheese spirit animal
Cheese. We love it. Americans eat it on practically everything. It's often stated as the number one reason why people don't want to become vegan or eat plant-based. But don't worry, in our modern age there are lots of plant options to replace animal cheese that are just as tasty.
​Giving up animal cheese can be very hard. As someone with a background in science, I can tell you that any cheese derived from infant's milk contain addictive substances like casomorphins that can literally give us a cheese addition. And, as a regular person who once had to give up cheese, it also just tastes good! While we should probably avoid being dependent on chemicals for happiness, we can find that cheesy taste we are craving in vegan cheese.
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Cheese doesn't need to be a barrier to good living anymore, but the world of vegan cheese can be confusing, as they are numerous, and melt differently than animal cheeses. Maybe you tried this one brand your friend swears by only to discover that it tastes like plastic to you. Maybe you tried to make a grilled cheese to find that you burnt the bread while the cheese stubbornly refused to melt. Don't give up! All vegan cheeses are very different and it may take you a while to find your cheese spirit animal, but trust me, he's out there, waiting for you to find his deliciousness.
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First off, let's just go over a few of the options that are available for purchase in the Huntsville area.
Pictured above unwrapped, and packaged to the right:
Miyoko's Cheese Wheel: Smoked English Farmhouse,
Kite Hill ricotta,
Kite Hill cream cheese,
Follow Your Heart parmesan,
Field Roast Chao,
Violife smoked provolone, Parmela Creamery Aged Nut Cheese: sharp cheddar,
So Delicious mozzarella shreds,
Violife feta
Soft Cheese
​For soft cheeses you can't go wrong with Miyoko's. Any of their cheese wheels deliver on flavor. These are cheeses designed for charcuterie boards and crackers, and do not melt.
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Ricotta
Many of us have been using crumbled tofu or nuts as an attempt to replace ricotta in lasagna or other noodle dishes. While these are fine, Kite Hill has come out with a fantastic ricotta that may leave you unable to distinguise this plant-based option from cow's milk cheese. Currently it can only be found locally at Sprouts.
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Parmesan
​For classic comes-from-a-shaker Parmesan, Go Veggie has a pretty tasty version that can be found in the non-refrigerated section. If you're looking for more old world style shreds, check out Follow Your Heart Parmesan. It melts with a little coaxing and I often use it on top of toasted bread.
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Cream Cheese
​Here's where things start to get complicated. The perfect vegan cream cheese hasn't been invented yet, but Kite Hill gets my vote for best flavor. However, if I need cream cheese for baking, such as a cheese cake, I pick up a package of Tofutti brand. The texture will be more like traditional cheesecake.
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Feta
​Violife makes a fantastic feta cheese! While the texture is harder, I have fed this to omnivores who say the taste is exactly right. As a surprise, this cheese will melt and is delicious in Reuben style sandwiches.
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Swiss to Provolone Cheeses
​Vegan cheeses offer a variety of flavors that are similar to styles of aged cow cheese. Field Roast's Chao cheese is my absolute favorite for grilled cheese. I once heard someone describe it as if swiss and havarti had a baby. It melts very well in the microwave or sandwich maker, but not so much in the oven.
Follow Your Heart and Violife both make a provolone. Most people will greatly prefer one brand or the other, so you'll need to do a little experimenting yourself. I love Violife's smoked provolone. Violife's cheese can melt a little too easily in the microwave, so be careful your cheese doesn't run away from you.
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Cheddar Cheese
​As a huge lover of sharp chedder, I, myself, am often disappointed in the vegan options for cheddars. Most of them feature a strange aftertaste. A little-known but personal favorite of mine is Parmela Creamery's sharp cheddar. It melts readily and since it is actually aged, it has some of the cheddar flavor that I miss.
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Mozzarella Cheese
​From Daiya to Follow Your Heart, every brand has their own mozzerella shreds! The good news is that gives you a lot of options to find your favorite. The bad news is that it may take you a while. Keep trying. My personal favorite is So Delicious's mozzerella shreds. It melts easily and has a pleasant taste to my taste buds.
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As you can see there many options for all kinds of cheeses. I've tried to mention a mix of my favorites and those that do the best in taste tests. Does that mean you will love them as much as the majority of people? Of course not. In the end, everyone's taste is unique. You also may love one flavor from a particular brand and hate another flavor. Keep trying until you connect with your cheese.
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Getting Vegan Cheese to Melt
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There is a big difference between cooking with animal cheeses and vegan cheeses. While animal fat has a pretty low melting temperature, plant fats have much higher ones, and need to be broiled or microwaved in order to get up to temp. In addition, they also need to be kept moist, other wise you will end up with a hard dried out lump on top of your pizza, no matter whether you blast them with a torch.
For these reasons, people often get discouraged by vegan cheese when they are expecting them to melt like animal fat, when in fact they are very different, chemically speaking. Don't worry, it's not that complicated, they just required different handling. After seven years of cooking with vegan cheeses, here's a few tricks I've learned.
For pizza, shredded cheese is a must, otherwise by the time the cheese gets up to temp it will have dried out. You can buy shredded, or make your own from your favorite cheese with a regular cheese grater or a food processor for moist cheeses. Make sure your oven is preheated to at least 425°. If working with a persnickety crust (such as a gluten-free one) using a broiler for 30 seconds at the end of cooking can be useful to avoid overcooking the crust.
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For sandwiches or grilled cheese, the microwave is very efficient for melting cheese, since it is instantly very hot and keeps in moisture. For hoagies, grill everything first and then microwave with the cheese. For grilled cheeses, I melt the cheese to the bread first in the microwave, then grill in a preheated skillet until crispy. Violife and So Delicious brand cheese melt very quickly so I usually microwave for 20 seconds for those brands, and 30 seconds for all other brands I've tried.
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Another option I recommend for both crispy bread and melted cheese is investing in a sandwich maker/grill. You can find this appliance at most department stores for under $30. Since it encloses the bread and heats from both sides, it's excellent at melting vegan cheeses. Use tortillas in it, too, for crispy quesadillas.
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I hope you feel a little more prepared to purchase and cook with vegan cheeses! You can also let restaurants do the work for you and learn about what you do and don't like. There are quite a few restaurants in Huntsville/Madison that carry vegan cheeses.
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Pizza
Mellow Mushroom (GF available)
Uncle Maddio's (GF available)
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Other Foods
Hippea Camper (foodtruck, try their housemade pimento cheese)
Honest Coffee (vegan cream cheese on bagels)
The Veggie (fab housemade mac n cheese, at markets or order online)
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