Quick & Easy Vegan Cheese Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

What are the ingredients of vegan cheese? ›

Vegan cheese is usually made from soy, nuts, vegetable oils, and various other natural ingredients like peas or arrowroot. Vegan cheese is seen as a healthier alternative to cheese by some, and may reduce your risk of heart disease due to its lower content of fat.

🧾 Ingredients and substitutions

You could use other plant-based milk instead or even cashew cream, but I find that the coconut milk gives it the rich creamy texture that I crave in cheese. (Coconut cream also works well.) Water - to add the correct amount of moisture. Agar Agar Powder - to make the cheese firm.

Nuts, such as cashews or almonds, are often used as they contain a lot of natural fat that gives a creamy texture once blended. Many brands also use a vegan lactic acid to add the tang and umami that gives that quintessential cheese flavour.

As vegan blog Wag Free Food notes, coconut oil, coconut milk, and coconut cream are popular ingredients to make vegan cheese. The high-fat content of coconut makes it easier to create a creamy, decadent, cheese-like product.

Vegans can eat cheese that is comprised of plant-based ingredients like soybeans, peas, cashews, coconut, or almonds. The most common types of vegan cheeses are cheddar, gouda, parmesan, mozzarella, and cream cheese that can be found in non-dairy forms.

Violife Epic Mature Cheddar Flavour Vegan Cheese

With a whopping 10 out of 10, the Violife Epic Mature Cheddar Flavour is one of the best rated vegan cheeses when melting is considered. If you're looking for a stronger tasting cheddar to melt, this is for you.

Some of the more processed types of vegan cheese contain large amounts of refined oils, preservatives, color additives and sodium while being mostly void of substantial nutritional value. In general, foods like this should be consumed minimally, if at all.

Ingredients. Daiya Oat Cream™ blend (water, oat flour, pea protein, cultures, enzymes), Coconut oil, Modified potato starch, Corn starch, Less than 2 percent of: Konjac Flour, Fruit and vegetable juice (for color), Yeast extract, Annatto (for color), Salt, Tricalcium phosphate, Xanthan gum, Lactic acid, Natural flavors ...

The production of vegan cheese can be costlier than that of traditional dairy cheese due to the higher price of plant-based ingredients and the additional processing steps involved.

It's important to understand that vegan cheese, being made with different ingredients, typically does not taste exactly like traditional dairy cheese. However, it does replicate some of the flavors and textures that you might remember from dairy cheese and tastes great in its own right.

What is the base of vegan cheese? ›

The ingredients used in vegan cheese vary depending on the type of cheese being made and the desired texture and flavor. The most commonly used ingredients include plant-based milk, nutritional yeast, agar agar, tapioca starch, coconut oil, cashews, and chickpea flour.

A lot of vegan cheese has little or no protein, just fat and starch. Those that do have protein tend to taste the least like traditional cheeses. Vegan cheese is expensive — those made from nuts, peas or other nutrient-dense foods can run as much as $10 for a small cube.

Traditional butter is made with churned milk or cream, which usually comes from cows (but it can also come from other animals like goats), and that's why it's not vegan. Many people also use margarine, which is similar to butter in texture and color, but it's usually made with plant-based fat instead of animal fat.

Tapioca starch - This is what makes the cheese stretchy and gooey.

Components of typical imitation cheese include water, vegetable fat, rennet casein, emulsifying salt, sodium chloride, and a preservative (O'Riordan, Duggan, O'Sullivan, & Noronha, 2011). Starch can be used for full or partial replacement of rennet casein.

Another research group analyzed the 114 new vegan cheese alternatives that were launched into the European market in 2020. Compared to the 115 new dairy cheeses, the vegan cheese alternatives were lower in salt and protein but higher in fat and saturated fat due to their coconut oil and palm oil content [3].

Field Roast Chao Creamery Slices: I love the original creamy vegan cheese slices from Field Roast/Chao Creamery. They're made from coconut and fermented tofu, which makes them tasty enough to snack on raw (they don't have any artificial or off putting taste).