CHEESE
There has been an impressive rollout of vegan cheeses in recent years carried by food distribution services for restaurants, and also in major grocery stores (Safeway, Savemart), the Davis Food Co-op, and Nugget Markets. Brands are usually located in one section and include: Kite Hill, Miyoko, Chao (Field Roast), Daiya, Follow Your Heart, Cultured Kitchen and more. Flavors range and meltability ranges both in brands and in cheese form (shredded vs. block vs. slices). View this article with photos of popular products.
Miyoko’s Artisan Vegan Life — If you want to learn to make plant-based cheeses, this is a great guidebook. Some are very simple recipes, some are a several day process. Her newest book (she has many) is The Homemade Vegan Pantry and has extensive lists and “base recipes” for sauces and such to keep on hand with great explanations. Here is her blog, as well. Facebook has a group called Vegan Cheeze Hits and Misses with terrific resources.
MILKS
Non-dairy milks are plentiful in all supermarkets now. Commercial milks add in carrageanan to give a fuller “mouth feel”. They are also easy to make from scratch, but some will be thinner than store-bought because of the added thickeners. Creamers like Wildwood brand behave very similarly to cow-dairy cream. For a very full-fat mouthfeel when cooking, cashew nut cream is very rewarding and makes a fantastic base for ice cream. Flavors are slightly different depending on the product. A taste test of several is suggested. From scratch recipes are here:
- OhSheGlows has many recipes, mostly simple – this is a discussion of vegan “milks”.
- Simple Vegan Blog and Healthy Blender Recipes have other directions and more unusual dairy-free milks (get creative!)
CREAM CHEESE
Many brands of plant-based cream cheese and flavored cream cheeses are found in the supermarket: Tofutti, WayFare, Miyokos, Daiya, Kite Hill, Follow Your Heart, Treeline, Heidi Ho. Photos of some are here. They spread the same and the flavors are similar to cow-dairy.
YOGURT
A number of soy, almond, cashew, and coconut based yogurts are available in local markets. They come in regular and Greek style. If you are looking for a plain yogurt, note that plain contains sugar and is slightly sweet and those marked “plain unsweetened” is tart. This makes a difference