Oh my Daiya! New to the UK dairy free, soya free, cheese alternative

EEK! - Hold the front page!!

Check this out:

Yippee!!

And this:

Huzzah!!

I'm excited, can you tell?

Yep, because we can now buy Daiya cheese in the UK.

It's been a big hit in the US for years!

So...

What's it like??

The cheddar looks like cheddar, similar texture to cheddar and actually, yes has similar flavour to cheddar - the mature stuff that I used to LOVE with a passion and have been missing ever since. The nearest I have got to that missing flavour has been Amy's gluten, dairy and soya free macaroni cheese ready meals.

I mean usually, I would say that ALL vegan cheese tastes better toasted or cooked, but NOT this one! Yes, I actually enjoy this 'un on a plain cracker, just like regular cheese! Hence my excitement!

And there is no residual flavour of anything else, like coconut, for example!

It slices and grates well - a bit crumbly towards the end, but show me a cheese that doesn't!

The only flaw and for me this is a small one - it doesn't melt on top of dishes, like the dish I made for dinner last night. However, Daiya have that one covered with their shredded, mozzarella-style cheese. That one I wouldn't eat on plain crackers, BUT it melts beautifully, and tastes yummy and cheesy once it has done so.

What's in it??

Note this: It is free of the top 14 allergens! BUT! Word of caution for people with multiple allergies that are not in the top 14 (so there is not legal requirement to declare them) - wording such as 'Vegan Natural Flavours' is not exactly helpful. Have highlighted 'Calcium' as it's one of the main nutrients in dairy and soya free cheese that you could be missing.

Otherwise, the ingredients are as follows:

Medium Cheddar Style Ingredients:

Water, Tapioca Starch, Coconut Oil, Natural Flavours, Pea Protein Isolate, Rapeseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Chicory Root Extract, Sea Salt, Thickener: Xanthum Gum, Preservative: Lactic Acid, Anti-Caking Agent: Tricalcium Phosphate, Preservative: Tricalium Citrate, Pea Starch, Potato Protein, Enzyme, Sugar, Colour: Annatto

Calcium: 0.9g per 100g

Mozzarella Style Shreds Ingredients:

Water, Tapioca Starch, Coconut Oil, Safflower Oil, Potato Protein, Vegan Natural Flavours, Sea Salt, Anti-Caking Agent: Tricalcium Phosphate, Emulsifier: Fructan Fibre, Preservative: Lactic Acid, Fava Bean Protein, Whole Algal Flour, Emulsifier: Konjac Gum, Thickener: Xanthum Gum, Yeast Extract

Calcium 0.407g per 100g

How much is it??

Please don't shout at the screen...

Cheddar 200g: £4.50

Shreds 200g: £4.50

It is pricey, I know!! I thought it may be down to the fact that it is imported from the US, but a US contributor on Face Book has pointed out that it bears a similar cost in the US.

Where to buy:

If you're within reach of a Wholefoods market (e.g. London) you stand a better chance than most of us, however, Daiya is now stocked in some Sainsbury's supermarkets. One of my nearest Sainsbury's had it temporarily, but it seems to have disappeared. If it's not stocked locally to you and you are prepared to travel to find some, then Daiya have produced a handy store finder click here.

Summary:

It is pricier than normal cheese and than its nearest rivals on the dairy free cheese market, BUT if a dairy and soya free authentic cheddar is your thing, or a proper melty cheese, then this is your best bet!


For other posts about dairy free cheese, please check out our 'Related Posts' below. Please note that as these other posts were written a few years ago, some details/packaging may have changed.

Please note: 

This post is not an advert. I have not been paid to write this post. I am not sponsored in any way, even by advertising. I do not receive products free to review, although I have often been offered them. This is to try and maintain an unbiased approach. All views expressed are my own (unless I've asked for The Hub's or Kiddo's). I try to tell is 'as-it-is'.

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Violife Dairy Free Mozzarella

Violife Dairy Free Mozzarella Cheese

Yesterday, I went out for lunch with some of the ladies from the school gate. Very nice too, but I couldn't help viewing their lunches with envy!! They were having pizza. I was stuck with the only gluten and dairy free dish on the menu, which was, pretty bland and tasteless! Good job I went for the company and not for the food, then!

So today (still suffering from pizza-envy), when I spotted this little cheese tucked away at the back of the fridge, in Holland and Barrett, I was pretty chuffed!

Violife Mozzarella cheese comes packed in slices!

I'd already stashed a gluten and dairy free pizza base from Sainsbury's away in my cupboard the other day, and I was gagging for it! I just couldn't wait to get home, rip the packet off and tear that cheese onto some pizza.

Keeping it simple with mushrooms and black olives.

So how did we get on?

'Scuse the foil - I was trying to save on the washing up!

What's it like?

Violife's Mozzarella cheese comes in a packet containing ten slices. They are pretty well stuck together, so a sharp knife is needed to carefully separate them. It tears quite easily and does seem to melt quite nicely - without the thin crust I've found when I've melted most of the other Violife cheeses. So far, so good! I think it would have melted a little better, given even longer in the oven, but the other toppings on the pizza were beginning to look like they needed rescuing, so out the pizza had to come!

Flavourwise, you definitely get a lovely cheesy hit from this mozzarella and it seems to have that lovely creamy, melty mozzarella texture that you'd hope for - something that surprised me, as the cheese didn't look that melted. 

In terms of flavour, I'd have to say that although I've enjoyed the Violife Original on toast, the Violife creamy on crackers and the Violife Pizza in a Bechamel-type sauce, in a lasagna, this one is my definite favourite and gets a BIG thumbs-up from me! Previously, I've enjoyed the Mozzarisella dairy free cheese, which had a great melt and creamy texture, but not as much flavour as this one!

What's in it?

Violife Mozzarella Ingredients: 

Water, Coconut Oil (23%), Modified Starch, Sea Salt, Mozzarella Vegan Flavour, Polyphenols, Colour: b-carotene

On the face of it, the ingredient list looks simple enough, but, as usual, Violife are using their mysterious 'vegan flavour' again. If you're Vegan or only dealing with the fourteen major allergens, I would guess (under the recent EU law) you're safe, but I've no idea what this might mean for anyone with some of the more unusual allergies, like peppers, for example!

If the coconut in this cheese isn't for you, for whatever reason, you might like to try Mozzarisella cheese, which is also dairy and soya free, but not so nearly as easy to get hold of as this one!

Where can it be bought?

I bought Violife's Mozzarella from Holland and Barrett. That said, not all Holland and Barretts might stock it. However, I've sometimes found that if the one nearest you doesn't stock something, the store in the next town nearest to you just might! 

I'm guessing some independent health food shops might also stock this one, but I haven't seen it in mine so far - although they do stock the Pizza and Creamy with Herbs versions. 

I don't think you'll find the Mozzarella version in any of the major supermarkets just yet, although I know that both larger Tescos and Asdas now stock Violife Original and Violife Creamy. 

How fab that these Violife Originals can now be found in local supermarkets!

How much?


Well I spent £2.99 on a 200g packet of the Mozzarella. But I enjoyed it so much that I didn't begrudge a penny - especially as they're currently buy one get one half price in Holland and Barrett! Actually, I'm quite tempted to go back tomorrow and stock up on some more, as, if they're kept unopened in the fridge, they have quite a long shelf life! In fact, this packet isn't due up until mid-September, this year - that's seven whole months away!

They're the same price online at Alternative Stores, although obviously you'll pay extra package and posting there - they deliver pretty quickly though, and from the looks of it, you can also buy larger packs, should you so wish, which are £5.50 for double the amount!

The only thing with Alternative Stores is that you'll have so much choice - not just of dairy free cheese, but also chocolate, among other things, that you may well end up spending more than you'd bargained for ;)

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New Cheese on the Block - Mozzarisella



An Alternative to Cheese and Alternative Stores

An Alternative to Cheese and Alternative Stores

Meet Violife - the latest in my quest for a decent dairy free cheese alternative. 

It's here!

I've been after this cheese for some time and have heard nothing but good things about it. Not currently available in any shops near me, I turned t'Internet for this one and found it on the Alternative Stores website. This is a Vegan site that I've been stalking on Face Book for quite a while (in the hope of laying my hands on said cheese). However, every time I've tried to order Violife, its been out of stock!! 

Noting (from a recent update) that Violife was back in stock, I hot-footed my way over to their site this week, so I could get my order in before the cheese vanished. I was in luck, it was in stock, so I decided to make the most of any shipping charges by ordering some Vegan choccie bars too. Bonus!! Even better - if you order three of any items, you get 10% off the price if those free items! Needless to say, I took advantage of that offer with the choccie bars, but not so the cheese. After all, if it turned out to be disgusting, I didn't want to be saddled with a whole load of it, did I?

I have to say Alternative Stores service was excellent! The order arrived next day during the allotted time that they said it would appear, and what's more I received several text messages during the intervening period to let me know exactly what was going on. Can't fault them for that!! 

Also, I loved that their packaging was recycled.

So, Violife - back to the 'cheese'. There was a whole raft of choices - Violife with this or that added, but wanting to do a straight comparison with the cheddars I used to know and love, I opted for the 'cheddar' version. I received a pack of 'cheese' slices resembling what I (when I was still eating dairy) used to refer to as 'plastic cheese'. 'Plastic cheese' was, I'm afraid not something I was terribly keen on - it couldn't compare to the English cheddars that I used to love. 

Ready to roll!

Unfortunately, for me, that is pretty much what it tasted like - plastic cheese. In other words it did have a cheesyish taste, but not as much as you'd get from a good cheddar. If you like the flavour of plastic cheeses, like Dairylea, then you'll probably enjoy it a lot more than I did. I tried it first in a sandwich, with a BFree roll. As that didn't appeal, I decided to do what I always end up doing with Vegan cheese - toast it. 

'Cheese' on toast - 'scuse the burnt bits!

Toasting definitely improved the flavour for me, but (if I'm perfectly honest) would not be enough to tempt me to purchase it regularly. I think I'd rather stick with dairy free soya free Cheezly, from Redwood Foods, whose flavour I prefer - especially since Cheezly is cheaper and more readily available (Holland and Barrett).

'Melted' on omelette - didn't really melt!

So, although I know of other people who do love it, Violife didn't rock my dairy free world, but Alternative Stores I'd definitely try again. As an online store, with good stock control, speedy delivery and great communication with their customers, (both on FB and by text) they rock!

Update: Have since tried another Violife and much preferred it to the one pictured (although it's still best toasted). As they have so many different varieties now, it's worth experimenting - to find one that suits you!

Update: Violife Original Cheese (not featured here) and Violife Creamy is now available in two major supermarkets - Tesco and Asda. Great news for dairy free shoppers!!

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New cheese on the block - meet Mozzarisella!

Avoiding the hop - free from shopping online

New cheese on the block - meet MozzaRisella!

You know what they say about buses? Well sometimes I find that about the products that I mention. No sooner have I 'covered' a subject, then something else comes along!

When I wrote my recent post about dairy free cheese and followed that with a guest post by Sarah (@Sugarpuffish on Twitter) I really thought I had covered the subject pretty definitively, BUT it appears not!! Browsing the fridge in my nearest health food store, recently, I came across this little beauty: MozzaRisella! 

Dairy free Mozzarella!

Basically, as its name suggests, it is a Vegan alternative to Mozzarella - made with rice, as opposed to cow's milk. Reassuringly, it is an Italian product. When I saw this, I thought to myself, "Italians invented Mozzarella, didn't they? That means it must be good!"

Then I realised that the packaging states it is lactose, gluten and soy free. "Yippeee!!" I thought, "that means I can eat it!!"

The actual ingredients, are as follows:
Biosurice (water, germinated whole rice, lemon juice, apple vinegar, salt), cold pressed coconut oil. 
Thickening agents: agar-agar, gum arabic, xanthum gum, carob flour.
Flavourings: natural flavouring

To me, the most obvious way to use Mozzarella, is as a topping on a pizza. Having heard a lot about gluten free pizza, on Twitter recently (it seems to be cropping up everywhere) I couldn't wait to give it a go!!

Poised and ready for action!

In case you're interested, my base of choice was Sainsbury's Free From. Instead of puree, I used this Seeds of Change sauce (I can't eat tinned food).

Easy to slice

I've never used real Mozzarella myself, so I've no idea how it should handle, but I thought the MozzaRisella sliced well. 

A common complaint, in the dairy free community is that dairy free cheese doesn't melt very well. MozzaRisella did, when I used the Sainsbury's base - which was cooked at 200 degrees C, for about ten minutes. 

Et Voila!

However, the next day, when I tried to repeat my pizza experiment with a different base that cooked at a slightly lower temperature (180 degrees C) it didn't look as though it melted quite so well, but did seem gooey enough, when I ate it.

Pizza number two!

Now it's a long time since I've tasted real Mozzarella, but I have to say that I enjoyed this pizza perfection (see what I did there). It was gooey and creamy and off-set the strong tangy tomatoey layer, really well. The Hub thought that it tasted okay (ie. good enough) with the pizza, but that it wasn't stretchy, like real Mozzarella. He thought it definitely had a cheesy taste but tasted more like Dairy Lea, when eaten by itself.

I have to say, I definitely want to buy it again, to top my pizza, but there's only one place I know locally, that sells it. Today, when I went back for more, and it was all gone!!

MozzaRisella have another dairy free cheese in this range - Creamy Risella. It describes itself as a 'spread', which I believe is intended for eating with crackers. I tried it with Barkat's gluten free crackers (which, by the way, I love).

Cheese Number Two!

The ingredients are as follows:

Biosurice (water, germinated whole rice, salt, apple vinegar), water, cold pressed coconut oil, rice syrup, lemon juice.

Thickening agents: agar-agar, gum arabic, xanthum gum, carob flour.

Flavourings: natural flavouring.

Personally speaking, Creamy Risella did not rock my boat in quite the same way as MozzaRisella, but as people respond differently to products, in terms of taste (The Hub thought it tasted pretty much the same as the other), I would urge you to try it for yourself and make your own judgement. I might, however, be tempted to try using it in making dishes that require a soft cheese.

Like the MozzaRisella, I found it in my health food store. Unfortunately, it's not cheap (£3.99) but then dairy free products are often niche and expensive to produce - it kind of goes with the territory! 

If you want to buy it, the current list of stockists can be found here.

Update:  On Facebook, Jennifer and Hannah mentioned that they have contacted Mozzarisella and discovered that you can buy it direct - £3.70 per cheese, minimum order of £10, postage £6.99, grand total £18.09 (cost of package probably because it needs to be kept chilled). Mozzarisella indicated that they are just beginning to roll-out their product in the UK and that we can help, by inquiring at our local health food shops. Also there is a new product to follow - Pizzarisella gluten free, so keep your eyes peeled and keep pushing those doors!!

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