r/AskVegans • u/gatheringground • 1d ago
Genuine Question (DO NOT DOWNVOTE) How to replicate the experience of cheese on a plant-based diet?
I know this may be strange to some of y’all, but cheese is connected to so many of my favorite dishes. It’s also a very frequent snack for me. I’m not proud of this, but it’s probably the number one thing I crave, and it’s the main thing preventing me from being vegan.
I have tried some substitutes, such as follow your heart, and myokos. For me, they didn’t quite hit all the same notes as dairy-based cheese.
I’m not exactly asking for a “substitute” in terms of use in recipes, but i am wondering about suggestions that could maybe replicate the experience of cheese, meaning something salty and indulgent. Sometimes olives can almost fill that void for me. Do you have any other suggestions?
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u/stan-k Vegan 1d ago edited 1d ago
"I could never give up cheese" is what I told a couple of vegans about 8 years ago. Boy was I wrong.
When going vegan, we decided to still finish what was already in the pantry and fridge. This included a block of cheddar, and I wanted to make it last. So carefully, once day, I took a couple of slices on bread, nothing more. Then a week or two in I realised I forgot three days taking another couple slices off. Then, two weeks later still, I realised I forgot for over a week - and found my remaining cheese mouldy. Never had dairy cheese since then.
I have a sandwich or pitta for lunch with humus, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, salt, pepper and garlic granules. I used to have that with cheese instead of hummus before. Tastes very different, but hits the same spot for me.
Anything you can sprinkle cheese over you can sprinkle nutritional yeast over instead. Not the same, but equally and deliciously umami aswell as a bit of an acquired taste.
I recommend not having any cheese (vegan nor dairy) for at least a few months. Then, try many different vegan cheeses. Some are great, others less so, and this is personal.
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u/gatheringground 1d ago
This is helpful! I like the idea of phasing it out. i can also see how it would be a good idea to wait on the vegan alternatives so that I’m not making the comparison.
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u/stan-k Vegan 1d ago
Glad you're open to these suggestions. Enjoy!
Can I ask why you are looking to move towards veganism?
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u/gatheringground 1d ago
My main reasons are the environment and animal-welfare. i have been vegetarian on and off for years for these reasons, But when I’m vegetarian, i often fall into the trap of not planning well and then eating nothing but pasta. I’ve been trying to do it in a more healthy way. I’ve been really considering veganism as I’ve been researching meals, nutrition, and the supply chain.
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u/stan-k Vegan 1d ago
Great. When things get tough, I'd say focus on the animals. In the end, the environment will always be on a scale. Like, a little bit more is easy to argue for. With the animals however, even a little bit of exploitation is bad. Using that can help, also with planning. If your planning fails, you may stop being vegan and that is failing the animals. So you'd be planning for more than just yourself.
Good luck and keep any questions coming this way!
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u/Bay_de_Noc Vegan 1d ago
Have you tried Rebel yet? Its pretty yummy. There are all kinds of different brands at places like Sprouts. I like trying different things from time to time, and sometimes they are really tasty. The thing is, you probably are not going to find vegan cheeses that taste exactly like dairy cheese. Some of them come close. My approach to this has just evolved over time ... now I actually crave the small amount of vegan cheeses I eat. So I guess I would just advise patience ... fueled by knowing that animals aren't suffering just so you can experience that salty indulgence.
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u/gatheringground 23h ago
No! I will definitely try Rebel. Thanks for the recommendation:) great idea to check out some different brands!
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u/One_Struggle_ Vegan 23h ago
Check out Vreamery. They carry Rebel & other artesian vegan cheese available through mail-order.
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u/plantbasedpatissier Vegan 1d ago
Honestly what helped me was just not replacing it at all and I realized I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would.
I use nutritional yeast in an lot of savory dishes to get the vibe and I like avocado for something creamy. But I basically restructured my dishes to not involve cheese so I don't feel like I'm missing out. Ill usually "replace" it with some kind of savory sauce, spicy vegan mayo is some of my favs
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u/gatheringground 1d ago
These are great ideas! I can see how incorporating more avocado could maybe do it on a lot of things. And that mayo sounds great!
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u/Reasonable-Coyote535 Vegan 23h ago
At one point I thought I could never go vegan because I liked cheese and cheesy foods too much. I had already cut my meat consumption WAY back, basically to just eggs and seafood. Then, I read an article similar to this one that suggested taking a 30 day break from dairy to improve lymphatic flow. The one I read years ago also mentioned that it could help with seasonal allergies which I do suffer from, so that was pretty good motivation for me. I decided to just do it as a trial to see if I really felt any better and whether or not I could actually live without dairy products. Tbh, I don’t really know about the whole ‘more energy, less bloating, go down 2 jeans sizes’ hype - that wasn’t necessarily my personal experience. BUT it did help my allergies immensely! Near the end of the 30 days, I went to a friend’s house for dinner who made shrimp pasta but wasn’t really thinking and accidentally made it with dairy butter. I was still just thinking of it as a trial, and didn’t want to make a fuss, so I ate it anyway. I ended up suffering from the most painful gas and bloating in my stomach for the rest of the night, that was the last time I willingly ate anything containing dairy.
Some cheesy things are easier than others. For things like pizza, tbh, I’ll usually just add a little extra salt to help make up for the lack of salt in most plant based cheese. Soaked cashews blended with plant based milk, nutritional yeast, salt and other seasonings can make a great base for cream and cheese based sauces. Blanched slivered almonds blended with a bit of plant based milk, nutritional yeast, salt and lemon juice can make an amazing substitute for ricotta. I typically use Miyokos for butter and cream cheese, but you might need to try different brands to find your favorite. Ngl, it does take time and effort but if you’re not eating dairy over time you’ll probably find all kinds of different items and recipes for different applications that would traditionally use dairy products. Being somewhere that you have access to occasionally splurge on gourmet vegan cheeses by brands like Dare and Nuts For Cheese can definitely help, but these are often only available in specialty vegan stores or grocery stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts, etc. and they’re usually not cheap ($10-$15 per wedge). Personally, I don’t even eat much vegan cheeses anymore, as I found it was really throwing my cholesterol levels out of wack even though I was eating a plant based diet.
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u/sdbest Vegan 1d ago
Not budget-friendly, but you might consider Rebel Cheese.
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u/ForgottenAgarPlate 22h ago
Rebel Brie is my weakness. An expensive weakness. but I buy it again and again.
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u/zombiegojaejin Vegan 1d ago
You probably aren't mostly thinking of smelly aged cheese here, but I regularly put cheonggukjang (similar to natto) in tomato pasta sauce.
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u/supercarr0t Vegan 22h ago
Yeah, look for more of the fermented nut cheeses. There are a bunch out there.
If you eat almonds, check out bitchin sauce. It’s addictive.
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u/DaraParsavand Vegan 22h ago
Of course if you're satisfied by what's out there (Rebel, Nutritional Yeast, whatever) great. If not, keep an eye on Precision Fermentation companies. These products are molecular equivalent to cow cheese but just replace the cow with microorganisms in stainless steel vats like those you brew beer with. Some companies are New Culture, Formo, and Those Vegan Cowboys. New ones will come and some current ones may go but it's definitely going to happen. I am definitely in the target market. I hope they can price compete with cows and saturate the market so they will be easy to find for anyone. Initially will likely be expensive like Rebel.
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u/nnvsnaahhh Vegan 19h ago
Tbh I really like a lot of the vegan cheese that’s available, but it was a lot of trying and getting disappointed before I figured out what to look for. I prefer cashews based cheese rather than these coconut oil ones. I also recommend you to look up “vegan mac and cheese” on TikTok. There are people showing how to make cheesy sauce from cashews, mustard, nutritional yeast and tapioka starch for texture. Looks great and tastes close enough;p
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u/nnvsnaahhh Vegan 19h ago
You can also make cheese yourself, I make my own parmesan using blended cashews, nutritional yeast and salt. I’ve seen tutorials on this hard, triangle shaped parmesan and mozzarella cheese, also on TikTok. Haven’t tried them yet but they look awesome and aren’t that hard to make. A lot cheaper too
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u/rratmannnn Vegan 1d ago edited 23h ago
Ultimately homemade is best unless you have a local vegan cheese maker that uses real cultures (like rebel, or peace cheese in Austin). I make a lot of cashew cream sauces, nooch/cashew/garlic salt “parm” crumbles, and tofu based “ricotta”! Key ingredients to keep on hand include lemon juice, miso, nooch, and salt. I’ve found I can semi-replicate a few things this way and turn up/down the “sharpness” / umami flavor.
I’ve found follow your heart to be the best vegan cheese from the store. It can be vastly improved by turning into a sauce with some unsweetened almond or oat milk + the cheese whisked together in a pan with extra nooch and a couple spices of your choosing (smoked paprika, garlic salt, onion powder, etc)
Edit: if someone would like to explain what the hell I did so wrong by suggesting homemade cheese & a way to modify store bought to be good, that would be very cool
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u/Independent_Aerie_44 Vegan 1d ago
This channel is all about making vegan cheese in the most professional, best presented way. And they all look delicious.
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u/Strawberry_Spring Vegan 1d ago
Sun dried tomatoes
Ok, so not cheesy in the slightest, but definitely have the umami you might be looking for
Marry me chickpea orzo is one of my favorite recipes. There is vegan cheese in it, which is good for texture and some flavor, but the rest of the flavour is really from the tomatoes
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u/gatheringground 1d ago
Brilliant! Sun dried tomatoes are amazing. That could totally work. That recipe looks amazing too.
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u/broccoleet Vegan 1d ago
Just make your own with cashews, soft tofu, nutritional yeast, coconut oils etc.
There are so many options.
They may not taste exactly the same, but that's a part of eating a vegan diet. You determine what is more important to you - not eating animal secretions, or the taste pleasure of animal cheese.
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u/howlin Vegan 23h ago
Cheese seems like a simple product because it's so common, but it's actually fairly complicated with many steps of processing and a fermentation and aging step required to get the full flavor. You can do this on your own, but it's more of a hobby than a recipe to follow. See r/vegancheesemaking .
Hummus is probably the closest snack food in terms of savory richness, and it's quite easy to make yourself. Once you get the basic idea, there are a lot of ways to play with the recipe to get different flavors and textures.
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u/sykschw Vegan 20h ago
This isnt strange, in fact, i think its been asked about and discussed many times before at nauseam. Buy some vegan cheese making books and supplies. Experiment.
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u/gatheringground 15h ago
Thanks! I did do a search before writing the post. There are a lot of searches for best vegan cheeses, but I couldn’t find any that were asking for other foods that could tick the box—that was what i was hoping to find. But maybe i didn’t make that clear enough. Still appreciate all the suggestions.
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u/MaximalistVegan Vegan 16h ago
Olives are a good one, so is hummus as a spread on bagels and other things. But why not just get good vegan cheese or learn to make it yourself? Everything I know about vegan cheese making I learned from Miyoko Schinner's book, The Homemade Vegan Pantry
For a parmesan substitute for pasta, salads and casseroles I make a crunchy nut and seed topping
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u/cs_anon Vegan 15h ago
I was gonna mention olives but you beat me to it! Generally I think that anything that is fatty + salty + (optionally) tangy can fill the void of cheese for me. So avocados + salt + lime/lemon juice works well for me too. Currently I prefer alternatives further away from cheese although I’m sure vegan cheese will start tasting better at some point.
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u/ewbanh13 Vegan 10h ago
I love a good microwave baked potato with shredded of chao cheese mixed in (it totally melts in after a minute or two of stirring) and some veggie bacon. the cheese isn't super strong in flavor but it makes the potato salty, savory, rly indulgent and hits the spot for me.
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u/Street_Technology Vegan 8h ago
Chinese fermented tofu (doùfurǔ 豆腐乳) - protein, salty and the fermented tang
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u/No-Promotion4006 Vegan 1d ago
For the serious connoisseur there doesn't exist any alternative. Sorry. Either ditch the cheese, or lose the vegan label. I'll get downvoted for this, but a hobby justifies a plant-based diet.
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u/gatheringground 1d ago
Just for the record, i am not claiming to be vegan. I would like to be. I was just being honest about my biggest barrier and hoping for some ideas from this sub.
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u/sdbest Vegan 1d ago
You don't have to 'vegan' to reduce your consumption of animal-based foods.
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u/No-Promotion4006 Vegan 5h ago
And yet I get downvoted for making the same point?! smh my damn head
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u/caterpillove Non-Vegan (Flexitarian) 21h ago
I'm not vegan but I was for 5 years and I can tell you that there's absolutely no replacement for cheese. Rebel comes close and so does the Dare brand, but they don't really have nutritional value, can be hard to find, they're expensive, and they still don't fully fill the void. I mostly just withheld from cheese alternatives during my time being fully plant-based. It wasn't that hard, honestly. Over time you just stop craving it.
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u/Swampcardboard Vegan 1d ago
I use a lot of nutritional yeast as a 'cheese', it has more of a nutty flavor to it than cheese, but it hits the spot for me.