VIOLIFE ORIGINAL GRATED 200G

Product Information

You’ll have to make your own mind up, but for us, given that it’s a 100% vegan product, it is perfectly fine. And if Applewood sell loads of their vegan products, maybe one day they’ll ditch dairy altogether. Another who uses mainly cashew nuts to make their vegan cheese, Nutcrafter have fresh and aged cheese options as well as spreads and grated products too. There are two Greek Style vegan cheese options from Green Vie: simple Greek Style and Greek Style with Dried Oregano and Olive Oil. They both offer a feta-style crumbliness and tang of the dairy version though aficionados would certainly be able to tell the difference.

This feta-like vegan cheese has the appearance of the dairy cheese it mimics. It is not quite as crumbly but it’s not bad. The Violife Blue Wedge has a similar texture and could be worth a try too. One of the more artisanal vegan cheese producers to have at least partially broken through to the mainstream, Tyne Chease might have misspelt the word cheese, but we’ll forgive them that because they have created some excellent products. Using traditional cheesemaking techniques (but without the need for cows!) their nut-based cheeses are cultured and aged and there’s a strong emphasis on the flavour of the end product. Bute Island Foods

This is a pricey but very good gourmet-style vegan alternative to dairy feta from I Am Nut OK. Handmade in London from cashew nuts, coconut oil, rapeseed oil, garlic, peppercorns, sea salt, lactic acid and live cultures, it comes in a glass jar and is marinated and it looks almost posh enough to justify the hefty price tag. Supermarkets have finally cottoned on to the fact that the number of vegans is growing and will continue to grow in the UK in the coming years (partly driven by the strong environmental arguments to go vegan). As such, they’ve started to produce their own versions of popular vegan products, including vegan cheese. Here are how the main supermarkets are getting on at the time of writing. Cheese Name/Brand

I love Violife slices. Okay, they can’t compete head-to-head with those wonderfully disgusting neon yellow rubbery cheese slices you get in individual plastic wrappers, but if you don’t feel a burger is a burger without a cheese slice somewhere amongst the salad and sauce, then Violife slices perfectly fit the bill. Vegans are split between wanting to avoid this altogether as the company also makes dairy cheese, or loving it. It is one of the closest plant-based cheeses to dairy cheese in terms of texture and taste. With cheese being a foodie item that most people love, we thought we’d put the vegan alternative to the test this weekend.

Violife original flavour slices

The plant-based alternative was easier to cut into due to it being softer, and when I tried a slice of it on its own, it had quite a rubbery texture. It wasn't necessarily unpleasant, just different to normal cheddar. Oh my goodness the smell and taste of these smokey cheddar slices is sublime. I would never have known they are vegan and they remind me of the sort of cheese we eat when we go to Spain. Personally I like this wedged into a baguette with some chutney and salad. The choice is yours! There are some imaginatively flavoured vegan cheese wheels from Green Vie that come in the following varieties: Wheel with Mango, Lime & Chios Mastic, Wheel with Mild Peppers & Sundried Tomatoes, or Wheel with Mushrooms & Truffle Flavour. Shred romaine lettuce into a salad bowl. Cut tomatoes into quarters, and chop 3/4 of a cucumber into chunky slices.

They’re also great in sandwiches, too. Violife original flavour grated Violife original flavour grated Available from an increasing number of shop, including TheVeganKindSupermarket, Bute Island’s Grated Sheese comes in the following flavours: Grated Mozzarella Style, Grated Mild Cheddar Style, Grated Mature Cheddar Style, and Grated Hard Italian Style (similar to parmesan). It depends on the brand, some are healthy while some aren’t. In general, they are quite similar to dairy-based cheese and can be used as part of a healthy diet in proportion. It is wise not to have too much at once as it is still calorific. Violife vegan cheese and products are all soy free, so what are they made of? Coconut oil is the main ingredient of the Violife products which is proven to have plenty of health benefits, like killing harmful bacteria and fungi. And, their product is also reinforced with vitamin B12, which is one of the most important vitamins our body needs to function and keep healthy. Will we have these again? Depending on which international cheese authority you believe, there are between 51 and 1,000 different varieties of dairy cheese. These can differ by moisture levels, firmness, country or area of origin, the source of the milk used and how mouldy it is.Note that there are lots of other flavoured cheeses produced by the more artisanal brands that we’ve included later in the article. These are the products that are often available in standard supermarkets. Cheese Name/Brand The faux feta tasted just like dairy feta at first, but again failed with the texture. It works well on a salad and definitely adds a hint of dairy feta flavouring. As you have no doubt seen us mention above, most vegan cheeses are made from a combination of oil (usually coconut oil) and starch (which can come from all kinds of sources from tapioca to potato to rice). This is certainly the case with the mass-produced products that you will tend to come across in the big supermarkets. Some of the higher-end products opt instead to make their vegan cheese from nuts – whether cashew nuts (like Tyne Chease) or almonds (like Nush). This tends to create products that are lower in saturated fat than those using coconut oil, with higher protein and more micronutrients. In our category of “flavoured cheese” we’ve included those to which ingredients have been added that flavour the cheese in a non-cheesy way (e.g. with peppers or chillies that are not used in conventional cheeses like standard cheddar) or which add texture in some way.