FR New vegan-Substitute For milk/cheese ?

sylvaticus

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Hi there, I am a 10 (maybe 15) years vegetarian, now (10 minutes) vegan and first-poster in a vegan forum :)

what do you use to substitute milk/cheese ?


My "requirements" are:
- not more expensive
- no chemical to give old taste: I am ready to try new tastes
- but at the same time the new taste must be "yummy yummy"
- provide a balanced set of nutrients

Cheers,
Antonello from France (REALLY a difficult country for vegetarians/vegans!)
 
Hi sylvaticus, and welcome to our forum!

I've been to France several times, and yes, I feel your pain! But there seemed to be more options last time I was there, around 2018.

Someone posted a vegan cheese search tool in this thread (the link is in the first post, but a bit hard to see ....):
 
Hi there, I am a 10 (maybe 15) years vegetarian, now (10 minutes) vegan and first-poster in a vegan forum :)

what do you use to substitute milk/cheese ?


My "requirements" are:
- not more expensive
- no chemical to give old taste: I am ready to try new tastes
- but at the same time the new taste must be "yummy yummy"
- provide a balanced set of nutrients

Cheers,
Antonello from France (REALLY a difficult country for vegetarians/vegans!)

Hi, and welcome to the forum. I like your screen name. Do you live in a tree or the woods?

Your first "requirement" pretty much blows up your options. I don't think there are any options that are less expensive. Here in America, almost all the Plant-based options are organic. and they are competitively priced against organic dairy products. Buying organic products is important for the environment. So maybe you can justify the increase in price by doing something good for animals AND the environment.

I have never had a plant-based product that has a chemical taste. But as far as taste goes, it's a very personal thing. In general, people like the taste of almond milk best. So you might want to try that one first. you may not like the taste of any of the plant milks enough to drink them plain. but they are all just fine in your breakfast cereal or smoothie.

I drink a cup of hot (nut-based) chocolate milk almost every morning instead of a cup of coffee. I have a cup of vanilla-flavored soy milk with a snack almost every day. I use plain soy milk in my smoothies, cereal, and recipes.

As far as nutrition goes, I think all the plant milks provide similar nutrition to regular dairy. The companies add calcium, iron, and B12 to match the nutrition in dairy. Soy milk has the most protein.

In one way all plant milks are superior to diary. They have no cholesterol.

I don't think there are any non-dairy cheeses that are really great. But there are a lot of new products and France is going to have products we don't have here. So you might have to look online for a good resource. Groups like PETA and the Vegan Society probably have French versions and they probably review products you can get in France.

We do have several Vegan Forum members who live in France or the EU and will be able to give you some good ideas.

Also, i encourage you to use the Search function and look up "milk" and "cheese". we have lots of threads on those subjects.
 
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welcome to the forum and congrats on your decision to be a vegan

in addition to the commercial products out there, there are a couple of options that are not processed like nutritional yeast aka nooch and for cheesy sauces there are a great many recipes out there, some that include cashews and others that are as simple a bell pepper, onion, potato and nooch

it is kinda fun not having to buy really expensive cheeses all the time but then we do eat shreds or slices we buy Violife or Earth Island/Follow Your Heart brands

my french isn't great but this company looks interesting Petit Veganne - Vente de productions végétales vegan

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
 
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Cheese was very hard for me. When I first went vegan I didn't really like any vegan cheeses--now they're a lot better! I even compared vegan cheddar to dairy cheddar and preferred the vegan one (Daiya farmhouse block)
I will say you're probably better off trying to get away from the taste but using other foods.
Do you like olives? Sauteed mushrooms, carmelized onion, artichoke hearts?

I avoided Mexican foods altogether for the longest time as I always associated that with cheese!

I would suggest looking into recipes using nuts and fermentation to make your own if you like playing in the kitchen!
 
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Welcome
I like violife and ciao and follow your heart and good planet cheese and few others.
its great that you decided to be full vegan.
 
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Hi, Hope you are well, i just joined this forum too!
i love almond milk, and somehow hummus has become my favorite cheese replacement, also nutritional yeast is the best to add that cheesy flavor to cooking.
 
Miyoko's cheese wheels are my favorite, it's not cheap so it's an occasional snack. I like Daiya grilled cheese.
What I ate instead of cheese before it came out was red pepper hummus and sundried tomatoes.
I only started having this recently (last year), but I think boiled peanuts would be a good replacement.
What really makes it good is the miso paste, so I wonder if it's possible to make your own cheese and have it taste similar.
Nutritional yeast is okay, for popcorn. Not a huge fan of nutritional yeast based cheeses.
 
Last edited:
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Hi there, I am a 10 (maybe 15) years vegetarian, now (10 minutes) vegan and first-poster in a vegan forum :)

what do you use to substitute milk/cheese ?


My "requirements" are:
- not more expensive
- no chemical to give old taste: I am ready to try new tastes
- but at the same time the new taste must be "yummy yummy"
- provide a balanced set of nutrients

Cheers,
Antonello from France (REALLY a difficult country for vegetarians/vegans!)
Salut Sylvaticus,
Whether one experiences France as difficult to to live in as a Vegan depends on Many things...
I am originally from the USA - Northern California, however, I lived in the South of France for almost half my life...
France is where I became firstly Vegetarian - which was So easy to do and then a couple of years later I became Vegan...
Vegetarian is definitely easy, though not necessarily healthy... I ate Way too much cheese and eggs...
It was over 30 years ago that I went Vegan so there were not any of the alternative cheese products... I just did without...
Hummus (which can be made with any kind of beans)and avocados are useful for replacing cheese...
As for milk, my suggestion is to try each and every different type in order to decide which one you like best...I use different types for different uses...
I know that you mentioned that products shouldn’t be more expensive - most likely they will be, however, if you only use the alternatives occasionally it will not be more expensive in long term...
For Vegan shopping France has a wonderful Vegan supermarket- Un Monde Vegan which is in Paris, you can online...
Well done for making the choice to be Vegan! Your health will appreciate it, the planet will appreciate it and Most of all the Animals will appreciate it...
 
Hi, Hope you are well, i just joined this forum too!
i love almond milk, and somehow hummus has become my favorite cheese replacement, also nutritional yeast is the best to add that cheesy flavor to cooking.

welcome to the forum @skye maree

Hummus is a great suggestion!

We look forward to further contributions.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
 
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Hi, Hope you are well, i just joined this forum too!
i love almond milk, and somehow hummus has become my favorite cheese replacement, also nutritional yeast is the best to add that cheesy flavor to cooking.
Welcome Skye maree,
Yep, I agree that hummus is wonderful in So many ways...
Nutritional yeast is Really nice sprinkled onto pasta or veggies very versatile...
I am curious - you list your location as EMERALD - would you like to share where that is?
 
As for milk, my suggestion is to try each and every different type in order to decide which one you like best...I use different types for different uses...
"each and every"? probably not necessary. I've never counted but in a grocery store, there might be 25 (or more) different kinds.
But if you ever buy a kind you don't like - just use it for smoothies or cereal.

I think it would be a great idea for a supermarket to have a plant milk tasting day, where you could taste all the different kinds. Supermarket tastings are usually sponsored by a brand. But there are a few brands (like Silk) that make a bunch of different kinds. A tasting day would give you a big head start.

This would be great for brand new vegans who are struggling with replacing milk.

I should start a petition.

A tasting day would be also great for non-dairy cheese. or ice cream!

I sometimes watch Taste Tests on YouTube. But they don't really help. Maybe if you had some kind of baseline where you know they like the same things you do.

Here is one that is fun

 
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"each and every"? probably not necessary. I've never counted but in a grocery store, there might be 25 (or more) different kinds.
But if you ever buy a kind you don't like - just use it for smoothies or cereal.

I think it would be a great idea for a supermarket to have a plant milk tasting day, where you could taste all the different kinds. Supermarket tastings are usually sponsored by a brand. But there are a few brands (like Silk) that make a bunch of different kinds. A tasting day would give you a big head start.

This would be great for brand new vegans who are struggling with replacing milk.

I should start a petition.

A tasting day would be also great for non-dairy cheese. or ice cream!

I sometimes watch Taste Tests on YouTube. But they don't really help. Maybe if you had some kind of baseline where you know they like the same things you do.

Here is one that is fun

Hey Lou,
I didn’t mean Brand I meant type - soy, rice, almond, oat etc... just to find out which tastes best...
Plant milk tasting day sounds like a great idea!
 
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I think there is some variation among brands, too.
for instance I like Organic soy vanilla (a supermarket brand) a little better than Silk soy vanilla. some Soy plains have added sugar. some don't. Trader Joes plain has no additives. silk's plain has a whole bunch.

Not counting brands and flavors there are at least 17 different kinds. I have tried only about half of these. I have made banana, flax, and hemp at home.
 
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I think it would be a great idea for a supermarket to have a plant milk tasting day, where you could taste all the different kinds. Supermarket tastings are usually sponsored by a brand. But there are a few brands (like Silk) that make a bunch of different kinds. A tasting day would give you a big head start.

This would be great for brand new vegans who are struggling with replacing milk.

I should start a petition.

A tasting day would be also great for non-dairy cheese. or ice cream!

I think there won't be any 'taste testing' for a while in grocery stores or in Costco. :(

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
 
Welcome Skye maree,
Yep, I agree that hummus is wonderful in So many ways...
Nutritional yeast is Really nice sprinkled onto pasta or veggies very versatile...
I am curious - you list your location as EMERALD - would you like to share where that is?
Thanks, i am originally from Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean part of Australian territory, but are currently in Emerald QLD, Australia.