- Christine Kane - https://christinekane.com -

The Five Best Dairy Substitute Products

Except for soy milk, I don’t use a lot of dairy substitutes. I’m pretty happy eating whole natural foods without trying to substitute ingredients to conjure up the flavor of, say, sour cream. It has taken some time and practice to arrive at this place though. And there are some days and weeks where I just want to eat something that feels and tastes like cheese or mayo or whatever. The products below are – IMHO – the best out there. (Believe me – there are some bad ones out there too!)

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1 – Vegenaise – Mayo Substitute

Unbelievably good. This is my husband’s favorite stuff in the world. He likes it better than mayo. This is saying quite a bit – as he wasn’t quite as exhuberant as I was about going down the vegan path. Vegenaise is amazing on tomato sandwiches. There are also lots of recipes on the web that use this as an ingredient.

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2. Earth Balance – Butter Substitute

This is truly one of those cliche “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!” products. Very tasty. It melts well. It spreads well. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Note: Don’t get fooled by “Smart Balance,” which has dairy (and chemicals) in it.

Note: It takes us about 8 months to go through one of these little vats. We forget to use it! That’s because the very best substitute for butter can be had by following these 4 steps: 1. Get a small glass or porcelain container with a lid. 2. Fill it about two-thirds full of olive oil. 3. Freeze it overnight. 4. Take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge. Use as a butter spread when needed. An olive oil purist will faint at the thought of freezing the stuff. But believe me, you’ll love it instead of butter.

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3. When I drank milk, I only drank Organic Valley. It’s a great company/co-operative of organic farms. They have great products. So, when they came out with soy milk, I was thrilled. And it’s simply the best soy milk around. I get the unsweetened kind. It comes in Vanilla, Original, Unsweetened. (And I think there’s Chocolate too.) Try it. It’s amazing. And it makes for great smoothies too! It’s only in the refrigerated section – so you won’t find it in the aisle with all the other soy milks.

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4. Vegan Gourmet – Cheese Substitute

Chris commented on the last post about Vegan Gourmet Cheese. It’s his favorite. I like it too. (Though the text on the package says “It Melts!” – which I’ve never quite figured out how to make happen!) Lots of soy cheeses are just horrific. This is one of the good ones. Mozzarella or Monterey Jack are the best. I like it because it’s kind of a softer cheese texture. (Think “feta.”) And it works in small strips in salads, and sliced in sandwiches. It’s one of those soy cheeses that makes me wonder, “How long did someone have to experiment to make something this completely perfect?” It’s a good cheese. I mostly eat it plain when I’m having a “comfort food” attack!

soyakaas.jpg [5] 5. Soya Kaas Soy Cheese (not 100% vegan) / Vegi-Kaas Soy Cheese (vegan)

Soya Kaas is the best melting soy cheese around. It has casein (milk protein) in it – so it’s not vegan. Vegi-Kaas, made by the same company, is vegan. It’s harder to find though. But it gets a huge thumbs up for vegan cheese. Here’s my rule with soy cheeses: Never buy anything yellow or orange. Yuck. It ruins them. Soya Kaas’s best flavors are Mozzarella (Don’t get the non-fat kind. Double yuck.) and Monterey Jack. (American Chedder is in the picture only because I couldn’t find any other flavors in photos!) I have a cheese grater that’s a spool with a crank. That grater is truly the best thing in the world to grate soy cheese. And I’ve made the best pizza in the world with Soya Kaas and my little crank spool cheese grater. I’ve fooled even die-hard cheese lovers with Soya Kaas. It’s good. But since I learned that Soya Kaas contains casein , I am learning to make things with Vegi-Kaas.

tags: diary substitutes, [6] vegan, [7] health, [8] eating, [9] christine kane [10]