The Best Brands of Artisan Vegan Cheese

If you go beyond coconut oil cheeses in supermarkets, you’ll find ‘proper vegan cheese’, that is made the same way (usually from nuts) and sold in sustainable packaging).

If you don’t buy online, then try in local indie health shops, or even farm shops. Once you taste ‘real vegan cheese’, you’ll see that it is just as good, perfect for a vegan cheeseboard, with grapes and apples, and perhaps a glass of wine!

Kinda Co is an award-winning brand of artisan vegan cheese, sold in easy-to-recycle or compostable packaging. Most have a fridge life of around 10 weeks, but eat within a few days, once opened. You can freeze block cheeses on day of delivery for up to 6 months (thaw overnight in the fridge).

Avoid ‘blue cheeses’ and unpasteurised miso if pregnant/nursing or weak immunity. Keep these cheeses away from children and pets, due to salt, spices and macadamia nuts. Read more on food safety for people & pets.

Due to the chilled nature of these foods, arrange for parcels to be sent to a local Service Point (or collected by a neighbour or safe space) if you are going to be out. Keep dry ice away from children and pets. 

The range includes the following block cheeses (all melt so good to stir into mashed potatoes or pasta sauces). Or buy a ‘cheeseboard collection’ or subscribe to the monthly cheese club!

• Farmhouse: The classic alternative to cheddar. Ideal with pickle for sandwiches, or as part of a vegan cheeseboard.
• Smoked: Rich vegan cheese combined with smoke water and hand-harvested smoked Dorset sea salt.
• Garlic & Chive: A French-inspired crumbly cheese. Du vin, du pain – du Kinda Co Garlic & Chive!
• Sweet Pepper: A smooth tangy spicy cheese, flecked with small red peppers.
• Cranberry: This is a mild creamy cashew cheese, studded with sweet fruits. Nice with palm-oil-free vegan crackers (Peter’s Yard is a good brand).
• Greek-Style: This salty, crumbly cheese is the plant-based alternative to Feta, ideal for salad, pasta and pizza.
• Chilli: A smoky spicy cheese with paprika, but not too hot! Nice with pasta or Mexican food (burritos, chilli).
• Italian-Style: This is a tub alternative to Parmesan (which is not even vegetarian, as it contains a cheese made with calf rennet). This grated cheese is ideal to spring on pasta, risotto or a Caesar salad.
• Rikotta!: Ideal for Italian recipes like pasta or pizza, also good on toast.
• Mozzalloumi: A fusion cheese to replace mozzarella (pizza or Caprese salad – sliced tomatoes and fresh basil) or grill to replace halloumi cheese, for Greek dishes.
• Summer Truffle: A gourmet cheese with black truffle and edible dried flours. Try it in vegan mashed potato or in an Italian risotto.
• Blue Cheese: The ‘blue veins’ are made with spirulina superfood (check medication before eating), and nice in a pear and walnut salad.

Mozzalloumi is (as the name suggests) a replacement for Mozzarella or Halloumi cheese, for Italian and Greek recipes. Just cook until golden-brown, the middle is still gooey! Nice in a flatbread with pesto or as part of a cooked breakfast.

Why Are People Giving Up Dairy?

Chantal Kaufmann

The dairy industry is huge. No-one denies that a small organic dairy farmer treats his cows well. But the big dairy industry (from where most dairy milk is produced – especially for all the by-products used in ready-meals etc) has huge welfare concerns.

It’s still the case in the UK that most male calves (of no financial use to the dairy industry, which is separate from the beef industry) are shot dead soon after birth.

Many cows spend their entire lives in factory farms, being inseminated and giving birth, then having their calves ripped from them soon after birth. Cows and calves have incredibly strong relationships, and will cry out loudly for weeks, if separated.

Some organisations are helping dairy farmers to transfarm over to growing more profitable oats, giving seeds and training. Remaining animals are then left to live out their lives in peace, akin to farm sanctuaries.

Tyne Chease

 

Tyne Chease (based just outside Newcastle) makes organic cashew cheeses (they don’t melt, more for cheeseboards, with fruit and wine). All have a tangy taste (apple-smoked, pink peppercorn, pickled onion, Ethiopian spice and cream cheeses in glass jars, plus a creamy nacho dip. It even makes vegan camembert!

Mouse’s Favourite

Mouse’s Favourite (which also makes a great palm-oil-free vegan butter) offers a fine line of tasty artisan vegan cheeses, in compostable packaging. The unique range includes:

• Cheddar-style
• Camembert
• Blue Cheese

Palace Culture

Palace Culture has become one of the first artisan vegan cheeses to make it to supermarket shelves (Waitrose). Sold in sustainable packaging, this company began in a family kitchen in London due to the founder’s son’s dairy intolerance.The cheeses are made from organic cashews and almonds (grown with regenerative farming in Spain) and the company offers hard and cream cheeses, flavoured with sea salt, herbs and spices.

Honestly Tasty

Honestly Tasty is now sold at M & S and online at Ocado. Enjoy Blue, Bree & Shamembert or Garlic Herb cheeses. All made from natural ingredients to artisan cheese-making standards. You’ll also find these cheeses in around 1000 stores and in London at Selfridges and Planet Organic. The range includes Smoked Good (and Pretenslydale!) for your vegan cheeseboard.

I Am Nut OK

I Am Nut OK is a gourmet brand founded by an American/Italian couple. As well as a wonderful non-dairy cheddar alternative, it also offers a Parmesan  alternative, log pepper cheeses, and a vegan feta block. Or find a more affordable ‘wonky wedge’ to combat food waste!