— Tokie Williams

That's a good question. So, you know, in China they actually use fermented tofu. It's actually, they call their their cheese, which is kind of funny, but if you've ever had fermented tofu, you'll see that's pretty, uh, different in flavor than a cheese that we're used to. Um, so you could definitely try that, but I think you'll be surprised if you're looking for something as an alternative to those cashew ones. Um, cashews are definitely kind of the go-to because they have that fat in them and, um, the fat is part of what the cheese product is. That's a lot of fat in the cheese. So when you're trying to mimic something like the cheese, a fat is, uh, a something you kind of want to go towards. Now, if you're looking to be able to get away from those plant-based cheese products, it kind of depends on what you're making. So like for my example as my, um, tofu scramble in the morning, right? So, uh, avocado would be an, a perfect alternative for a cheese and something like that because it has the fat to it, but it also has that kind of creaminess to it, and it has a nice texture for something like that as well. Now if you're looking to be able to kind of just get the flavor of cheese, nutritional yeast is actually a great thing to be able to add to things, to kind of get that little umami bite into something that cheese would actually help add to it. So that might be something to be able to do it that has a zero fat added to it, but still has some of that umami and some of that, uh, flavor profile of cheese. Now, it's not gonna taste exactly like cheese, but it'll get you kind of based in the same area. You can also add that thing, uh, like something like that to, like a rice or something like that, the, um, the nutritional yeast to be able to make that rice, kind of have that kind of, uh, umami flavor to it and, um, kind of dress that up a little bit as well. Um, but yeah, that's probably where I would go for those. Um, you know, and the, the cheese looking for something that's not in the high fats, um, a little, uh, you know, tricky to be able to do that, but nutritional yeast is a great thing. And then if you're, you know, avocado is probably one of those things to be able to get that kind of texture right for those. Um, I also use silk and tofu, or not, not always silken, but tofu that I'll actually blend up, um, with some other flavorful profiles, just like the, uh, um, the tofu ricotta I was talking about earlier, which is basically a lemon juice, uh, garlic, different herbs, a little bit of onion powder, um, you know, blended up that makes a really nice, uh, alternative cheese that's zero fat unless you wanna add oil to it, which a lot of people do.