Question
Dawn O’Rourke
Do you recommend any favorite Vegan cheeses and can they be purchased at our local grocery stores or special order companies?
Answer
People always say to me, "What do you miss the most?" And there's one thing that I miss, and one thing only, and that is Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. It was the cheese that we grew up with in my home as a child, and I can identify its flavor notes, and its crystals, and everything else like that. So, it would be a Parmigiano-Reggiano. Would I run to a store and buy a plant-based Parmigiano-Reggiano? The answer would be no. Because sometimes the name of a familiar food that's been converted to be plant-based might not taste what you remember it to be. So, at all costs, I avoid that. Now, a few things. One, we have a really good recipe in our Rouxbe curriculum for a plant-based cheese, and I believe that it's a semi-soft cheddar, which is easy to make, cost-effective to make, and quite delicious. And the more you make it, the better you get at creating these plant-based cheeses. So, you might want to look into that. And you can go to your conventional grocery store. The cheeses don't have any nutritional basis to them in terms of they're usually filled with salt and fat. So, I suggest this, that you might want to break the bank, and you can head to a specialty cheese shop, which is going to offer some high-end plant-based cheeses. And one that I would recommend to you, which is made right here in Philadelphia, is Bandit. B-A-N-D-I-T. Beautifully made, handcrafted, small batch, et cetera, et cetera. And you would expect that with a name like Bandit, you would see a cartoon of a bandit, but actually, it's their cat. It's a very good cheese. And if you go to some grocery stores like Sprouts or Whole Foods, you will see that in their regular cheese cases, they often will carry specialty plant-based cheeses. So, that is my recommendation to you. And I think it was last month that I did give a recipe for a cauliflower mozzarella. And actually, I like it. I think it has to be pretty good, and it has a nice stretch to it. And it has a delicious taste because you create the flavors that you want for that dish. And it looks beautiful on a lasagna. It looks beautiful on a pizza. It looks beautiful wherever you would want to see mozzarella. And it also has a wonderful texture and flavor to it.
