Violife – Vegan Cheese vs Dairy Cheese!
Violife – Vegan Cheese vs Dairy Cheese
Not so long ago most people living in the United Kingdom had a diet very heavy in dairy products and laden with meat.
The current trend both for health and for the sake of our planet is to cut out meat from our diets and to adapt a more sustainable lifestyle and a vegetarian/vegan food culture including vegan cheese.
When I first got married the British diet would consist of a bacon roll or bacon and egg or bacon and pancakes for breakfast, a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch and one of the main meats for dinner. Lately we have cut down dramatically on our meat consumption and actually only have meat one or two days per week.
The next small thing we can do for our health is to start growing away from cow, sheep or goat dairy and to a more plant based dairy lifestyle.
Violife produce a wide range of non-dairy cheeses which are available in major supermarkets around the country. They sent me a range of their “cheeses” to try. I decided to do a direct comparison with my usual cow dairy. Please let me know in the comments what you think and if you would be willing to make a small change or two to your diet and lifestyle.
Violife Cream Cheese:
At a recent gathering at our beach hut I served one of my favourites of cream cheese stuffed in celery sticks. I used both the Violife cream cheese and the family favourite Philadelphia cream cheese.
I cut them in similar size pieces and sprinkled with paprika and no-one could tell the difference!! They were surprised when I told them there were two different kinds of cream cheese used.
Violife Cheddar Slices:
What better way to use cheddar cheese slices than to top a burger. For the Violife vegan cheese slices I used a vegan burger and for the dairy cheese slices I made beef burgers. Both were cooked on the gas BBQ , served on grilled brioche buns with large tomato slices, lettuce and a homemade sauce.
To be honest, they were both really delicious. I will definitely be using the Violife cheese slices on the vegan burger again for supper.
Violife Camembert:
The usual and family favourite way to eat Camembert cheese is to bake it in the oven and serve with toasted baguette slices or home made tortilla chips.
I put both the Violife Camembert and the dairy Camembert in identical terracotta dishes, topped each with chopped nuts, honey and chilli mixture and baked. The results were very interesting.
I didn’t tell my husband which was which to see if he could tell a difference and if he had a preference. He said the dairy camembert had a more cheesy smell but liked the taste of each of them and said he would have the recipes vegan cheese again in the future if I prepared it this way.
Although I baked the Camembert you could dip it in almond milk then light breadcrumbs and deep or shallow fry or indeed wrap it in puff pastry and bake! There are loads of Violife recipes you could create.
Violife Cheese Slices and Grated Cheese:
One of my favourite sandwiches is a grilled cheese sandwich. This particular lunchtime treat takes me right back to my childhood. It therefore seemed obvious that I should try to make one from the Violife Cheese Slices and one from the dairy cheese slices.
I lightly buttered one piece of the bread on the bottom with a non-dairy butter, placed three slices of the Violife Cheese Slice and topped it with a second slice of bread buttered on the top. For the second sandwich I used dairy unsalted butter and Gouda cheese slices. The sandwiches were cooked in the pan until golden brown then turned over and browned the second sides. I sprinkled the grated cheese on top of the Violife grilled cheese sandwich and some grated parmesan cheese on the traditional grilled cheese sandwich.
My husband had half a Violife cheese sandwich and half a dairy cheese sandwich and although he thoroughly enjoyed both of them he couldn’t tell the difference! The cheese in both sandwiches had melted although the dairy cheese was a bit more creamy.
Ingredients:
Some of the ingredients Violife use in their “cheese” products include coconut oil, sea salt, ground sunflower kernel, lactic acid, mature cheddar flavour, olive extract, smoky cheddar flavour, vitamin B12 and are all suitable for vegans and vegetarians.
The range is dairy free, lactose free, soya free, gluten free and nut free and easily fit into any vegan recipes.
Conclusion:
I found that the selection of Violife cheeses were really close to the dairy cheese equivalents. When I didn’t tell guests they were different they didn’t notice any difference! I will be buying the Violife products from time to time now in order to keep my dairy intake down.
Personally I found the Camembert a little watery when it melted and without a strong flavour therefore it wasn’t really for me however I really enjoyed trying the Violife range against my usual dairy cheeses.
I have a few more varieties to try and will be using them in our meals in the near future. As they are non-dairy they have longer shelf lives and therefore are really handy to have in the fridge.
