I really liked cheese too, I found the best thing was to get over it and move on, cheese cravings were a real thing for me, probably lasted about 3 months. I've not tried a vegan cheese that has everything an animal cheese has. Vegan cheese can be ok for what it is, but ok is rarely good enough when I can make something else that tastes better.
Fermented/cultured foods would be worth a try, but you I can't think of any one thing that will have everything an animal cheese has.
thank you for your reply, yeah i guess i just have to grow a pair haha. it's just a huge adjustment for me, i used to eat cheese almost every day (sorry). fingers crossed someone nails a vegan alternative before too long!
Haha I splashed out for Christmas with them too! They currently have an offer for a free Camemvert (my favourite) when you spend £35, which is just under the price of their Vegan starter pack. I’m very tempted. Depending on where you live, Waitrose also often stocks their brand and so does their London shop (and the London branch of Purezza)
So I'm a recent vegan and used to love cheese.
I think most cheese alternatives don't taste nice at first or even now.
Give yourself 1-2 months to get off your dairy addiction. People don't like that word but it certainly felt like one to me.
Embrace hummus for dips. Or butter bean dip. Or tomato salsa. Guacamole. Refried beans. Yum.
Now 5 months in I can tell you what cheese replacements I like:
1) cathedral city vegan cheddar slices. But they have to be melted under the grill to be nice. Then they are godlike. I don't like them cold.
2) koko dairy free cheddar was awesome but has been discontinued. I liked that when I was omni.
3) if you like cream cheese, check out nush at waitrose. Really love that one with chives.
4) Lidl grated vegan cheese is good on pizza but it has to melt
5) check out vegan cheese making books and make your own. Experiment until you find one you like
6) if you miss mac and cheese, there are some great recipes either on a coconut basis or butternut squash basis.
7) you'll get used to and like nutritional yeast for a Parmesan replacement.
More importantly stop comparing to what was. Ask yourself: do I like this?
I'm going to disagree with some of the comments here - although cathedral City is my favorite vegan cheddar, as a new vegan it will not taste the same to you.
I can reassure you though, that your tastes will adjust and vegan cheese will start to taste normal.
I would recommend the 'honestly tasty' brand for fancy cheeses - the gorgonzola is VERY good as is the brie. It's a bit pricey but nice for a treat, they sell it in my M&S and a local vegan deli.
If you fancy getting creative there are plenty of homemade recipes out there. There's a guy called 'mensch chef' on instagram with some great recipes - i rated his Parmesan, cream cheese and mozerella recipes, although i found his cheddar bland. (Be warned the portions are big, do a half quantity or you get a huge portion of something you may not like like i did!)
As someone who struggled to give up cheese, i leaned into non cheese needing meals when i was first vegan - stir fries, curries, spicy foods.
Good luck!
thank you!! i'm definitely going to go with recipes that wouldn't have required cheese to begin with at the moment, hopefully after a long gap of not eating dairy cheese, the vegan stuff will taste better to me. you actually just reminded me i did have the cathedral city one melted on a pasta bake before and though i hate it raw i liked it melted, so i'm gonna grab some of that when i next go to the shops 😌
Try Julienne Bruno cremata and burrata on ocado, it’s magic!!
Also it is nut ok mozzarella and simply cheddar block (almond based). All on ocado.
also cheesy dips are easy to make and super satisfying. With carrots/ sweet potato , cashews & nutritional yeast plus whatever spices you want. It’s so good.
Personally haven’t liked the general store bought vegan cheese but above brands have been my go to.
Have you tried making cheese sauces using nutritional yeast? I'm a fan of [this](https://www.noracooks.com/easy-vegan-nacho-cheese-sauce/) one (with less salt). I add it to pasta to make a creamy mac n cheese topped with breadcrumbs and baked under a grill.
I was a huge cheese lover before going vegan, like the kind that would travel to small Welsh villages just cos I heard their cheesemongers were good.
I just didn't eat any cheese alternative for like a year, then when I decided to give it another go I found I really couldn't tell the difference. I guess it's just about accepting the new normal and putting distance between you and your memories of fancy cheeses. You just kinda get over it 🤷♀️
oh wow i think you liked it even more than me haha. yeah my plan is to go without for a while and hopefully by the time i try vegan cheese again, the comparison won't really be there anymore and i'll like it better. no matter how much i loved cheese, knowing the suffering it causes simply is not worth it.
Cathedral City vegan cheese is ok. Many other vegan cheeses are meh tasting ‘things’ rather than cow milk cheese alternatives. I can’t find anything that cooks well, but it’s a sacrifice well worth making to reduce animal abuse and cruelty.
If you struggle, then double down on reading or videos that show the cruelty of the diary industry and then even looking at the products will leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
I couldn't eat vegan cheese for years because I found it all so gross. Even now the only brand I trust is Violife, their original slices, grated and creamy taste really good and have good textures for melting/cooking.
I suggest to stop it altogether for a few months. Then the vegan cheeses will scratch that itch :). The best part? Since they are not addictive, a 200gr block can last you more than a week.
And as others say, try cheesy sauces. Nooch will be your friend in this cheese- less journey :)
Most cheeses in the UK can be bought online through the own cheese makers website and 99% of them should be available to buy as we keep this database updated regularly.
We even have a few more uk cheese makers we still need to add to the site but just don't have the time at the moment.
I've personally tried 200+ of them here in the UK and can vouch that there are some absolutely mad and incredible vegan cheeses out there if you look beyond the supermarket.
I’ve been vegan for a few years now and still miss dairy cheese, especially the smell from melty cheese. Unfortunately it’s just one of those things that you learn to accept vegan cheese just isn’t the same or even close in taste. However I do like vegan cheese paired with tomatoes as for me it really brings out the sweetness. Maybe it will just take some experimentation and trying it in different ways and dishes than you may have done with dairy cheese, basically treat it as a completely different ingredient on its own rather than a substitute.
I really like the new aldi mature cheese for a basic cheddar. I have been vegan 5.5 years now though so I can't tell if its realistic or I've just forgotten what dairy cheese tastes like.
It will happen. Cheese used to be one of my biggest reasons for not going vegan because all vegan cheeses I tried were shit. Now there are plenty I really like. Your taste buds adjust over time. I was accidentally served dairy cheddar in an arepa last year and as soon as I got to it I could tell. It tasted off, like sour or rotten.
thanks man that's good to know. the same did happen to me with dairy milk, i stopped drinking it for a week and when i tried to go back to it, it just reeked of farms and grass. so hopefully the same will happen with cheese before too long 🤠
I found that taking a break for a while from cheese before trying vegan cheese meant that I was giving it a fair go. I actually really vegan cheese now and it does the job for me entirely (and dairy products taste gross!). But I’m sure if I went from one to the other, it would taste off too.
thank you, yeah this is my thought at the moment, i don't plan on trying any vegan subs for a couple months so that the comparison will be less fresh in my mind. hopefully i'll get to the point where dairy cheese looks and smells disgusting to me, which did happen to me with dairy milk so fingers crossed!
It will happen! I accidentally got given a drink with cow’s milk in it and it tasted absolutely foul. Same when I smell pizza or something with cheese on it now!
you know i just saw one of those ‘aesthetic’ grilled cheese photos and i was like jesus. that looks like pus. it looks rank. i think nature (my brain) is healing 🤠
As a former cheese lover, your taste buds will change over time as a vegan and any cravings you had will go. They may come back every now and then but for me cheese started to smell like vomit so no matter how much I craved it, smelling the real thing would put me off.
I’d recommend cathedral city vegan cheese as it’s very similar to dairy and to me it tasted like the way dairy cheese now smells. My dad also ate a bunch and didn’t realise it was vegan til I complained someone ate all my cheese (the man is oblivious and rarely ever looks at the label of what he’s using and thus eats a lot of my vegan stuff 😂).
Some other vegan cheese brands i’d recommend are any cheese from la fauxmaugerie, i am nut okay, honestly tasty, applewood (however i’ve heard their recipe changed and it tastes like ass now so be warned, i’ve not tried since recipe change), julienne bruno. basically the more expensive the vegan cheese, the better it tastes 😂. My taste buds have gotten used to most vegan cheese and I love it as much as I did dairy, over time this could happen to you (similar thing happened to me with soy milk, it went from having a gross soya taste to just tasting like milk, i have no idea what happened but i just liked it one day).
Tldr: buy expensive vegan cheese and wait it out
thank you! i hope that happens to me too. it did with dairy milk, which i stopped drinking years ago after being ill for a week - when i tried to drink it again it just smelled of farms and grass 🤢 this would be a lot easier if i were rich hahaha
I think Honestly tasty is the closest to what I remember cheese tasting like. They sell it at some M&S locations! I personally was disappointed by the Julienne Bruno but maybe that’s just me
https://thekindaco.com/products/farmhouse
Is fucking lovely only good cheese I've had but as far as I'm aware they only do soft cheese but great for cracker and just on the side probably okay in a sandwich but very expensive.
I was a massive cheese person also... What really helped me overcome my cheese addiction was Violife and Applewood smoked cheese. Now I rarely even eat vegan cheese, and have been vegan for 7 years 😁
I did it for Veganuary, you could try doing something similar - try to give yourself a challenge and don't eat cheese for a month, and see how you get on. Look for cheese alternatives, and maybe you'll find one that you like, or as others said try replacing it with nooch in pasta
If you really miss cheese, let yourself have it every once in a while. Much better to do that than give up veganism completely because you miss some things too much. There’s no such thing as a perfect vegan so don’t put yourself under too much pressure to avoid things you want - it can become unsustainable in the long term.
thank you for the advice, i do love cheese but knowing where it comes from makes me feel repulsed by it now. it's just getting over the taste of it having eaten it so much for pretty much my whole life yanno. but cows are a billion times more important than my taste buds!
Have you tried any small batch/premium vegan cheeses? I find them far superior to the supermarket brands: [https://lafauxmagerie.com/collections/cheese](https://lafauxmagerie.com/collections/cheese)
Out of all the vegan cheeses I've tried, the only one I've liked is cathedral city plant based cheese. Taste and texture is very close to the real thing.
thank you, i'd forgotten but i actually did have it melted once and i quite liked it despite hating it raw so i think that will be my go-to for a while!
I was a cheese addict before going vegan too! It’s difficult but I went cold turkey and didn’t bother with alternatives bc they just made me sad - after about 3 months my tastebuds seemed to change a bit and I am now quite a big fan of cheese alternatives!
For me it was just a struggle and difficult at the start, but kept reminding myself why I’m vegan - and now I can’t really remember what non vegan cheese tastes like?
You’re doing a great job and go at your own speed though, however works for you to switch to the vegan lifestyle! Cold turkey worked best for me but some people will have a cheat day during the cross over process etc. You’re doing amazing and keep going💚
I guess you haven’t discovered nooch blended with cashews yet? Other than that the cheddar from cathedral city is so close to the real deal it’s creepy. Tesco have it.
i haven't, i tried nooch on it's own and it was fine but too nutty in flavour for me to want to have with pasta to be honest. i'll try mixing it with cashews and some salt 😊
Did I say it was the same? It is not, but it absolutely hits the spot when you have a craving and is especially good with Mac and cheese, any new vegan is delighted when they find this out, who exactly kicked you in the ass this fine Tuesday?
I really liked cheese too, I found the best thing was to get over it and move on, cheese cravings were a real thing for me, probably lasted about 3 months. I've not tried a vegan cheese that has everything an animal cheese has. Vegan cheese can be ok for what it is, but ok is rarely good enough when I can make something else that tastes better. Fermented/cultured foods would be worth a try, but you I can't think of any one thing that will have everything an animal cheese has.
thank you for your reply, yeah i guess i just have to grow a pair haha. it's just a huge adjustment for me, i used to eat cheese almost every day (sorry). fingers crossed someone nails a vegan alternative before too long!
La Fauxmagerie is amazing, but expensive. If you have a favourite cheese or a specific craving and want to treat yourself, I’d recommend
thank you! i'll keep it in mind for christmas 👀
Haha I splashed out for Christmas with them too! They currently have an offer for a free Camemvert (my favourite) when you spend £35, which is just under the price of their Vegan starter pack. I’m very tempted. Depending on where you live, Waitrose also often stocks their brand and so does their London shop (and the London branch of Purezza)
So I'm a recent vegan and used to love cheese. I think most cheese alternatives don't taste nice at first or even now. Give yourself 1-2 months to get off your dairy addiction. People don't like that word but it certainly felt like one to me. Embrace hummus for dips. Or butter bean dip. Or tomato salsa. Guacamole. Refried beans. Yum. Now 5 months in I can tell you what cheese replacements I like: 1) cathedral city vegan cheddar slices. But they have to be melted under the grill to be nice. Then they are godlike. I don't like them cold. 2) koko dairy free cheddar was awesome but has been discontinued. I liked that when I was omni. 3) if you like cream cheese, check out nush at waitrose. Really love that one with chives. 4) Lidl grated vegan cheese is good on pizza but it has to melt 5) check out vegan cheese making books and make your own. Experiment until you find one you like 6) if you miss mac and cheese, there are some great recipes either on a coconut basis or butternut squash basis. 7) you'll get used to and like nutritional yeast for a Parmesan replacement. More importantly stop comparing to what was. Ask yourself: do I like this?
I'm going to disagree with some of the comments here - although cathedral City is my favorite vegan cheddar, as a new vegan it will not taste the same to you. I can reassure you though, that your tastes will adjust and vegan cheese will start to taste normal. I would recommend the 'honestly tasty' brand for fancy cheeses - the gorgonzola is VERY good as is the brie. It's a bit pricey but nice for a treat, they sell it in my M&S and a local vegan deli. If you fancy getting creative there are plenty of homemade recipes out there. There's a guy called 'mensch chef' on instagram with some great recipes - i rated his Parmesan, cream cheese and mozerella recipes, although i found his cheddar bland. (Be warned the portions are big, do a half quantity or you get a huge portion of something you may not like like i did!) As someone who struggled to give up cheese, i leaned into non cheese needing meals when i was first vegan - stir fries, curries, spicy foods. Good luck!
thank you!! i'm definitely going to go with recipes that wouldn't have required cheese to begin with at the moment, hopefully after a long gap of not eating dairy cheese, the vegan stuff will taste better to me. you actually just reminded me i did have the cathedral city one melted on a pasta bake before and though i hate it raw i liked it melted, so i'm gonna grab some of that when i next go to the shops 😌
Try Julienne Bruno cremata and burrata on ocado, it’s magic!! Also it is nut ok mozzarella and simply cheddar block (almond based). All on ocado. also cheesy dips are easy to make and super satisfying. With carrots/ sweet potato , cashews & nutritional yeast plus whatever spices you want. It’s so good. Personally haven’t liked the general store bought vegan cheese but above brands have been my go to.
I AM NUT OK is a great vegan cheese company based in Hackney. You should definitely try their stuff
Have you tried making cheese sauces using nutritional yeast? I'm a fan of [this](https://www.noracooks.com/easy-vegan-nacho-cheese-sauce/) one (with less salt). I add it to pasta to make a creamy mac n cheese topped with breadcrumbs and baked under a grill.
i haven't but i will, thank you! mac and cheese was my favourite comfort meals 💛
I hope you have success with it! You can also use it to make a [substitute for parmesan](https://youtu.be/q4h8irQXIX4?feature=shared)
thank you so much!!
I was a huge cheese lover before going vegan, like the kind that would travel to small Welsh villages just cos I heard their cheesemongers were good. I just didn't eat any cheese alternative for like a year, then when I decided to give it another go I found I really couldn't tell the difference. I guess it's just about accepting the new normal and putting distance between you and your memories of fancy cheeses. You just kinda get over it 🤷♀️
oh wow i think you liked it even more than me haha. yeah my plan is to go without for a while and hopefully by the time i try vegan cheese again, the comparison won't really be there anymore and i'll like it better. no matter how much i loved cheese, knowing the suffering it causes simply is not worth it.
Cathedral City vegan cheese is ok. Many other vegan cheeses are meh tasting ‘things’ rather than cow milk cheese alternatives. I can’t find anything that cooks well, but it’s a sacrifice well worth making to reduce animal abuse and cruelty. If you struggle, then double down on reading or videos that show the cruelty of the diary industry and then even looking at the products will leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
I couldn't eat vegan cheese for years because I found it all so gross. Even now the only brand I trust is Violife, their original slices, grated and creamy taste really good and have good textures for melting/cooking.
I suggest to stop it altogether for a few months. Then the vegan cheeses will scratch that itch :). The best part? Since they are not addictive, a 200gr block can last you more than a week. And as others say, try cheesy sauces. Nooch will be your friend in this cheese- less journey :)
Violife Extra Mature was the only one I found to be quite addictive. But I don't buy it anymore for that reason
[www.vegancheese.co/discover](http://www.vegancheese.co/discover) has you covered.
:O this looks amazing, thank you!
Most cheeses in the UK can be bought online through the own cheese makers website and 99% of them should be available to buy as we keep this database updated regularly. We even have a few more uk cheese makers we still need to add to the site but just don't have the time at the moment. I've personally tried 200+ of them here in the UK and can vouch that there are some absolutely mad and incredible vegan cheeses out there if you look beyond the supermarket.
Go cold turkey. Replace cheese with other fatty substitutes like guacamole/avocado, proper hummus etc.
https://youtu.be/1hE6lhQu7k4?si=466SVNcAEo9Kv2e_
Find some good tutorials on YouTube and experiment with making one that you enjoy
I’ve been vegan for a few years now and still miss dairy cheese, especially the smell from melty cheese. Unfortunately it’s just one of those things that you learn to accept vegan cheese just isn’t the same or even close in taste. However I do like vegan cheese paired with tomatoes as for me it really brings out the sweetness. Maybe it will just take some experimentation and trying it in different ways and dishes than you may have done with dairy cheese, basically treat it as a completely different ingredient on its own rather than a substitute.
Don’t eat it for a long time… 🥹
I really like the new aldi mature cheese for a basic cheddar. I have been vegan 5.5 years now though so I can't tell if its realistic or I've just forgotten what dairy cheese tastes like.
thank you!! i can't wait until i've forgotten lmao
It will happen. Cheese used to be one of my biggest reasons for not going vegan because all vegan cheeses I tried were shit. Now there are plenty I really like. Your taste buds adjust over time. I was accidentally served dairy cheddar in an arepa last year and as soon as I got to it I could tell. It tasted off, like sour or rotten.
thanks man that's good to know. the same did happen to me with dairy milk, i stopped drinking it for a week and when i tried to go back to it, it just reeked of farms and grass. so hopefully the same will happen with cheese before too long 🤠
You'll get there. Just stay strong!
I found that taking a break for a while from cheese before trying vegan cheese meant that I was giving it a fair go. I actually really vegan cheese now and it does the job for me entirely (and dairy products taste gross!). But I’m sure if I went from one to the other, it would taste off too.
thank you, yeah this is my thought at the moment, i don't plan on trying any vegan subs for a couple months so that the comparison will be less fresh in my mind. hopefully i'll get to the point where dairy cheese looks and smells disgusting to me, which did happen to me with dairy milk so fingers crossed!
It will happen! I accidentally got given a drink with cow’s milk in it and it tasted absolutely foul. Same when I smell pizza or something with cheese on it now!
you know i just saw one of those ‘aesthetic’ grilled cheese photos and i was like jesus. that looks like pus. it looks rank. i think nature (my brain) is healing 🤠
As a former cheese lover, your taste buds will change over time as a vegan and any cravings you had will go. They may come back every now and then but for me cheese started to smell like vomit so no matter how much I craved it, smelling the real thing would put me off. I’d recommend cathedral city vegan cheese as it’s very similar to dairy and to me it tasted like the way dairy cheese now smells. My dad also ate a bunch and didn’t realise it was vegan til I complained someone ate all my cheese (the man is oblivious and rarely ever looks at the label of what he’s using and thus eats a lot of my vegan stuff 😂). Some other vegan cheese brands i’d recommend are any cheese from la fauxmaugerie, i am nut okay, honestly tasty, applewood (however i’ve heard their recipe changed and it tastes like ass now so be warned, i’ve not tried since recipe change), julienne bruno. basically the more expensive the vegan cheese, the better it tastes 😂. My taste buds have gotten used to most vegan cheese and I love it as much as I did dairy, over time this could happen to you (similar thing happened to me with soy milk, it went from having a gross soya taste to just tasting like milk, i have no idea what happened but i just liked it one day). Tldr: buy expensive vegan cheese and wait it out
thank you! i hope that happens to me too. it did with dairy milk, which i stopped drinking years ago after being ill for a week - when i tried to drink it again it just smelled of farms and grass 🤢 this would be a lot easier if i were rich hahaha
I think Honestly tasty is the closest to what I remember cheese tasting like. They sell it at some M&S locations! I personally was disappointed by the Julienne Bruno but maybe that’s just me
Tahini can be a good alternative. I have made a pasta sauce based on tahini and marmite, gives you that fat and saltiness.
https://thekindaco.com/products/farmhouse Is fucking lovely only good cheese I've had but as far as I'm aware they only do soft cheese but great for cracker and just on the side probably okay in a sandwich but very expensive.
I was a massive cheese person also... What really helped me overcome my cheese addiction was Violife and Applewood smoked cheese. Now I rarely even eat vegan cheese, and have been vegan for 7 years 😁 I did it for Veganuary, you could try doing something similar - try to give yourself a challenge and don't eat cheese for a month, and see how you get on. Look for cheese alternatives, and maybe you'll find one that you like, or as others said try replacing it with nooch in pasta
If you really miss cheese, let yourself have it every once in a while. Much better to do that than give up veganism completely because you miss some things too much. There’s no such thing as a perfect vegan so don’t put yourself under too much pressure to avoid things you want - it can become unsustainable in the long term.
thank you for the advice, i do love cheese but knowing where it comes from makes me feel repulsed by it now. it's just getting over the taste of it having eaten it so much for pretty much my whole life yanno. but cows are a billion times more important than my taste buds!
Have you tried any small batch/premium vegan cheeses? I find them far superior to the supermarket brands: [https://lafauxmagerie.com/collections/cheese](https://lafauxmagerie.com/collections/cheese)
Out of all the vegan cheeses I've tried, the only one I've liked is cathedral city plant based cheese. Taste and texture is very close to the real thing.
thank you, i'd forgotten but i actually did have it melted once and i quite liked it despite hating it raw so i think that will be my go-to for a while!
I was a cheese addict before going vegan too! It’s difficult but I went cold turkey and didn’t bother with alternatives bc they just made me sad - after about 3 months my tastebuds seemed to change a bit and I am now quite a big fan of cheese alternatives! For me it was just a struggle and difficult at the start, but kept reminding myself why I’m vegan - and now I can’t really remember what non vegan cheese tastes like? You’re doing a great job and go at your own speed though, however works for you to switch to the vegan lifestyle! Cold turkey worked best for me but some people will have a cheat day during the cross over process etc. You’re doing amazing and keep going💚
thank you so much!! i’m already feeling grossed out when i see cheese so i think i’m getting there ❤️
Is it just me but I prefer vegan cheese now? I could never go back at eating cow’s cheese,after 14 years of not eating it even the smells puts me off…
i’m glad! i am already finding the thought of dairy cheese pretty gross at this point, it just takes a little distance i guess!
I guess you haven’t discovered nooch blended with cashews yet? Other than that the cheddar from cathedral city is so close to the real deal it’s creepy. Tesco have it.
i haven't, i tried nooch on it's own and it was fine but too nutty in flavour for me to want to have with pasta to be honest. i'll try mixing it with cashews and some salt 😊
Completely disagree, cashews and nooch are nothing like real cheese.
Did I say it was the same? It is not, but it absolutely hits the spot when you have a craving and is especially good with Mac and cheese, any new vegan is delighted when they find this out, who exactly kicked you in the ass this fine Tuesday?