First we eat…

With my current experimental move to a mostly plant based diet, I have had the opportunity to try a whole lot of new things, and finding out it isn’t about what I can’t eat, but what things I can eat.  It is interesting to find that I’ve had to up my game on meal planning and think more carefully about what I am going to eat.  Anyway, to what things I have tried this week.  First up, another vegan cheese.

I tried these Swiss style slices in a toasted cheese sandwich that went with some soup I had made earlier this week.  It actually made a good sandwich, and the ‘cheese’ did melt. I had added mustard to my sandwich, so my first taste test wasn’t of the ‘pure’ product.  Plain, it was fine, but not that exciting.

This ‘cheese’ has a little protein in it, which is good to know, but also contains titanium dioxide, which is used to make the product white.  This is considered by some health bodies to be a class 2 carcinogen, so I may well avoid this cheese in the future (though considering how little one would eat, and that I live in a city is maybe a bit paranoid). Verdict: 7/10 for meltability, 4/10 for taste.

The second item I tried out this week were these savoury yeast flakes, commonly used in vegan cooking as a substitute for parmesan.  Now these I liked, and will use a lot.  They’re not like parmesan, but they do add a lot of flavour.  I put some on a pasta, vegetable and tofu dish during the week for some extra vitamins and a bit of a tang. Verdict: 8/10 (it isn’t parmesan).

And finally, to sausages.  Now I really like sausages, so was eager to try these meat free ones from Field Roast.  These Italian style sausages were spicy and had a really good texture – they could almost have had meat in them (which made me wonder if I could serve them to meat lovers….).  I tried two just cooked plain, and think the other two would be perfect in a sausage and bean stew.

Verdict: 9/10 and will definitely try some of the others in this range.  I found these at Common Sense Organics in Wellington.

Finally, I can recommend the Curried Chickpea Salad from From My Bowl (subscribe and get the free recipe book for the recipe).  Never a big fan of chickpeas, roasted they are so good, and the dressing made this salad really tasty.

Next up – hopefully some small pleasures and more on living a mostly plant based diet for a few weeks.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @blof678.  As for Twitter….am totally inactive these days.  If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com