The taste test (or how it is easy to find good vegan sausages but not vegan cheese)

In these few weeks of eating a mostly, and I stress mostly*, plant based diet, (there are a few things I have noticed.  First, of all I haven’t craved meat at all. Second, if I was out and there was smoked salmon or seafood on a menu, I know I would be tempted.  Third, vegan cheese is very much hit or miss.

I reviewed a couple of vegan cheeses a couple of weeks ago (see this post here), and while I now have the Green Vie gouda as a permanent feature in my fridge, I am still on the hunt for a really good vegan cheese.  In Europe, there is a Polish brand (Serotonina) that has had rave reviews from vegans such as the mustards, but this is sadly not available here in New Zealand. Anyway, the latest one I have tried is the Savour brand of nut based cheese.

Firstly, the label ‘cheddar’ is totally misleading.  The taste and texture (never mind the colour) have nothing in common with that robust flavoured cheese (I’m talking proper cheddar here).  The taste is like that Austrian sausage shaped smoked cheese, which is nice enough but which in no way resembles cheddar.  The ingredients are: cashew nuts, vegan probiotic, nutritional yeast, sea salt, hickory smoke (which of course makes it taste like a smoked cheese) and filtered water. It was nice enough, but not sure I would buy it again unless I was looking for a smoked cheese substitute.  Being nut based though, it does have protein in it, as well as fat of course.

And so we move to that great success on the vegan front, the sausage. Last week I bought some more sausages from Field Roast, and yet again was not disappointed. These smoked apple sage sausages were really lovely, full of flavour and with a good texture.  Again, I am sure they would pass the taste test of even the most hardened meat eater

My final taste test, which would go well with cheese or sausages, vegan or not, is this amazing, crunchy, tangy piccalilli that I bought from Hillside Kitchen & Cellar the other week.  It was just wonderful.

So, that brings me to the end of this week’s taste testing.  Have you tried anything new this week?

*I have eaten eggs, goat cheese, a small ham sandwich and a slice of pizza with salami.

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