Dairy free help!

[mistermagpie]

I need to go dairy free for a while (not weight loss or ethics related, in case that affects the recommendations!) and have no idea where to start.

I don't drink milk on its own but I love milky coffee, drink a lot of tea and eat cereal, have butter on sandwiches etc. I have yoghurt most days but could live without cheese.

Can anyone recommend some good dairy alternatives? I've tried oat milk in tea before and it was awful!

You can get 'Barista' oatmilks which are nice in coffee and on cereal (I think), but you might have to get used to drinking your tea without any milk!
Plant-based 'butters' are readily available.

Or you could take lactose supplements and not give up dairy? I've found Lactojoy to be the best (also the most expensive though).

Naturli is by far the nicest (and most buttery) spread I've found

You need a milk alternative which is forfeited with calcium, iodine and vitamin D eg Oatley or asda own is Tesco wicked. Oat milk is tea is odd, you eventually get used to it but it’s much better in coffee. Oatley Greek style yoghurt is passable. I did diary free for nearly 3 years as bf allergic child and you get used to it.

Vitalite was my preferred ‘butter’ and block stork for baking.

Alpro do a 'can't believe it's not milk' style oat milk. Their yoghurt is good too (esp the Greek style ones). Nush soft (not) cheese with chives is lovely (as is their yoghurt). I'm slightly hooked on vegan Babybel too.

Flora plant b*tter is amazing... just like the real thing. Alpro soya yoghurts are good, and Elmlea do a good plant based "cream"
I second barista oat milk for coffee, but in tea something thinner, like coconut. I love soya milk in cereals etc. but it does tend to curdle in hot drinks.

Do you know if you need to exclude dairy protein or lactose or both? So many things contain dairy, it's not obvious until you start reading the ingredients of everything. If you need to cut out all dairy then you need to read everything.

Soy, almond, oat, coconut milk as alternatives. Same for yoghurts. There are dairy free cheeses which seem to have got better.

Im still learning and I haven’t found a good replacement milk for tea yet but I like the barista coconut milk in my coffee. Nescafé do a really good oat milk or coconut latte in little sachets.
sheese is a reasonable cheese replacement - was so pleased to find that one!

The vegan flora butter block is hands down the best. I preferred Good hemp seed milk because I found a lot of alternatives to be sweet even when unsweetened, not sure if hemp will be creamy enough for you though

This will not help if there is an issue with cows milk protein as lactose is the sugar in the milk

I second Sheese. Not found a decent vegan cheese spread though.

Galaxy do a vegan hot chocolate which is quite nice.

Not cheap but GU do tasty vegan cheesecake.

Lidl adn Aldi do their own soya yoghurts.

I make my own pizzas. Whilst you can buy vegan pizza, the only half decent one I think is White Rabbit. But it's a lot of money just for one pizza.

For your coffee and cereal: Oatly Barista
For your tea: Alpro My Cuppa
For your sandwiches: Naturli or Flora Plant butter
For your yoghurt: Alpro packs of 4 pots ("strawberry banana" is my favourite)

For things you didn't mention but might want:
Cream cheese: Philadelphia plant based
Biscuits: Tesco's own dark chocolate digestives, Oreos, Morrisons free from chocolate chip cookies
Custard: Alpro or Oatly
Hot chocolate: Dairy Milk or Twinings Swiss, mixed with Oatly Barista (many hot chocolates you mix with milk will be ok, but almost no instant ones as 99% of them are full of milk powder)
Chocolate: Rhythm 108, Vego, Buttermilk (they do a vegan Crunchie style bar, a Snickers style bar, a Mars style bar, and peanut butter cups)
Crisps: many contain milk powder, but ones I like that don't include Doritos Chilli Heatwave, Nik Naks Nice n Spicy, Wotsits Flamin Hot.

Barista Oat is great for coffee, but Soy milk is my preference for tea, and I like rice or almond milk on cereal.

Bourbon biscuits and oreos for sweet treats! Plus best vegan chocolate I have found is the cadburys almond based chocolate :)

Oat milk / coconut milk in coffee (tbh I buy whatever's on offer, but Tesco own oat milk / Lidl barista are good budget options). I prefer these to dairy in coffee now, although I'm not dairy free.

Tea - DP is lactose free so tends to just have the lactose free dairy milk at home but out and about will have soya milk or just black.

Butter - again we generally get lactofree so may not work for you, but I use the flora plant butter or Pure spread for baking. DP didn't like Naturli although it often gets recommended.

Cheese - not great!! The Violife white feta style is ok, but otherwise we tend to get lactofree soft cheese / cheddar for DP.

Yoghurt - Alpro greek style / a lot of the coconut yoghurts are good (we don't really buy flavoured yoghurts so not tried any of those)

Again - if lactose is the issue there are a few lactose free kefir drinks & yoghurts which are good.

Love Alpro ‘my cuppa’. I can’t tell the difference and have cereal with it.
Flora plant butter - again can’t tell difference.
Cheese - don’t bother! I’ve found nothing…. Well apart from the cheese in mcplant burger 😳

I had to go dairy free when breastfeeding my daughter. Tea and coffee, cereal and in sauces I used oatly barista. It didn't desperate and tasted ok. Hemp milk was ok too.

Yoghurts- oatly flavoured range or koko were nice.

Cheese- applewood one is the nicest one or violate grated.

Also sheese cheese is fab on pizza or on its own!

I use oatly oat milk in tea and any recipe that calls for milk

Almond milk makes a good coffee and custard

Oatly also make a yoghurt - out local whole food shop gets it in for me - but is it expensive compared to dairy yoghurts

Cheese - if it's the lactose you should be ok with a well matured hard cheese ( check sugars 0 )

Chocolates- moo free

The oat milk - some is vile - the Lidl one is sweet and horrid ( to my taste buds )

Also yiu can get lactose free long life milk ( again assuming it's lactose that is the problem )

And if it is lactose that is the problem - pure butter will be fine also ( no sugar ) - avoid spreads that have added milk or cream

Coop do lively vegan 🍨

Lovely ice cream

Judes vegan ice cream is lovely.

Tea is tricky, I don't mind Koko in my tea but it does take some getting used to! For coffee I like provamel soy but it's not that easy to find, otherwise a lot of the barista oat milks are pretty good.

Flora plant based butter is good as is violife spread. Violife mozzarella is pretty good too, as vegan cheese goes anyway.

When I went dairy free I used hummus or a spread of mayo on my sandwiches instead of butter and on toast I used cashew or almond butter, if you put honey or jam ontop of a nut butter on toast it's a taste sensation!

For cheese and yogurts, I just went without because they didn't taste quite right. I put organic oatly milk (just a splash) in my tea, had almond or coconut lattes from Costa. Nothing tasted right on cereal, but I could make porridge or overnight oats with any milk alternative and it all tasted good

Naturli for butter if you have a trust fund to raid. Otherwise flora (not the buttery one as that has buttermilk in it).

Oatly barista is amazing but be prepared to be ...windy for a week or so!