Dairy alternatives that don't taste like shit

[CluelessVegetarian]

DD seems to be struggling with dairy and has been asked by her GP to cut it out for a while. Unfortunately she loves everything dairy: milk, butter, yogurt, creme fraiche, cream, etc.

Does anyone know of any nice tasting substitutes? We have tried a few versions of dairy free cheese and they were disgusting. She doesn't mind the growing up alpro soya milk but hates the standard one. I think almond milk isn't bad but Ds has a nut allergy so we are avoiding the nut based dairy alternatives. I'm really looking for butter and cheese alternatives. Wanted to make cookies this weekend with dd but most dairy free recipes I've seen suggest using a dairy free butter alternative and I don't know which one.

I’ve never found a ‘nice for me’ vegan cheese, Violife slices are ok though.
Butter- I love the flora plant butter.

Flora buttery for butter - the whole flora range is dairy free now - or I also really like the olive oil Pure one
Alpro cream
Oatly creme fraiche
Personally I like the Alpro and Koko yoghurts but depends what flavours you’re after. Alpro also so lovely dessert pots and custard.
Moma oat milk
IMO Applewood dairy free cheese is the only mainstream one that’s edible in that category though unfortunately! I’ve heard the cathedral city one is ok but not tried it yet. Dairy free cheeses are best melted IME. Mozzarisella is good but you have to order online.

My son has a dairy and nut allergy (among others).

Our best finds:

Milk = oatly barista. Also, the flavoured alpro soya (chocolate and strawberry) are nice.

Alpro pudding desserts are lovely.

Butter, we just stick with Violife. It's ok.

There's no such thing as a nice vegan cheese imo. Best we've found is apple wood smoked. The vegan Babybels are quite cute.

Chocolate- Go for Booja Booja or Nomo

We use Vitalite butter and can't taste the difference. I used to buy a separate butter but now the whole family use it and I can't taste any difference.

Cheese wise I would avoid the cheddars as they really do smell like rotten feet. Saying that I think Aldi's free from cheese block is less offensive although I haven't tasted it myself! It's just when making sandwiches for DC. Alternatively Violife ready slices looked and smelled like a good alternative. I only saw it as it was next to the butter in Home Bargains so gave it a try and DC seemed to like it.

I've only tried cream once before when I made a pasta dish once. We tried the Oatly brand and it was fine for what we needed it for.

Yoghurts, DC likes KoKo yoghurt - either the big one or Asda sell a 4 pack of strawberry flavour. Think there's another flavour too on the shelf but we've stuck to strawberry.

Once you get into the swing of it it's not too difficult to find your alternatives 😊

Applesauce is a good dairy replacement when baking.
coconut milk is nice to drink
cheese on crackers could be replaced with hummus or aubergine paste or fish paste
look at cuisines that don’t traditionally use milk like Far Eastern diets

I can’t tell if a cake has vegan butter or not. One of my kids is dairy free and tbh I cook with it rather than spread it on toast and I’ve never had a complaint.

There’s lots of plant milks out there. My kids prefer oat to soy but will also drink almond.

I can’t help with yoghurt or cheese. My son doesn’t eat cheese (not even on a burger) I’ve seen lots of coconut yoghurts in the free from section. If she likes those then maybe coconut milk will be up her street. I’ve heard that it foams well for a coffee too.

Vitalite or Flora plant butter - both work really well for baking too, I've always found.

I always use the koko coconut milk as a milk alternative. I wouldn't say it tastes of coconut as such, a hint of it perhaps but it's a lovely fresh taste, lovely in cereal/porridge, doesn't curdle in a hot drink and works really well in cooking without leaving any unwanted flavour.

I don't rate any of the vegan cheeses to be honest and tend to just not use it. They're never going to taste or perform like the real thing. Violife is OK if you need something for a pizza or a sandwich.

Lots of nice dairy free yogurts, just avoid the soya ones if she doesn't like the milk, she won't like the yogurt.

Alpro vanilla and chocolate milk are nice, no soya aftertaste.

Ultimately it depends why she's cutting it put. If it's to reduce lactose then there are lots of dairy products - eg 'lactofree' with this removed or significantly reduced which is often enough for those with an intolerance rather than an allergy. Hard cheeses will have a lot less lactose in that those such as brie, and a lot of people can tolerate small amounts of them.

Block Stork is dairy free and is great in biscuits and cakes.

It's really worth finding out if the problem is dairy / dairy proteins or just the lactose

If it's just the lactose - which is the most common - lactose free cheese is available and some hard cheeses and pure butter are very low lactose

I use a lot of dairy free products. I blend raspberries , blueberries, strawberries or banana with alpro yoghurt and its lovely. Tesco has a really good range of plany based cheese etc too now.

Most dairy free cheeses are disgusting. The only one I can stand is fake parmesan put on things like pasta though I don't know where it's from. There as my DD will eat a variety of them.

In regards to cakes I know people who bake and have baked things for me who use oil rather than butter.

For alternative milks you just need to try them as some oat, soya, rice, almond and coconut milks are disgusting while others are ok. The problem is if you are used to drinking cows milk then they will all taste horrible. It is a case of trial and error, and getting use to the taste. So a year ago my DD wouldn't drink any of them there as now she will drink unsweetened oat milk, there as I find it tastes disgusting.

The only alternative yoghurt I use are plain and unsweetened ones which are mostly soya and occasionally coconut.

One thing to be very careful of is the amount of sugar in the milks and yoghurts.

OatlyMilk (either barista or low sugars) I'm completely acclimatised to it and genuinely feel like it's milk.
Oatgurt is divine, nice and yogurty really lovely.

FIL is mad for Elmlea 100% Plant cream alternative, and that's just a preference, he likes the taste, he has no vegan principles or lactose intolerances. It is quite nice to be fair.

Vegan cheese is bad generally speaking. The cream cheese alternatives in the supermarkets are the most forgiving I find. Unfortunately if you're avoiding nuts you can eat the only solid one I was going to recommend (Kinda Co, if anyone's interested, it's DELICIOUS).

My future dil is dairy free (not by choice) I buy things for her and us to eat when she's with us. We get Flora, or I can't believe it's not butter. Almond milk, Alpro custard Elmlea plant based cream and this week I found Elmlea plant based brandy cream for the Christmas free from pudding.
Never have found a cheese that tastes nice, it usually smells like sweaty socks and tastes vile.

Oatly single cream

Alpro custard

Nomo cookies and cream chocolate

Alpro yoghurts

Aldi oat milk is nice and creamy

Cheese is the main thing I can't find a good alternative for!

Lidl sell vegan yogurts that are nicer and cheaper than the alpro ones.

Just be careful with the Oatly range, it's absolutely full of sugar especially the Barista version (type 2 diabetic and didn't realise).

M & S Plant Kitchen soya is very good, the best I've found, and their sweetened milks with strawberry and chocolate. Flora like butter spread (in blue tub) is very good and we have all the time now.

Agree with the majority - in 20 plus years of daìry free cooking I have never found an acceptable cheese substitute so I have given up looking.
I tend to use soya milk and cream in cooking but we don't drink it (or any other milk come to that.)
Alpro make the best soya products in my opinion. They are more expensive than supermarkets own brands but I think they're worth it.
Swedish glace icecream is good and overall I would vote for Nomo chocolate though there are quite a lot of good ones now.
We use vitalite as a butter substitute generally but my (dairy eating) DH has recently been diagnosed with high cholesterol and I bought Flora Proactiv for him and noticed it is also dairy free. I think vitalite tastes better though.

There is no good vegan cheese. They are all crap in various ways

Almond, cioconut or oat milks are good and I use all of them depending on what I want. Oat milk is best for pancakes for example.

I tried the Violife feta type cheese when I was eating out - not that I am allergic/intolerant/ to dairy. It was delicious and nicer than normal feta (IMO).

-Coconut Collaboration
yoghurts and rice pudding are delicious . Just not cheap! They are made with coconut milk.

Cheese - no point even trying, they're all awful.

Cream - there is a squirty cream that's in a black and red can that's nice, not much in it though. Also oatly cream, coconut collaborative cream is nice but sweet so you can't use it for savoury dishes.

Milk - oatly barista

Butter - naturli if you are happy spending

If you want to go low upf then cream and cheese is pretty impossible unless you do things like using avocado for cream and whizzed cashews for cheese. Plenish milk is low upf but not fortified. Only low upf butter replacement is coconut or olive oil, pop in the freezer/fridge until it's solid but then everything tastes of olive or coconut.

It doesn't taste of feta though, it tastes of soft goats cheese

Morrisons dairy free ice cream is great. Especially the chocolate one, you wouldn’t know it’s dairy free!