Dairy free/soya free alternatives

[Hamnvik]

Hi, I was just wondering if someone could point me in the direction of the best dairy free/Soya free alternatives and where to buy them? Especially cheese or sauce as I would like to give my little boy pasta but he can't have tomatoes either and I can't think what else to use. Thank you!

Marking my place dd is milk intolerant.

vegan cheese is really pretty manky. I've tried a lot of them and haven't really been able to eat any! that said, I guess if he's never had "real" cheese he won't mind so much maybe?
it doesn't melt though, even the stuff that they claim does. so it won't work in a sauce, and it doesn't melt on top of stuff under the grill.

the tofutti cream cheese alternative is not toooooo bad, you can mix that through pasta with a little soya cream too and if you have other strong flavours then it tastes ok.

I make a faux-cheese sauce for pasta using almond milk, flour, mustard powder, celery salt, black pepper and nutritional yeast. again, it's not actually that cheesy, but it's tolerable.

homemade pesto is delish though, and my fave thing to have on pasta. just leave the cheese out and add some nutritional yeast if you have some (it tastes fine without tho)

you can also buy aubergine pesto (i think by sacla) which is dairy-free

I buy dairy and soya free chocolate from Billy Goat Stuff. It is tasty (I've tested DD's chocs!).

My DD is only dairy-free, so can have soya (which, as you'll know, most alternatives contain). The BGS website has a few links about dairy& soy free foods - worth checking out.

someone on here posted a nice recipe using red peppers and carrots for a pasta sauce too... hopefully it'll pop up on here as I meant to write it down and forgot

agh just realised.... if you need it to be soya free I think you'll really struggle on the fake cheese front as it's pretty much all soya based :(

Forgot to add... the best cheese we've come across is Village Green goats cheddar. Supermarket own brand ok, but flavour not as good. VG has a green wax coating (so easy to recognise).

We normally use goats milk, and St Helens do lovely flavoured goats milk yoghurts, as well as plain.

We use whole earth cornflakes (not suitable if you're soya free) - bear in mind many cornflakes Have Dairy lecithin. DD has local whole food Store Muesli - many mueslis contain powdered milk to stop the fruit sticking.

I normally Use marg for baking. If something 'special' (DD loves shortbread), i use goats Butter. For biscuits/pastry i'll often use a proportion of lard (less sat Fat Than Butter & fab crisp texture).

Everything I've mentioned (except the muesli), we get in local supermarkets.

Bear in mind I think VG cheese contains rennet, so not vegetarian (just in case).

Isn't goats milk the same make up as cows? I thought goats milk was out if your cows milk intolerant!

DS is dairy and soya free.

Pasta with tuna and sweet corn and helman's full fat mayo?

I used pure sunflower spread, almond milk/rice milk for baking.

There's a seeded bread (think kingsmill- it's purple)

The proteins in goats milk are very similar to that of cow's milk and soya so not normally recommended as an alternative.

I use oatly cream as a pasta sauce with ham or salmon trimmings and peas/sweet corn. I also use dairy and egg free mayo with Tina and sweet corn.

When DS wasn't able to have milk I used to make a bolognese but replace the tomato with grated carrot and puréed beetroot (the vacuum packed stuff not the kind in vinegar)

I also make a dairy free white sauce. Make a roux with pure spread and flour. Whisk Oatly or Koko milk in a bit at a time to give a smooth sauce.

My sauce for chicken pie is made with a roux as above but whisk in some chicken stick to make a sauce.

Hi my daughter is also dairy and soya (and egg) - free. Sainsburys do a nice free from pesto. Actually might need to check it's also soya-free, but it's def dairy-free. Apparently things with soya lecithin in it is ok for soya allergy kids because it tends to be the protein they are allergic to and lecithin is something else - that might open up more possibilities?
Oatley cream is nice - only place I have found it is whole foods though. Can also make a white sauce with sunflower spread, flour and oat milk. We also use full fat mayonnaise sometimes - light mayo tends to have milk or cream powder in it.

I too have tried many dairy-free cheeses but they all seem to taste of sick!

vegusto.co.uk - their cheese sauce and moo melty are awesome!

You can get Oatley cream and milk from Waitrose. Is there a Whole Foods shop nearby, as they have dairy/soya free substitutes.

You can use almond or coconut milk substitutes too.

Can I hijack to ask about dairy and soya free packed lunches?

DS currently has wraps/pitta bread with ham salad or egg mayo, fruit, a squeezy fruit pouch or jelly, sometimes Real crisps or a naked bar.

Can you think of other brands to try?

Would be good to keep this thread going to inspire each other. DS is a brilliant eater but we're stuck eating the same tried and tested things

packed lunches (these are vegan, so if you eat meat you can add to them) we do a variety of the following:

crackers/breadsticks
veg: cucumber, tomato, carrot sticks, olives, red pepper, pickled onion (yes I have an odd 6 yr old)
cous cous with roasted veg
humous
cold pasta salad with homemade pesto/dairy and egg free mayo/tom sauce, plus veg
sandwiches with: salad and humous, peanut (or other nut) butter, marmite
falafels
homemade vegan cake/cereal bars
fruit salad or a piece of fruit
veggie jelly with fruit in
soya yoghurt (no good for OP obv!)

some of the eat natural bars are dairy free, but you'd need to check the soya

also the nature valley chewy bars with chocolate chips are dairy free too, again you'd need to check for soya

Thanks for the suggestions I'm in Scotland so no Waitrose sadly! Will have a look for whole food shops, Oatly cream sounds like what I was after but I haven't found it anywhere. I didn't know hellmans mayo was dairy free so that's good to know too.

Tesco and holland and Barrett used to do oatly cream. I haven't seen any in my local ones recently but it's worth a look in the UHT milk section.

Whole foods in Glasgow sells oatly cream or you can buy online.

Hamnvik - there is a waitrose in glasgow, maybe even two! Where are you based? There is one in Newton mearns and I think one I the west end too, and there's a Whole Foods in giffnock. If you're not in glasgow you never know, if you get in touch with them they might be able to send you a supply. Or maybe contact Oatley and buy it direct from them - worth a shot? Also - most full fat mayo is dairy free, not just hellmans.

Pickled moomin - we send our allergy-ridden daughter to nursery with a fruit pot and a Heinz meal for 1-3 year olds, called mums special or something. They have several allergen free ones like Sunday chicken dinner, beef and sw potato hotpot...

Other regular lunches in our house include:
pasta with tuna, sweetcorn and Oatley cream or mayonnaise
raisin and cinnamon bagels with loads of sunflower butter
banana or jam sandwiches
cheeseless pizza with ham and olives (can make your own pizza base with flour, yeast, oil and water. Can also make tomato sauce with sundried tomato purée mixed with passata.)
rice cakes with peanut butter

But mainly we have leftovers from our dinner, and very often this is just fish fingers or sausages or roast chicken, with a bit of toast and cucumber! #lifeistooshort

I've not read everything, but a couple of points I can add.
Hamnvik, there's a Waitrose in Stirling now too :-) hope this helps you, it has me (current 3for£3 on Oatly & Alpro stuff is very good!)

bundaberg The "red" sauce I make (tomato free) is with roasted sweet potato & red pepper. Roast it all up, skins on. Take skins off (or scrape out sp after) and blitz, may need to add a bit of water. Freeze what you don't need :) You can use carrots or butternut squash, even beet root (but read somewhere this can discolour if added at the beginning, just add it at the end when you blitz) yellow or orange peppers are good too, but red peppers add the best colour to a tomato free sauce.

Mattessons pork sausage is df & SF (& GF & ef too!) great for lunches, chopped up in omelette, with pasta & Oatly sauce, always got a few in the fridge :)

Tesco has just started stocking Oatly cream (250ml black carton) round me, so that has made life much easier!

There was a thread about dairy/soya free finds with 500+ posts (not that long ago), so get a cuppa & read through it for product finds :)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/allergies/1747955-Any-dairy-free-soya-free-bakers

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/allergies/1550631-Surprise-dairy-egg-free-finds-join-me-in-making-a-list
Think this might have been it, but it'll have a few good things :)