Sheese and other great vegan foods

[FishlessCake]

Can't believe I've never tried this before! It's lovely and doesn't taste dairy free (it's the creamy garlic and herb). What vegan foods do you all love

I popped into a large Sainsbury's and got lots of cheese. Plain and garlic and herb soft cheese, Greek style and cheddar style. The garlic and herb is nice, more like Philadelphia than other soft cheese.

What does the Greek style taste like? I'm really impressed with the sheese it's my new favourite thing, I've missed having Philadelphia in a jacket potato and this tastes lovely.

Hello vegans! I've just done veganuary and am carrying on for now, have been pleasantly surprised how easy it's been to eat well. I try to stay gluten free as well as it triggers my IBS (as does lactose, but not got to worry about that now!) so that does mean a lot of vegan junk food/fake meats are off limits for me.

Things I have really enjoyed:
LM sausages (rosemary version lovely, chorizo version ok), also LM quarter pounder burgers were excellent, both as a burger and cut into strips for a fajita filling.
Aquafaba mayo - super easy to make, just a few minutes in the food processor. Tastes great, used it with chips, to make coleslaw, mixed with tomato paste and a few other things to make a thousand island dressing. It's practically free, no weird additives/preservatives, and mine lasted 10 days no problem in the fridge. Amazing, gamechanger!
Homemade cashew cream cheese - again super easy to make, and I used it with spinach to make a lasagne filling as well.
Koko milk
Alpro desserts - dark chocolate and also gingerbread versions. Plus last forever so can stock up.
Tofu - I actually find the Tofoo brand better for making pressed/baked/crispy type stuff, and the Cauldron brand is softer, made some lovely tofu frittatas, tofu scramble etc with that one.
Homemade chia pudding with almond milk
Banana oat pancakes
Pure sunflower margarine
Engevita nooch on everything!

Not so nice products:
Tesco smoked soya cheese - very plasticy texture, kinda ok flavour but really only acceptable grated & melted on top of something in small amounts and doesn't add much.
Secret vegetable sausages - very disappointing texture and lack of flavour, I tried the 'cumberland' version.

Things am planning to try:
Tempeh - not found any yet!
Homemade tofu 'feta'
Homemade nut and oat milks
More aquafaba recipes - must give butter a go! Also want to try it instead of eggs in homemade fresh (gf) pasta.

Hi @PhoenixJasmine really interested in Aquafaba. I know it's chickpea water but can you buy it by itself? Sounds too good to be true, how do you make mayo and butter with it?

I was very disappointed with the Sainsbury's 'cheese', apart from the Greek style it smelt horrific. They didn't have the garlic and herb one :(

I hate the Tescos spread, smells rank.

What spread do you all use? I use vitalite (cheapest) not really tried any others.

Flora Pure, it's much nicer than Vitalite.

Thanks, I will grab some the vitalite is pretty tasteless.

Pure sunflower spread, best by a mile.

I've got pure sunflower spread, it's been fine on toast etc. I think they do an olive version as well.

I've not seen aquafaba sold as a standalone ingredient, although a lot of it must go to waste when manufacturing ready meals etc. I just save what I drain from the tin. You can use the water left after soaking/boiling dried beans as well. Free!

I like pure, any of the pure spreads (soya, sunflower and olive oil)

I think any of the 'pure' spreads are good.

For PP who asked earlier- I get nothing from holland and barrett I don't even darken it's door…

Local independent health food shops are usually good and they are always worth seeking out. If you're looking got tempeh that's where you are likely to find it. Took me ages to find my local one but it's like a little cave of goodies. Ocado stock loads of stuff including Taifun tofu/sausages etc. Waitrose, if you have one, is better than many supermarkets for vegan stuff.

Oh I nearly forgot- Sacla's dairy/wheat/egg free pesto is brilliant! And they even sell it in morrisons, which is usually crap for vegans in my area, in their free-from section

Just googled Aquafaba you can make macarons?! Also Yorkshire puddings, has anyone had much success?

and that cheesecake recipe looks brilliant!

No waitrose/ocado in Pembrokeshire (nearest is probably Cardiff) which would take 3 hours to drive from me! No local health shops unless we are going to trawl every small town (which the county is made up of) in the hope of finding somewhere that may stick some vegan food . Plus everywhere is spread out and mainly small roads so takes ages to get anywhere. Holland and Barrett is 8 miles away and I usually go once a week.

Hello.I have a veggie in the house and a dairy allergy(dif child)so we do some vegan stuff,but aren't vegan full time.hope you don't mind me add my two pennies!!
We use vitalite or flora freedom(incidently they have yummy vegan banana loaf recipe on website)
Talking vegan cake,scotgirl has banana muffin recipe in mumsnet section.its quick,egg free just sub dif milk
I was told not give lil zoo too much rice milk as main drink by dietetics as it naturally contains arsenic
We have a thumbs up for koko yogurts at morrisons and our local health co operative sells a yogurt made if pea protein lil zoo likes called wot no dairy?
Cauldron vegan sundry tomato and cannelloni bean sausages big hit here with everyone incl D's( the carnivore)
Birds custard powder

We HATE violife cheese-smells like vomit so if anyone recommend a nice one please help!!

Until we found a vegan ice cream lil zoo loved(and still loves)mango sorbet
Fave milks here are almond and cashew(wish could find the latter unsweetened tho)
Will be lurking with interest

Hi @Stilllivinginazoo those cauldron sundry tomato sausages sound brilliant. Where I live there is such a small selection of food, but the sheese garlic and herb creamy is lovely, other people have recommended sainsburys cheeses too.

Original Bisto (the red packaging) is accidentally vegan, and a staple in the house.

We like the VioLife Creamy in the square tub, agree the rest smells of vomit.

Morrisons is outstanding for vegan/veggie foods.

Yes ^ the red bistro is lovely on bread

Oooh I've not tried that

I was really sad when we discovered a lovely sundry tomato pesto by dolmio was vegan.then as lil zoo really fell on love with i couldn't find it any more.I email them and ut had been discontinued.we found the sacla vegan pesto a bit "vinegary"?

I haven't tried any pesto, it's something I used to love on pasta, so will have a look out for it. Hate it when a product gets discontinued especially when children like it.

fishlesscake I only found my local health food shop through the power of t'internet! There is a Pembrokeshire vegans Facebook group so they might be a good source of vegan information about your local area.

I've not tried the red pesto zoo just the green one, which I think is nice (DS didn't actually notice any difference)

@dangermouseisace I'm not on Facebook. There probably is a health shop narberth/Fishguard way but that's so far out and I don't go up there otherwise.