Pepper Jack Shredded Cheese

Daiya Vegan Cheeses, Pepper Jack

Daiya is well known for their vegan products, they make vegan and gluten free pizza, mac and cheese, as well as delicious cheezecakes. Although the cheeze does not completely melt like real cheese, the taste is like real pepper jack. It is made with tapioca flour, chickpea protein and coconut oil. It is dairy, gluten, soy, egg, peanut, shellfish, and fish free. 

Parmela Creamery Pepper Jack

Made with cashews, coconut oil and potato starch, the pepper jack cheese has a mild taste. It is dairy free, gluten free, and vegan.

Out of the two, I prefer Daiya since it has a more peppery flavor.

Havarti

Daiya Harvarti Jalapeno Block Cheese

Havarti is a semisoft cheese which normally contains dill. Daiya’s version is made with tapioca starch, coconut oil and jalapeno. It’s easy to cut and has a nice cheesy and spicy taste. It’s dairy, gluten, soy, egg, peanut, shellfish and fish free. 

Mozzarella Shreds

Daiya Mozzarella Style Shreds

This cheeze has a very mild and tasty mozzarella flavor. It is made with tapioca flour, coconut oil and chickpea protein. It is dairy, gluten, soy, egg, peanut, shellfish, and fish free. 

Follow Your Heart

Made with palm fruit oil, corn and potato starches, this brand has the least mozzarella-style flavor. It’s vegan, gluten free, dairy free, non-GMO and soy free.

Parmela Creamery

This cheeze is made with cashews, coconut oil, and potato starch. It’s dairy free, gluten free, and vegan. It has  a true mozzarella flavor compared to Daiya and Follow Your Heart.  

Cheese Sauce and Dip

The good thing about cheeze dip/sauce is that you don’t need to worry about melting the cheese which is hard to do with shredded and grated cheeze.

Siete Cashew Queso Mild Nacho

This is chile con queso, or simply called queso, which has cashews, tomatoes, and bell peppers. It’s cheese sauce blended with salsa, without the tomato chunks.  A family member was fooled into thinking this was milk-based nacho cheese. It’s that good. The only giveaway would be that it is not smooth, but a bit gritty. It is grain free, paleo, non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free, soy free and vegan. It does contain coconut milk powder.

Whole Foods Plant Based Queso Style Dip

I was trying to figure out what the taste was. Was it a bean dip? It is made with chickpeas. Why is it orange? It has pumpkin puree, along with tomatoes and chile peppers. The peppers (green, chipotle, and jalapeno) give it a smoky bean dip flavor. While it is a good dip, it is not a good queso dip because it does not have a cheesy taste.  It is dairy free, vegan and gluten free.

Core & Rind Cashew Cheesy Sauce

Like the Whole Foods dip, this does not have a cheesy taste, but a sour mustard flavor.  Also like the Whole Foods dip, it contains pumpkin. It’s made with cashews, and apple cider vinegar is listed as the 3^rd ingredient which might explain the sour taste. It is gluten and dairy free.

Daiya Cheddar Style Deluxe Cheeze Sauce

The sauce in a pouch is Daiya’s greatest cheeze product, with the same great cheddar taste used in their mac and cheese. It can be used as a dip or topping on veggies and potatoes.  It’s made with tapioca starch, coconut oil and pea protein. It is free of dairy, gluten, soy, egg, peanut fish and shellfish.

Gouda

Leaf Cuisine Spread Smoky Gouda

The gouda is very smooth, creamy, and spreadable. The taste is a bit tart which may be due to the fermentation and is more sour than smoky.  It’s made with fermented cashews and organic cold-pressed coconut oil. It is gluten free, dairy free, soy free, raw, probiotic and paleo.

Feta

Violife Just Like Feta

This cheese has the right amount of salty flavor like real feta cheese. However, I do miss the crumbly texture since it comes in a block and is super smooth. I used it on a gyro salad and it was a great substitute for feta cheese. It’s made with coconut oil and potato starch. It is vegan and their website states: All our plant-based foods are free from common allergens lactose and gluten as well as being soy and nut free.

Cream Cheese

Treeline Tree Nut Cheese, Salt and Pepper

Treeline cheese is a creamy soft, French-style cheese. Made with cashew milk, this does not taste like traditional cream cheese, but instead is a cross between cream cheese and sour cream. It does contain probiotics (acidophilus) which might explain the sour taste. It is very spreadable, and would be good on baked potatoes.  It is dairy, gluten, and soy free.

Parmesan, Grated and Shreds

Of all the cheeze flavors reviewed, Parmesan is the one which is closest to real thing.

Pimp My Salad Cashew Parmesan

This grated cheeze is shelf stable, in a resealable pack. It is made with cashew nuts and sunflower seeds. Because it’s 55% cashew based and sunflower seeds are the second ingredient listed, it has a strong nutty flavor. While the nutty taste and texture add a nice crunch to a salad, it does not have a Parmesan taste. It is vegan, gluten free, dairy free, Paleo, Keto and GMO free.

GO Veggie

This is the best tasting grated Parmesan cheeze. The smell and taste are so much like the real thing that it’s hard to believe it’s dairy free. The cheeze is made with soy, coconut oil and rice flour. Their website states: “We are the cheesiest, tastiest and award-winningest cheese alternative around. We’ve been winning awards since we began back in the seventies.” You can sprinkle it on pasta, popcorn, and salads. It is dairy free, gluten free and non-GMO.

Note: I discovered on their website that there is also a soy free version.

Follow Your Heart Vegan Parmesan Cheese, Shredded and Grated

Both the grated and shredded textures have a great Parmesan flavor and are made with palm fruit oil and canola oil. They are also vegan, gluten free, dairy free, non-GMO and soy free.

Go Veggie has more of a Parmesan cheese flavor, but both have a realistic Parmesan taste and smell.

Violife Just Like Parmesan

This cheese is in a triangle shape, made with coconut oil, potato and rice starch. It’s delicious and has the taste, smell and gritty texture of the real thing. It makes a tasty topping to gluten free crackers and goes well with figs. It is dairy, soy, gluten, nut and lactose free.

Cheddar

Daiya Shredded Cheddar

Daiya’s shredded cheddar has a mild, pleasant cheddar taste. It’s made with tapioca flour, coconut oil, and pea protein.  It is dairy, gluten, soy, egg, peanut, shellfish, and fish free. 

Violife Cheddar Slices

I had never heard of Violife before, but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite cheeze brands. I was very impressed with their feta, and especially their Parmesan cheeze. Their cheddar slices have a nice mild cheddar taste and is great on a burger. It is made with coconut oil, potato and corn starches. It is dairy, soy, gluten, nut and lactose free.

Both Daiya and Violife cheddar are very similar in taste.

Conclusion

What great strides we have made with cheeze. They taste, look and have the texture of real cheese. There are so many dairy free options- soy, coconut, cashews, chickpeas and vegetable oils. And there are also so many flavors, from mozzarella for pizza, queso for dips, to feta for gyros, and everything else in between.

Check out my other posts for other tasty cheezy foods – cheese puffs, mac and cheeze, cheezecake and dressings.

Fun Food Fact

Yeast. It’s such a disgusting sounding word, conjuring images of a microscopic fungus. But not all yeast is bad. Baker’s yeast is used in bread and brewer’s yeast in beer. Another good yeast, it’s even in the name, is nutritional yeast. It gets its name from the nutrients – vitamins, minerals and even antioxidants. It’s what makes cheeze taste like cheese. Oh, and it’s also known as nooch. 

Did You Know

If a cheese is named after a city, it’s capitalized. For example, Asiago, Brie, Camembert, Gouda, Gruyere and Parmesan. Cheeses that aren’t capitalized include cheddar, feta, fontina, mozzarella and provolone.

Quote

I’m obsessed with cheese and milk, but eliminating them from my diet made the biggest difference. In a month and a half, I lost 11 pounds just from not eating dairy, without doing anything else different, and that totally blew my mind.” Khloe Kardashian