Exploring a brave new world: Plant based cheese
On a balmy autumn eve at the end of April, Veg Action put together the final touches of the Shire’s first ever plant-based/vegan friendly cheese and wine tasting event. We stapled together paperwork for people to record their thoughts on cheese rankings, and carefully placed tastings of 18 different cheeses on 600 crackers, spaced in a covid safe manner so that no person would touch another’s cracker when removing from the platter. We lined up glasses for generous samples of the best local wines and set up for a demonstration of an easy to make plant-based cheese.
Tickets had sold out, and people arrived bang on time if not a few minutes early, ready for their Friday night pre-dinner tipple and nibble. We got straight into it; there were 15 different store-bought cheeses to try, spanning from having a base of pea milk to cashew nuts to almonds and soybeans, and from ashed ‘chevre’ to fruit cheeses to camemberts and mouldy blues. The heady advances in plant-based cheesemaking seemed to impress all present, and the local wines held their own in the wow factor. The final three cheeses passed around were all home made by various members of Veg Action and they went down very well. Towards the end of the night, Veg Action star chef Hridayan gave a demonstration of how to make his brazil nut cheese. It included using an orange and a red capsicum, which sounds unusual for a cheese but tasted sensational.
Everyone had received a cheese-ranking score card when they arrived, for their own records. We also encouraged people to put a sticker beside their favourite cheese on a poster on the wall, so we could see the general trend for the top ranked cheeses. See images below for full rankings. The consensus rated Dilectio (blue cheese), All the Things (camembert) and two marinated fetas – Yay! Feta and The Vegan Dairy Persian Feta as the top tasters; but the winner with the most dots beside it turned out to be Claire’s homemade Chipotle Cashew Cheese [recipe from Smith and Daughters]! We’ll share those recipes in our next post. Three of the top cheeses (Yay!, Vegan Dairy and Dilecto) are available in Foodworks Gisborne, thankfully. If you want to buy All the Things, or others that we tested, head down to the Cruelty Free Shop in 124 Johnston Street, Fitzroy. Or even better, ask you local supermarket or cheese shop to stock it.
We’d like to thank everyone who came, putting their adventure hats on to explore the brave new world of alternative cheese making.
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