VioLife Vegan Cheeses.

The super generous peep's at Veganic Foods in Germany sent me a bumper pack of vegan cheeses to try late this summer and I couldn't wait to dig in. I was totally one of those "I could never give up cheese" vegetarians. I know! I snapped out of it pretty swiftly and realised that the lives of dairy cows are obviously more important that my love of dairy - duh! 

Anyway, as a former cheeseoholic, I get super excited whenever a new non-dairy cheese appears on the scene. The Veganic brand have come up with ten, yep, ten, differently flavoured cheeses which come in pre-sliced packs alongside a pizza cheese which is taking indie pizza places, including Brighton's very own Pizza Face, across the UK by storm.

I dug into the cheese slices as soon as they arrived and to test their meltiness I popped a slice onto the chickpea tuna sandwich (recipe in Vegan With A Vengeance) I was halfway through making and grilled it for a few minutes. The cheese got bubbly and melty, it was dreamy.

My absolute favourite way to eat the cheese slices (aside from straight up outa the pack) was on a regular old cheese sarnie. These were up there with my favourite sandwiches pre-vegan and now I can eat them again, all day every day if I want to. Being an adult is a dangerous business!

My very favourite of the flavours on offer was Original which reminded me of the Leerdammer slices I used to enjoy, both in taste and texture. My second fave was Cheddar which tasted pretty similar to Original and this was closely followed by Pizza, Olive Oil, Olive and then Herbs in that order. I could take or leave the mushroom variety.

As I couldn't be bothered to make a pizza as delicious as Pizza Face's I used the Pizza Cheese in a variety of different ways, stuffed into a baked potato, melted on toast, out of the bag with a spoon, but my favourite had to be this lazy chick'n parm. Can't be bothered to cook a proper meal but want it to look fancy? Just grab a Fry's schnitzel, chuck some passata (from a box, obvs) ontop, sprinkle with herbs and then top it with Veganic Pizza Cheese. Perfect. I served mine with quinoa and Nick knocked up some pasta to have with his. It was delicious.

There are so many non-dairy cheese options out there now even compared to when I went vegan almost eight years ago. Imagine what being vegan 15 or 20 years ago must've been like. Maybe you don't have to, maybe you've been vegan for that long or longer, if so, kudos to you. I think you're pretty rad! This range of cheeses can definitely hold it's own in the ever growing vegan cheese market and I strongly recommend that you give it a try. In Brighton you can pick up my favourite flavours at Infinity Foods (just a coincidence but a great one!) or check out a health food store near you. You can also order online from Goodness Direct or Alternative Stores.