We vegans hear it all the time from omnivores. “I could never go vegan; I love cheese too much.” But times have changed. Vegan cheese products are on the rise and becoming better than ever.
Because I want to make people — vegan and omnivore alike — realize how many options are out there, I’ve compiled a list of all the vegan cheese products that I know of. I intend to keep updating this list over time, so if you see a product you think should be listed, please let me know!
In addition to vegan cheese brands, I wanted to include “cheesy products” that I know many people have a taste for, such as mac n’ cheese.
Some of these products can be found in your local health food store, ordered on the brand’s website, or ordered from online vegan stores such as Vegan Essentials or Pangea Vegan Store. For those of you that want to skip all of that and make your own cheese, I’ve also included links to a few homemade cheese recipes.
All that being said, who needs to be sourcing their cheese from cows?! It’s 2015 people. Let’s leave the animals alone and instead chow down on some of these awesome plant-based cheeses 😉
Vegan Cheese Products:
Daiya: A full line of shreds, slices, blocks, cream cheese, pizzas, and more — all vegan, gluten free, and soy free
images: Daiya
Tofutti: Sour cream, cream cheese, ricotta cheese, cheese slices, as well as frozen novelties and frozen foods
images: Tofutti
Teese: With no dairy, peanut, soy, gluten, tree nuts, palm oil, or wheat, these products come in a variety of flavors, melt, and slice like a boss.
image: instagram.com/chicagoveganfoods/
Follow Your Heart: These guys have been around for some time and offer many vegan, dairy-free alternatives (salad dressing, sour cream, cream cheese) in addition to cheese.
image: Follow Your Heart
Galaxy Nutritionals/Go Veggie!: Not every product in this line is vegan, but rest assured there are plenty of vegan cheese options. Just make sure the packaging says “vegan.”
images: Galaxy Nutritionals/Go Veggie!
Field Roast Chao Cheese: Oh.my.god. Some of the newest and best vegan cheese slices on the block! Just google any review and you will see how much the vegan world is rejoicing over these babies.
image: Field Roast
Kite Hill: These artisanal, soft cheeses made a splash onto the vegan cheese scene when they were released as theydemonstrated how far vegan cheese production has come. They are one of the best artisanal cheeses on the market and also offer cream cheese and ricottacheese.
image: Kite Hill
Treeline: These are my favorite cheeses, particularly the Cracked Pepper Hard Cheese. These are another line of artisanal cheeses that are perfect for wine and cheese parties or for serving on crackers as appetizers.
image: Treeline
Miyoko’sKitchen: Next up in our artisanal vegan cheeses is a woman who is considered the queen of vegan cheese. It was a bright and sunny day in Veganville when she openedher online store 🙂
image: Miyoko’s Kitchen
Vtopian: I’m dying to get my hands on some of these cheeses which are made in Eugene, Oregan andare made with organic ingredients as often is possible. Vtopian currently boasts15hand-crafted artisanal vegan cheeses!
image: Vtopian Artisan Cheeses
Dr. Cow: These tree nut cheeses are not made from cows despite thecheeky name. Dr. Cow explains, “Dr-Cow is a small, certified organic, environmentally conscious company researching and creating innovative artisan foods.” Their cheeses are made from100% rawcertified organic nuts as well.
image: Dr. Cow
Punk Rawk Labs: This small but mighty company makes their nutmilk cheeses with organic, gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free ingredients that are extremely simple but must also be great-tasting as I have tried to order it online many times only to see their products are sold out. It’s a good problem to have 😉
image: Punk Rawk Labs
Avellana Creamery: In doing my research, this is one artisan vegan cheese manufacturer I had never heard of. They make their vegan cheese predominantly from hazelnuts (which is rare to see) and then mix up the various spice blend and ingredients. They look and sound divine! They also offer a vegan alternative to shakeable parmesan cheese.
image: Avellana Creamery
Ste Martaen: Another vegan cheese company I had not heard of! (I love it!) Theyship theirhandcrafted vegan cheeses throughout the contiguous United States. Woohoo!
image: Ste Martaen
Parmela Creamery: Another artisanal cheeseI wishI could say I have tried. These rich, nutmilk cheeses look to beautiful to eat…almost.
image: Facebook.com/ParmelaCreamery
Cheezehound: These guys first caught my attention in March 2015 during the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival. A handcrafted, lactose-free, non-dairy, vegan, artisanal nut cheeze and pate company, they are (at the time of this writing) still fleshing out a website and hopefully we cheese-fiending vegans will be able to order from them. In the meantime, you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. (See website for details.)
image: instagram.com/cheezehoundinc
Vegcuisine: I love used these soy-based crumbly cheeses to sprinkle on my salad. They are the perfect alternative to feta. (Currently, I could not find a website for Vegcuisine, so you will have to order these products online via one of the stores I mentioned above.)
images: PangeaVegan Store
Parma: These products are a delicious alternative to parmesan cheese toppings. They are dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, kosher, and non-gmo. Parma explains, “Sprinkle Parma! (or pour) on popcorn, pizza, pasta, soup, and salad. It is also great on sandwiches, tortillas, beans, avocado, lightly steamed veggies,grains, and most savory food.” Sounds good to me!
image: Parma
Parma Zaan: Another great parmesan replacement 😉
image: Pangea Vegan Store
Road’s End Organics: According to Road’s End, “We foster compassion for all living beings, which means that all Road’s End items are exclusively plant-based, vegan foods.” That’s a mission statement! They offer vegan mac-n-cheese as well as cheesy sauces.
image: Edwardandsons.com
Earth Balance: There isn’t a vegan alive who doesn’t know Earth Balance. As part of their full product line, they, too, offer mac-n-cheese meals.
images: Earth Balance
Leahey Foods: Yet another retailer that offers a vegan mac-n-cheese as well as just their vegan mac-n-cheese sauce.
image: PangeaVegan Store
Red Star Nutritional Yeast: Despite the strange name, this is actually a common essential in most vegan pantries. Sprinkle it on your main meals or on popcorn to impart a cheesy flavor, as well as in soups for flavor and as a thickener. This particular brand also boasts a lot of Vitamin B-12. (Nutritional yeast is different from bread baker yeast or brewer’s yeast.) Other brands that offer nutritional yeast, or “nooch” as it is referred to on the streets, is Bragg’s, NOW, and Bob’s Red Mill.
image: PangeaVegan Store
Heritage Health Foods: This brand makes a vegan cheesy sauce that hardens as it cools and is ideal in pasta bakes or for grilled cheese sandwiches. Heck, why not just try it everywhere cheese sauce is called for? 😉
image: Pangea Vegan Store
Boulder Vegans, LLC: These folks manufacture an array of “Beyond Better” cheese sauces — definitely worth knowing about.
image: Pangea Vegan Store
Victoria Vegan: If you love Italian food and want to top it your pasta with rich, alfredo sauce that’s cruelty free, look no further.
images: Victoria Find Foods
Heidi Ho Organics: As seen recently on Shark Tank! Lol. But seriously, this line of products is expanding, go national, and coming to Whole Foods in March of 2015 (very soon!). While I’ve never had the pleasure of trying these items, my omnivore friend actually received some at Christmas and she said it was delicious.
images: Heidi Ho Organics
Vromage: It’s scary how much these cheeses look like animal-based cheeses! But they must be pretty delicious as Vromage claims, “They are arguably the best substitutes for dairy cheese available.” I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t mind doing a taste test. 😉
image: Vromage
Sunrawise: The folks behind Sunrawise are very passionate about their cheeses and a healthy lifestyle overall. Their cheese do not use any fillers, preservatives, chemicals, artificial coloring or flavors, soy, corn or GMO’s.
image: Sunrawise
Vegan Cheese Recipes:
Macadamia Nut Brie en Croute: An amazing recipe from one of my most favorite vegan food bloggers, Somer, of Vedged Out. Also, if you scroll down Somer’s recipe page there’s a whole section of vegan cheese recipes!
image: Vedged Out
Make your own vegan parmesan topping.
image: Minimalist Baker
Make your own cashew cheese spread for putting on crackers or dipping crudites.
image: One Ingredient Chef
If you like a little spice with your cheese, check out this vegan smoked jalepeno cheddar cheese.
image: My Darling Vegan
How about a simple and raw almond cheese?
image: Rawmazing
Looking for a sauce to use over pasta or even as a fondue? Check out this warm “vegveeta” cheese dip.
image: Plant Powered Kitchen
Sage and Gouda cheese ball…I’ll say no more.
image: Namely Marly
Would you like a nut-free cheesy sauce? Here you go 😉
image: Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
You can also make your own cheddar cheese slices — perfect for sandwiches!
image: Maple Spice
Buzzfeed has a tantalizing round-up of 14 vegan cheese recipes you don’t want to miss!
image: Maplespice.com
Head over to One Green Planet for 10 more amazing vegan cheese recipes!
Vegan Cheese Cookbooks
If you are looking to add some cookbooks to your collection…
Artisan Vegan Cheese by Miyoko Schinner
image: Amazon
The Cheesy Vegan by John Schlimm
image: Amazon
There are many more vegan cheese cookbooks available in hard copies and electronic versions. A simple search for “vegan cheese” on Amazon will yield tons of results. The two books I have mentioned above I have actually cooked from and can vouch for 😉
Last but not least, here’s averyinteresting website about a new “Real Vegan Cheese” project underway. I thought it should be on your radar.
Ok, I think I’ve made my point. Vegan cheese is here to stay. And it’savailable whichever way you take it. 🙂
