February 1st, 2010

Check Out These POMS + Daiya Review

Good MONDAY morning to you! And Happy February! Wow! Can’t believe January is behind us already!

I realized this weekend, while not posting, that school is going to take up the majority of my time. But I will try my best to post as often as I can!

First of all, check out what FINALLY arrived in the mail! I won this apron from POM Wonderful and have been anxiously awaiting its arrival:

Love! Oh, POM, you have such a sense of humour. Don’t worry, one day I’ll actually wear it on the blog

Accompanying the apron was a stash of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice! Score!

I love making mocktails with POM and club soda. Yum!

We had some with dinner last night.

Alrighty, onto the CHEEZE! …….

I’ve heard about Daiya now and then around the blogsphere and elsewhere. Daiya is a dairy-free, soy free, casein free, wheat free and nut free vegan cheese. It is supposed to taste, shred, melt and stretch like dairy based cheese.

The ingredients (from the website) are:

Purified water, tapioca and/or arrowroot flours, non-GMO expeller pressed canola and/or non-GMO expeller pressed safflower oil, coconut oil pea protein, salt, inactive yeast, vegetable glycerin, natural flavors (derived from plants), xanthan gum, sunflower lecithin, vegan enzymes (no animal rennet or animal enzymes), vegan bacterial cultures, citric acid (for flavor), annatto.

When I saw it in Whole Foods the other day I thought I should give it a try. I tried it plain, melted over pita chips and on a baked pasta.

I’ve never tried any other vegan cheeses before, as most (if not all) are made with soy, which I don’t eat. So I can’t really compare it to anything except real cheese.

My thoughts?:

When I tasted it plain, my first thought was that it tasted a bit like Earth Balance if it was solidified more and shredded. Weird, but true! I did notice a touch of a cheese-like flavor. I then melted it on pita chips and was pretty impressed. The Earth Balance-y flavor was still present, but a cheese flavor definitely came through and it melted really well. If I didn’t know it wasn’t real cheese, I would have probably thought it was. I had another round of chips but this time, the artificial-cheese taste started to hit me more, which I did not like.

Last night I used it on my baked pasta. It melted beautifully. I served it to the BF without telling him what it was and he actually asked me what kind of cheese I had used because he liked it! I could still taste the Earth Balance flavor, but it was still pretty good.

I would definitely recommend this for vegans looking to replace cheese in their foods…but only in moderation. In large amounts I did not like it. The taste became too artificial for me.
I will probably stick to real cheese for now. But if I ever decide to go vegan I am happy to know there is this cheese alternative out there for me