Soft cheeses don’t seem to be such a problem for vegans to give up as the hard varieties. There are excellent dairy-free alternatives that are at least as good, if not better, than the real thing. The most popular is Tofutti, which is widely available in health food shops in several flavours. Bute Island also produce a popular range of vegan soft cheeses, which are now also being sold under Tesco’s own-brand Free From range.
For recipes that would traditionally include cheese, perhaps with a sauce or topping, the dairy element is easily overcome. The recipes on The Great Vegan Challenge website include a lasagne that mainly uses soya milk and vegan cheese, but also contains a product known as Engevita (nutritional yeast flakes), which has a hearty, cheesy taste. In my household we make ‘alternative’ cheese sauces using less soya milk than the Animal Aid recipe and without any vegan cheese. Instead, we use more yeast flakes and chick pea (gram) flour (which also has a nice cheesy flavour) to thicken the sauce. You’ll find several variations in different dairy-free recipe books and online.
There are a range of recipes for dairy-free cheesecakes, including the one in your welcome packs, and they are almost always delicious. But we’ll come on to cakes later in the month!