My family and I aren’t vegan, but my daughter is vegetarian and the rest of us enjoy eating a mixture of meat-based and meat-free meals. So we’re really open to trying vegetarian and vegan alternatives to the different foods we eat.
When Violife asked me if we wanted to try some of their vegan cheese alternatives I jumped at the chance, because we get through a fair bit of cheese in our house and I was curious to know what the vegan alternatives were actually like.
The first thing that really surprised me was the range of cheeses that you can get from Violife.
Because I don’t normally buy vegan cheese I’ve not really paid that much attention to all the options that are available, so I was really impressed when I realised how much choice there is now.
The Violife range includes everything from blocks and slices of vegan cheese to vegan alternatives to soft cheese, camembert, and mozzarella. And they come in some delicious flavours too, like smoked cheese and tomato and basil.
I also love the fact that Violife have a load of vegan recipes on their website which is perfect for inspiration on ways to cook with their products.
The products my family and I tried from Violife were:
- Le Rond camembert flavour
- Smoky cheddar flavour slices
- Epic mature cheddar flavour block
- Original flavour slices
- Original flavour grated
They’re all made with coconut oil, starch, and sea salt, enhanced with vitamin B12 and with different flavourings added to create the different options.
I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I tried the different products, and was a bit worried that the texture and taste might not be all that great. So when I first bit into one of the Smoky Cheddar flavour slices I was immediately impressed with how good it tasted and how similar the texture was to standard cheese slices.
These would go perfectly with crackers for a snack and would also taste amazing in a toastie, although I’ve been enjoying just sneaking a slice now and then from the fridge.
The texture and taste of the other cheeses are all just as good as the smoky slices, and I’m not even sure I’d notice that the cheddar flavour slices and block weren’t dairy if I had them in a sandwich with some chutney and lettuce.
Where there is a more obvious difference is with the way Violife melts when you put it in a toastie or on top of a pizza. It does melt really nicely and has a good bit of stretch to it like you’d expect from a melted cheddar or mozzarella, but it’s a very different texture to what I’m used to with dairy cheeses.
I found with both the cheddar flavour slices and the grated option that the texture was soft, almost paste-like, which is actually a lot nicer that it perhaps sounds! I had a few of the cheddar flavour slices in a toastie with some tomato relish for a super quick, really tasty lunch. All I would do next time is use a few more slices than I did this time, because with the way they melted down the toastie wasn’t as full (or filling) as I’d normally make them.
To try out the grated Violife I made a quick pitta bread pizza, with a simple tomato sauce and the grated cheese. I popped it under the grill for about 8 minutes for the cheese to really start to melt and start to brown in a few spots.
Next time I’ll put a bit more of the vegan grated cheese to really get a good covering, because it didn’t melt and spread the way our normal mozzarella does.
All in all though, once I was used to the unfamiliar texture, this pizza was really tasty. The Violife has a pretty subtle flavour that worked really well with the tomato sauce, and the fact that it comes ready-grated in the pack made making the pizza ridiculously quick and easy.
I have honestly been so impressed with all the cheese alternatives we tried from Violife. And while I don’t think we’ll be giving up our usual cheddar and mozzarella quite yet, I would definitely pop some of these in our trolley for a change now and then.
It’s also really good to know that if Nerys decides to make the move from vegetarian to vegan at some point that there are some brilliant, tasty cheese alternatives out there so she can still enjoy the meals she likes.
Disclosure: I was sent the products to try for the purpose of this review but all thoughts and opinions are my own.