Did someone say ‘food collab’? Apparently Violife* did! I’m here to review five of their vegan cheeses: the Epic Mature Cheddar Flavour Block, Original Flavour Slices, Original Flavour Grated, Smoky Cheddar Flavour Slices and Le Rond Camembert Flavour.
I’m not a person who shies away from vegan alternatives. In fact, I would say there’s always at least one vegan meal per week in my household, as husband and I try to balance our meat consumption. That means, I’m no newbie when it comes to vegan cheese (but I wouldn’t call myself a pro either).
With some vegan cheeses being a hit or miss, I was eager to try the Violife range and taste it myself. Now, another fact about me: I’m a terrible cook. Useless. Yet, I wanted to incorporate these cheeses into one «recipe» that’s easy enough for anyone -literally anyone, can make.
And yes, by «recipe» I mean putting things together on a platter, but hey, it’s as close you’ll get to me cooking 🙂 All jokes aside, a vegan platter is a great idea for casual summer gatherings or simply a healthy date with your boo.
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I decided to throw all the Violife cheeses in this platter with the exception of the grated vegan cheese but I tasted that one separately. 🙂 When I was looking for inspiration online, I gathered some amazing snacks to go on the platter, from which I picked five.
The options included dried apricots, cherry tomatoes, seasoned beans, strawberries, cashew nuts, roasted nuts, vegan bread, apple slices and more. For my platter, I picked hummus, carrot sticks, crackers, grissini, olives, grapefruit and rosemary for garnish. I had mixed nuts but I forgot to include them, *facepalm*.
EPIC MATURE CHEDDAR FLAVOUR BLOCK
The first cheese I tried was the Epic Mature Cheddar Flavour Block and it happened to be my favourite of the bunch. I literally had two slices in a row and it tasted just as good as any regular cheddar. It’s flavourful and makes me not miss real cheese at all!
ORIGINAL FLAVOUR SLICES
These slices are quite mild, which I like because it makes them versatile. You can easily make them work for a quick sandwich or grilled in a delicious vegan burger. For this platter I put together, I wrapped them around my grissini, yum!
SMOKY CHEDDAR FLAVOUR SLICES
These slices are the evil twins of the Original Flavour ones. These are full of rich, smokey flavour and that’s ready to steal the flavour spotlight. To anyone that says vegan cheese lacks flavour, give them a slice of this Smoky Cheddar.
LE ROND CAMEMBERT FLAVOUR
Another super flavourful cheese. Violife’s take on camembert is creamy, soft and quite powerful! I drizzled some olive oil on top and garnished with rosemary before putting it in the microwave for a minute (you can use the oven as well).
It melts the same way a normal camembert would and tastes delicious.
ORIGINAL FLAVOUR GRATED
Like I said, the only one missing from this platter because I plan to follow one of Violife’s yummy vegan recipes, (tex mex), using this cheese later. However, for the purpose of this review, I already opened and tried this lovely mild grated vegan cheese.
My first impressions were that the texture feels slightly different from other grated cheeses, hard to put it in words but it felt more rubbery than buttery, if that makes sense. Again, texture-wise. I’m not saying it tastes rubbery at all. Can’t wait to try it melted and as part of their tex mex dip!
Overall, these vegan cheeses have nothing to envy to animal cheeses. They’re still flavourful and rich, they blend beautifully with other ingredients, vegan or not.
Plus, they’re not only vegan, but they’re also free from dairy, soya, gluten, lactose, nuts and preservatives. That means even more people can enjoy them! I know I have!
xoxo
Deb
