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Apr 10, 2021

Vegan cheese

Vegan cheese photo

As a vegetarian who is trying to be as vegan as possible in Japan, I’m always on the lookout for vegan products. Since veganism hasn’t arrived as trend in the Japanese health industry yet, vegan substitute products are still hard to find. I’m not saying that we need heaps of them, but it still makes me happy when I get the option to buy a vegan version of something I like.

Vegan cheese photo
This plant based “cheese” doesn’t quite have the melting properties of real cheese, as shown in the picture (real cheese left, vegan "cheese" right), and of course it also doesn’t really taste like cheese, but I found it still satisfying to eat and have been repurchasing it for several months now. I’d say, while not a perfect substitute, it’s still nice to use on pizza, bread or pasta bakes.


3 Comments

  • TonetoEdo

    on Apr 14

    I wonder what it's made of? Can you tell us? And what does it taste like?

  • Kanuba

    on Apr 29

    @TonetoEdo Good question! I copied the ingredient list into google translate and got this: Edible vegetable fats and oils (domestic production), chickpea flour, salt, fermented seasoning liquid, yeast extract, dextrin / processed starch, cellulose, pH adjuster, stabilizer (thickening polysaccharide), flavor, colorant (carotene). It has a slight cheesy taste, kind of like nutritional yeast or those plastic wrapped sandwich slices you can buy here. Otherwise it mostly tastes like vegetable oils, similar to margarine. It doesn't have a strong flavor overall.

  • TonetoEdo

    on May 1

    @Kanuba Ah, that's a comprehensive list of ingredients. I'm sure other vegetarian and vegan people might benefit from that. You could write a How to about depending on a vegetarian diet....