Yes, it came as a great surprise to me too.
Vegan mayonnaise is actually pretty tasty. I would even go as far as saying I would prefer it to normal mayonnaise. It may be an unpopular opinion but it is my opinion non the less.
Since I had my food intolerance test done to help me find out what foods are irritating my stomach issues with GERD and after an initial period of denial where I finally put the food down I decided to embrace this new change by trying out food options that I would normally have turned my nose up to, simply because I would have had other food options.
Now let me get something straight. I am not a vegetarian, I am not a vegan but neither do I feel the need to have some sort of meat dish with every meal. Vegan recipes and vegan products do however cater for those Allergic/intolerant to eggs and dairy. I also find it easier to tweek a vegan recipe to suit myself, because lets face it, they have most of the work done for me already.
I am also not getting paid to talk about the foods that I am about to review. These foods alternatives can be expensive, so for anyone like me that wants to try them out but is afraid that they will end up wasting money they may not have Im going to give you my honest opinion on them. Its up to you then whether you want to take the final leap and try them yourself.
I find it amazing how little there is in the line of foods at the supermarket for people suffering from food allergies/intolerance. Yes there is expensive gluten-free foods and yes there is expensive specialist diabetic foods and yes there is a tiny selection of expensive vegan alternatives but what if some one is intolerant to all of the above? What happens then? There is no running to the shop for a bread or picking up a nice dessert to bring to your friends to have with a cuppa while you catch up.
Speaking of a cuppa, who ever thought that almond milk on a cup of tea was a good idea
needs a psychiatric assessment in my view. Tea should taste tea like. It most certainly should not taste like marzipan or any other part of a Christmas cake for that matter. If, like me, you discover you can no longer tolerate dairy and simply can not live with out your cuppa then Soya milk, I have found, is the closest you will get to regularly scheduled programming.
To date I have tried a couple of vegan products. The vegan mayonnaise as I have already said does not suck. It does, however, start to split if it is left sitting for too long before eating. If your bring it with a packed lunch I recommend keeping it in a separate container until you are ready to use it.
I used to be a cheese fiend so I just had to try out vegan cheese alternative, or as I like to call it Gary . Again another surprise, it does not suck either. The block of vegan cheese that I have tried had a smokey flavour that was quite strong and was more intense when used in cooking. It helped to add a lot of flavour to some otherwise bland dishes. Its texture was that of a smooth creamy cheddar cheese.
I have also tried the Vegan alternative to a cream cheese. This I really did enjoy. It has the same texture and flavour as a dairy based cream cheese. Particularly delicious on Rye crackers topped with seasoned cherry tomatoes that I freshly picked from my teeny tiny food garden that I started this year.
Soya butter was also another nice surprise. Never even knew it existed until I was looking for some dairy free alternative to Kerry gold smothered on my mashed spuds (aka potatoes for anyone outside Ireland) and soya butter has filled the brief. Okay, it doesn’t melt quite the same or even look the same as real butter but it is very close to tasting the same and that is whats important.
These are just a few food alternatives that I have tried but feel free to offer up further suggestions or even some of your own off the shelf favourite food alternatives in the comments below.
Vegan mayonnaise does not suck Yes, it came as a great surprise to me too. Vegan mayonnaise is actually pretty tasty. I would even go as far as saying I would prefer it to normal mayonnaise.