The Vegan Thread

Just had some of this for the first time. It's been a long time since I ate halloumi but I'm pretty sure the taste is not the same. But this was quite nice all the same and you could grill it. My kids thought it was amazing. Will get again.

I like some of the 'old style' vegan 'cheese' but for me it's all about the cashew cheeses these days. I call them proper cheeses, as they're fermented and additionally delicious, far tastier (to me) than all the yellow-tinted blocky stuff.

Got a link to where to buy?

Brands that are being established include Kinda Co., Nutkin, Mouse's Favourite, Essential Vegan, Tyne Chease, I am NUT OK, and Black Arts Vegan. I wanted to go to this tomorrow featuring four of them, but unfortunately it's been cancelled (unspecified problem with the venue):

http://fatgayvegan.com/2018/03/31/pop-up-supper-club-event-in-london/

I'm afraid I don't really know how much they sell on-line. I get some occasionally at Hackney Downs Vegan Market. They still have limited stockists, I think. Green Bay in Fulham stocks them, but that's not much use to you in Oxfordshire, sorry.

I suspect Tyne Chease may be the best set-up for on-line orders, but I haven't checked the others.

My favourite is actually the Kinda Co. Farmhouse. They do soft cheeses whereas the others mostly do hard ones, I think.

I should also mention that they're still extremely pricey, you don't get a lot for your money. That will obviously change when they acquire bigger production capacity.

Wow, nice, cheers. Will look those up :)

Here's a nice article I just saw linked to from the Kinda Co. site which unsurprisingly features Kinda Co., particularly Ellie, who started it:

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2017/12/cheeseboard-dairy-industry-doesn-t-want-you-eat-christmas

Was just reading that :)
edit, excellent read.

I am NUT OK

lol

It's a shame really cause I had big expectations for the place... and for the fact that I'd banged on about it for a while in front of my colleagues... never again!

I got a load of Tyne chease delievered last week, it's amazing! The Truffle one is crazy!

I will never miss cheese again.

Well, yeah, because you'll be eating it all the time. :)

The Observer had a vegetarian/vegan Food Monthly today, which is why the web-site was full of vegan articles. I was intrigued by this one, as it's a review (OK, a thinly-disguised ad) for a cookbook written by a high-flying omnivorous chef, and it does look as if it's worth getting.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/22/chantelle-nicholson-vegan-vegetarian-recipes-peanut-butter-pudding-chocolate-sorbet-tempura-romesco-aquafaba

This is a useful list, mainly for those living outside London:

https://veganwomble.co.uk/vegan-fairs-festivals-uk/

Anyone got thoughts on the rockstone pub in Southampton? Heading over there soon to see bill bailey, and their vegan burgers sound/look good from the web.

I went to Vx Bristol on Sunday, burger, nuggets and fries. What a disappointment, it was tasteless, textureless mush. Such a downer, was really looking forward to it, the store was really nice and staff were really friendly but the food, meh.

I had the same in London... but it was round the other way... food was good, but the staff were crap! Shame when you're looking forward to something and it's rubbish

The only real bonus has been my farts the two days after, amazing doesn't even begin to describe it.

And who doesn't enjoy farts, right!?

#veganfartsdontstink

I'm trying to find some stats on how much milk is needed to make yoghurt and cheese.

Yoghurt seems to be about 1:1 ratio, whereas cheese is more like 5:1 (less so for goats cheese)

Can anyone confirm / provide links?

I'm not sure you can apply dairy ratios directly to vegan applications... If you're making vegan cheeses they're often based on nuts.

Ah, no I mean dairy based products.

I've been cutting down from carnivore to vegetarian, low carbon footprint diet. I don't drink milk any more but still have yoghurt / cheese. But how much milk am I still indirectly consuming?

Asking here because presumably others have done a similar thing and vegans are generally brighter :)

Assumed @Oliver Schick would have some stats up his sleeve

I have absolutely no idea of any milk-to-cheese ratios, I'm afraid. I wouldn't have cared about that even before I became vegan, as my approach was always entirely ethical and not in any way carbon footprint-based (or dairy footprint-based).

(I think that consequentialism (the idea that the comparative amount of goodness in the consequences of your actions determines their rightness or wrongness) is sometimes helpful in teasing out issues, but not a sensible ethical position to take. While I'm not a pure voluntarist (the idea that right action depends on a good will, pace Kant), I certainly think that all animals have wills and that this is crucial in determining what one ought to do in respect of them, as I think it's wrong to try to break or dominate another's will.)

I don't drink milk any more but still have yoghurt / cheese.

Was milk the more major item for you or yoghurt and cheese? I ask because I used to drink an enormous amount of milk, litres every day, as I drank almost no water or juice. (I think in looking back that I didn't like water because it was considered the default where I grew up to drink carbonated spring water from bottles--back then, it would never have occurred to me to drink tap water, which I now do all the time--, and I've never liked the taste of carbonated water, so it was probably because of this that I turned to milk.) When I first wanted to go vegan, about two years before I actually did it, I at first tried to cut out dairy products other than milk, as I didn't consume very much of those, and I thought it would be easier to take that smaller step first. That didn't work--it was only when I stopped drinking milk from one day to the next that later cutting out cheese and yoghurt was extremely easy. For me, it took taking what seemed then the more radical, more fundamental step first.

I used to drink an enormous amount of milk, litres every day

Wow, just reading this makes me gag.