Vegan cheese is a byproduct of the vegan culture. Vegan culture is a way of living where a person excludes every animal-based product from their living habit. It has different benefits that we will discuss here.
Cheese is a dairy product originally made from animal milk. It is one of the most popular products around the globe. But vegan people cannot eat that cheese as it is made up of animal milk, so they have substituted the dairy cheese with vegan cheese.
People are now more aware of the advantages of veganism. So, more people are opting vegan lifestyle. A vegan diet seems to be a more difficult part of veganism for people. It restricts a person from using animal-based food products. This need created an industry of vegan products, especially plant cheese.
Concept of Vegan cheese
Vegan cheese is a substitute of dairy vegan cheese. It is basically a cheese made from plant-based products like fruits, vegetables, and plant milk. Cheese is one of the food products dominated in many cuisines around the globe. This popularity made it important to find a substitute of it for vegan people.
There are many substitutes available for many animal-based products in nature. Every vitamin and mineral available in animal food can be obtained from plants. This availability of nutrients in the plants makes it possible to substitute it with animal excreted products.
Kinds of Vegan Cheese
There are huge varieties of plant cheese, you can get from market and some of them are listed down below:
- Mozzarella Cheese- It was originated in Italy, which is majorly used in pizzas and pastas.
- Gouda Cheese- It is a semi-solid cheese with intense flavor, majorly used in soups and macaroni.
- Cream Cheese- It is a mild flavor spreadable cheese used on sandwiches and many desserts too.
- Cheddar Cheese- It is a hard cheese, often come in orange color, and is a good source of vitamin K
- Ricotta Cheese- This cheese is a bit sweet in taste and often used in lasagna, ravioli, etc.
- Parmesan Cheese- It is one of the hard cheeses often used in spaghetti and another kind of pasta.
Why should we use Vegan Cheese?
There are several reasons you can find for using fruit cheese apart from using dairy-based cheese. But we have listed few of them below:
Healthier lifestyle
There are more health benefits of non-animals cheese than dairy-based cheese. Vegan cheese is very low in fats and unhealthy carbs than dairy-based cheese. Consuming more fats and carbs than requirement might result in your weight gain.
Vegetarian cheese is made up of vegetables and plant-based milk like almond milk. This helps people to lose weight and makes them healthier. It leads to increasing the industrial growth of vegan cheese.
Optimum utilization of land and water
Products that are made up of animal-based raw materials require a lot of water and land for their farming. There is a huge consumption of water and land in animal farming which contributes to the degradation of soil and the decline in the water level of the earth.
Vegan culture people believe that the land and water used in animal farming can be used in a more effective and efficient manner. So, to meet the environmental issues caused by animal farming, people are choosing a vegan lifestyle.
Saving animal from the brutality
This is the most important reason to opt for vegan products like vegetarian cheese. Animal-based products actually harm animals. There are many incidents of animal brutality and torture seen during animal farming.
So, choosing plant-based products can save animal’s lives. Vegan products can actually make a difference in stopping animal torture during animal farming.
The process and ingredients of vegan cheese
Vegan Cheese is made up of plant-based raw materials. The type of raw material depends on the type of cheese you want to make. It is important to know about all the raw materials that are generally used in the making of vegan cheese.
Some vegan cheese is made up of vegetables like carrots and potatoes. Another type of vegetarian cheese is made up of plant milk like almond milk, coconut milk, soya milk, etc. There are many other ingredients also used in making vegan cheese like herbs. All the mentioned ingredients are a few of the general ingredients in the making of vegan cheese.
Vegetables like carrot and potato are boiled and mashed, then sautéed in olive oil with other herbs and ingredients. The consistency of the plant cheese totally depends on the raw material used in its making. plant cheese is healthier than other cheese and is easily digestible. So, vegetarian cheese is basically healthy with taste.
To conclude
Increasing awareness among people around the globe about the benefits of choosing plant cheese is making buzz in the market. The health benefits which plant cheese offers is contributing to the increasing market of plant cheese.
There are many other factors that are leading the market of vegetarian cheese. The shift in the food habits of the people helps in the rapid growth of the plant cheese industry. North America produces the majority of vegetarian cheese and also consumes the majority of its production.
The vegan cheese industry has seen tremendous growth in few decades. It is due to the increasing awareness of people about the benefits of choosing vegetarian cheese over the dairy cheese.