Friday, October 17, 2008

Vegan MOFO Day 17 - The Cheezy Showdown



As we keep venturing down the vegan road, we have grown more curious about some products vegan products we keep seeing on the boards. I did a little review of soy curls yesterday. I find them amazing and revolutionary. I thought I should try another "substitute" for something eaten with abundance as an omni.

Tonight we had a little vegan cheeze taste test. I haven't really gotten into the vegan cheeze thing. I prefer non-processed stuff. I have been reading for months about the wonderous Teese. Well it just so happens there is one restaurant here in the Phoenix area that now sells it retail - Green Vegetarian in Scottsdale. So my sweetie made a road trip and picked some up for me.

First we grated them to see if there was a difference in the texture while grating. I didn't see any significant difference at that point in texture. Neither is great to eat cold, but Teese was much tastier in my opionon.



Next I rolled out pizza dough I made from Nonna's Italian Kitchen recipe. I made my own pizza sauce, sauteed some mushrooms and leftover gimme lean italian sausage (yes I know processed heaven tonight). I put a little cornmeal in the bottom of my iron skillet and threw the whole shootin' match into the oven. Unfortunately, I didn't read the instructions on the Teese. I put it in at a lower temp so it really took a long time to bake. No worries though. The Teese melted, but certainly not like dairy cheese. It was quite gooey underneath. Yum!





Next was the FYH quesadilla. We made this one with some fresh tortillas, sauteed onions, mushrooms and roasted hatch green chiles. There was a couple of those chiles that were hotter than hell, but so tasty.
I don't know if it was really a fair comparison. The dishes were so different. I have to say that I preferred the flavor and texture of the teese. The FYH was tasty, but was just more liquidy. I don't think I will be a huge faux cheese eater. But it is nice for something different.

4 comments:

  1. I just ate at Green tonight! My pick of restaurants for date night :] I saw a Teese log staring at me behind the glass...alas I resisted. I know I'll break down soon enough. Maybe 2-3 months ago, they had a Spinach and something Teese pizza as their special and it was tasty. You're right-not at all like dairy cheese, but tasty in its own right.

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  2. Yes, we like Teese better than FYH too. My favorite thing to do with it is Tofu666's mac and cheese recipe (on his blog) with some green chiles thrown in. Sheese from the UK is good, too. I have not had Cheezly yet.

    Do you have Joanne Stepaniak's Ultimate Uncheese Book? She's got some very tasty DIY recipes which, overall, I prefer to the commercial stuff (although Teese wins for pizza and mac-n-cheese).

    Locally, Journey to Bliss make a fermented soft "pistachio cheddar" that is fantastic (and refrigerated, so I can't ship - you'll have to visit!). I want to try Dr Cow's fermented hard nut cheese, but haven't yet.

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  3. I love Green. It is pretty close to my work, so when I can slip away for lunch (which is hardly ever). I love the argentine po' boy.

    john - I'm going to have to try that mac and cheese. I still have quite a stash of green chiles. I don't have the uncheese cookbook yet. I'm putting that on my wishlist with a few others for Christmas. I promised myself I woudn't buy anymore until I made at least a couple of things from each of the ones I already own. MMM that pistachio cheddar sounds heavenly. Not to self...make time to go see johnp!

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  4. i'm with you, vegan cheeze isn't my favorite. however, i think i'm a bigger fan of the cheddar style fyh, than the teese. teese seemed a lot like the white fyh to me, but i had trouble getting it to melt on some lasagna...

    xo
    kittee

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