Teese vegan cheese alternative
Disclaimer: Chicago Soydairy contacted me several weeks ago regarding my sticky experience with their Dandies Vegan Marshmallows. They wanted to send me a couple of complimentary packages of marshmallows and were also kind enough to include a package of their mozzarella Teese Vegan Cheese. In a future post I’ll talk more about the marshmallows.
It is an oft-said thing that commercially produced vegan cheese is terrible, tastes like and has an overall plastic-like quality about it, and that one will never spend another $5 on it ever again. It rarely melts, usually in favor of sweating instead. It is chewy, not squeaky. Above all else, it does not taste like cheese.
Whenever I begin to notice some rumblings on the Internet about the Holy Grail of cheeses having been found, my curiosity is piqued and I read about it, then salivate for a couple of years. This is pretty much what happened when I started to hear about Teese. Everywhere I read I saw people raving about it and showing off their delicious, vegan cheesy pizzas. The problem? It wasn’t sold anywhere close to me. Even now it is only in select places in my geographic region – so I was very excited to know I would finally be trying Teese.
My first observations
When I first received the package from Chicago Soydairy, I was surprised to see the way the Teese Vegan Cheese was packaged. It came in a log shape, and was essentially shrink-wrapped. I used a knife to slice off the end, and then was able to unwrap the rest of the cheese.
The cheese itself is very white, and smooth. Upon cutting a slice I realized how much it mimics the apperance of a fresh mozzarella slice, although it does not have the stringy consistency of real mozzarella. When sliced it holds together pretty well, however it is very easy to break it in half. Teese can also easily be mashed up, so it becomes a little more like ricotta.
Mozzarella Teese Vegan Cheese
The taste and texture of Teese on its own
After opening up the package of Teese I had a quick taste of it by itself. The taste reminds me a lot of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, with a hint of an imitation butter flavor. It doesn’t really taste like cheese, but I can say that the flavor is a huge improvement over most vegan cheeses I have tried. As far as the texture is concerned, it is very slightly gritty, yet mostly smooth.
Baking with Teese
Because so many people have talked about how great Teese is on pizza, I decided to make pizza with it. I used the pizza dough recipe from Convivial.
First I topped my pizza with my crushed tomatoes, green and black olives, mushrooms and onions, then because I don’t have a grater, I decided to put slices of Teese on my pizza.
Teese veggie pizza ready to go into the oven
I baked the pizza for probably a total of about 15-20 minutes, which I assumed would allow the Teese cheese to melt. But I discovered that it didn’t melt as much as I had expected, and the cheese still had the indentations of the knife even after it had melted a little bit.
The Teese cheese melted a little bit
That said, I have made a couple of pizzas since and have dotted them with much smaller pieces of the cheese, and they melted much better and also seemed to be a little more cheese-like and chewy in consistency.
The taste of the baked Teese cheese is a little more mild than its “raw” variety, and it really was a compliment to the other flavors of the pizza.
Teese vegan cheese pizza
Verdict
Even though Teese still doesn’t taste like real cheese to me, I do think that this is a vast improvement over most of the vegan cheeses on the market today. It has a nice mild flavor, and the texture is interesting both raw and when baked. And it does melt – but I need to experiment more to get it to melt even more. Of course, I still have a little left over so I will be curious to see how the Teese holds up in other recipes. Because of its raw ricotta consistency I imagine it might do really well in vegan lasagna, and it would be nice to see how it melts in a grilled cheese sandwich.
Although I have yet to see it in any of my favorite grocery stores, I am seeing online that the price is similar to other vegan cheeses – about $4.50+/- for a 10-ounce package. While it is not too expensive, I believe the price is still not low enough for many to warrant frequent purchase of it.
At the end of the day, I would recommend that you try it. If you’re skeptical it’s just going to be like all the other cheeses out there, give this one a chance and you might be happily surprised.
Have you tried Teese? How do you like it?
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You’ve gotta try Daiya, that stuff is good. Not a fan of teese.
I’ve never tried a pre-packaged vegan cheese. I guess I just don’t miss it enough to spend $5 on something that I hear has a tendency to be disappointing. I also try to stay away from things that are overly processed, which most vegan versions of things like cheese are.
Vegan Yum Yum has a really good cheese recipe though. I absolutely love it. And there’s no flour in it! I use it for mac and cheese, queso, veggie dip and even had success with it as a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s really versatile too, in case you’re out of tahini or miso or carrots (you don’t necessarily need them). Here’s the link: http://veganyumyum.com/2009/01/mac-cheeze-take-2/.
On pizza, when I feel like having something extra on it, I use Veganomicon’s cashew ricotta.
If you ever get down to Portland go to Dove Vivi. They have really good vegan cornmeal pizza, and they use a tofu ricotta type cheese too.
I’ve tried Teese and wasn’t a fan. Daiya on the other hand is amazing!
I don’t get it. Why do we have to try to replicate dairy cheese? I agree that most people are addicted to it and feel they can’t give up the fat/puss/cholesterol/dopamine/BFG-1/antibiotics/fecal matter/& all the rest of the toxins that are in their beloved hard and melt-able cheese.
When someone wants to become healthy … isn’t it better to give them options of healthy whole foods that haven’t been “bastardized” to give the texture etc. of the unhealthy product they really need to stop eating?
Once shown that there is so much to eat, not expensive, easy and fast to prepare whole foods that have all the nutrients that our body needs to heal and be healthy without the “enrichment” or “enhanced” unknown ingredients. Plus whole foods have NO cholesterol and lots of fiber (there is none in any animal products – no wonder the USA is constipated!) besides oil be added to everything!
Jo Stepaniak’s recipes in the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbooks (and many others) use all healthy products to make your own uncheez that is delicious and leaves no desire for the animal products. NO Oil is necessary either. I have tried all these recipes and they are delicious and all my guests both vegan and meat eaters love them.
Thanks
I understand your train of thought Barbara, but I admit that I am one of those people that really loves real cheese and that is the main thing that I have missed. I’m fine with not having real ice cream, milk or yogurt, and overall I am pretty happy with the wholesome, homemade vegan foods I have been eating. But cheese has been a tough one. Several years ago I ran across a vegan cheese recipe that we have been making faithfully when we have nachos or Mexican, and it has been an excellent stand-in. Still, there’s something about the flavor and texture of real cheese that just hasn’t quite been replicated yet.
All of that said, for myself personally, I rarely buy vegan cheese. I have only purchased Daiya once and received this package of Teese for free from Chicago Soydairy. I can’t even remember the last time I purchased another vegan cheese because most of it has proven to be terrible – and like you say, just be a bunch of chemicals and lackluster ingredients! I don’t advocate people purchasing this on a regular basis, but I think it’s nice to splurge on occasion if one is okay with it.
In the end, I appreciate you sharing your point of view, and I think that we could all strive for healthier diets. And I think that you bring up an excellent point that just because one follows a technically vegan diet, they may not be healthy. Being healthy is a daily challenge for many of us – not because we can’t be healthy, but because we have to want to be healthy!
Teese is OK but I wholeheartedly prefer Daiya! My local Whole Foods even makes vegan pizzas with the Daiya and it is incredible! Give that a whirl. :)
Can’t wait to hear about the marshmallows!
I tried Daiya for the first time a few months ago and also loved it! I tried making a grilled cheese sandwich with it, and while it wasn’t spot on, I really did like it. It tastes a lot like those imitation cheese slices from my childhood, though. It’s sold close to me so I am probably going to be more likely to buy Daiya more frequently than Teese just because of ease of purchase (although Daiya is far more expensive!).
Thank you so much for the step-by-step pictures and critique. This is something I will definitely try. Looks like we can buy it in Oakland or San Francisco.
I really love Teese in grilled cheese or quesadillas! I make them in the George Foreman for ease.
I thought it tasted… wet. I tried it early on, though – maybe it’s gotten better. I still have not found a good vegan cheese.
I did hear that earlier Teese melted into more of a liquid, and that they recently modified it to hold together better. I saw that on the Internet, though, and not from the source.
I haven’t tried baking with Teese (though I think I’ve had it raw) but my best luck with getting any vegan cheese to melt is to shred it very small and to turn the broiler on for the last few minutes of baking. This usually produces gooey, golden results.