Sunday, August 30, 2009

Daiya is the O'Doul's of cheese

There's queso on my quesadilla! No really, it's vegan cheese, but it's cheese. Daiya cheese melts, is stringy, and tastes really, really good. You've seen me make "ninjadilla" before-since I couldn't really call them quesadillas without the cheese-and I would have sworn that they didn't need the cheese. I was wrong. It's even better with the daiya. I used cheddar flavored daiya on the quesadilla. Who cares what the rest of the filling is it's freakin' cheesy...but in case you do care, it's black beans, tomatillo salsa, and rice. On the side is chipotle vegenaise, and some awesome Zukay salsa.
OK, now for the vegan meat lover's pizza. This was killer. Well, without any animals being actually killed. I used the Italian style daiya, field roast apple sage sausage, and Yves pepperoni. Melty cheese, spicy peperoni, and meaty sausage, and yes, it's totally vegan. Compared with any boxed freezer pizza, this would definitely fool an omni. The daiya cheese is almost buttery and tastes shockingly like cheese.

I've got a bazillion veggies from the CSA that I really should be eating instead of vegainzing freakin' meat lover's pizzas. Don't worry though, there's some eggplant and zucchini snuck into the sauce, and fried eggplant is great on the pizza, too. Sometimes it's just satisfying to make something inherently meaty totally meatless.

Daiya is a little hard to come by just yet (some of the NYC vegan restaurants like Candle 79 and Blossom are serving it) and I ordered mine online from pangea the vegan store. You can also order it from Cosmo's vegan shop.

9 comments:

It's All In The Blog said...

i cant wait to try this cheese
jessi and i are gonna order some
as soon as our ship comes in hahah

vegan.in.brighton said...

I'm very excited about this cheese, I cannot wait for it to be sold in the UK.

Tami said...

We just tried it for the first time last night, too.... the italian style on pizza. And we said 'buttery', too! Good stuff!

nora said...

Gosh, I need to try Daiya! I heard that zpizza's are now carrying them as their soy cheese, so that might be my best shot! :)

For the Love of Guava said...

haha... okay... I never even liked meat lover's pizza as an omni and I'd totally kill for that!!! (you know without the killing :)

Jen said...

belated congrats on your veggie award and that queso dilla looks darn tasty. i'm still fixated on dallas vegans entry about bleu cheese, though. i'm dying to make some mock dressing for my seitanic buffalo wings.

miss v said...

i hadn't heard of it, but any "cheese" that melts is gold in my book!

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

i've heard this daiya stuff be compared to cheesly which puts me off but it looks so awesome and seems to be getting rave reviews!

hope they bring it to the uk soon.

VeganBride.com said...

Thanks fpr this! I've tried mozzarella daiya, & was SHOCKED by how well it melted!! I didn't LOVE the TASTE of it though...:( it DID taste like cheese...just not mozzarella, maybe some other kind like muenster or something?? (It also reminded me of the cheese that used t be on frozen pizzas or pizza you'd get at the county fair) but nonetheless, aside from the exact flavor, I was so encouraged to happen upon a vegan cheese that actually behaved like-CHEESE!
I heard that the cheddar flavor is really good, have you tried it?? We;re planning on having mini grilled cheeses served at our wedding & REALLY want the food to be unbelievably show-stopping since the crowd will be mostly skeptical carnivores. Have you tried the cheddar? Does anyone know if it tastes close to reg cheddar , or have any suggestions?? What about"quizzly cheese (or something like that I've also heard about>:)
Thanks!
:) Candy