Where does an ardent foodie like me hang out for fun?! No points for guessing that one of my favorite haunts is any kind of food market 🙂 – American, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, European (yes – on a trip to Switzerland, it was not the glaciers but a local organic food market that was my first stop – go figure!). All in the quest of yet another elusive food item that will make the mouth burst with flavors and the tummy do a little jig even if a person has food allergies! The allergy friendly food market has been making great strides in the recent past so it is a fun-packed adventure…
On one such jaunt through the natural food section of Wegmans, I came across packets of what seemed like allergy-friendly shredded cheese in no less than 3 flavors – pepperjack, mozzarella and cheddar. The packaging claimed that it was ‘delciously dairy free’ and ‘melts and stretches’ apart from being free of soy, nuts and gluten. Hmm – really?!? One of my pet peeves against vegan cheese is the gooey, unsightly mess that results once heated. So, this sounded too good to be true. Intrigued, I checked the ingredients and it was mainly made from tapioca and/or arrowroot and pea protein. Though the appearance seemed dry and lack-lustre compared to reglular cheese, I picked up a packet of Cheddar style daiya cheese. I also checked their website once home…yes, be thorough with your research when you pick up a new allergy-friendly food product. Being adventurous is important but being careful is even more so when dealing with food allergies! Loved the simple aesthetics of the website and the promise of wholesome and tasty vegan cheese…’revolutionary new dairy-free vegan product that shreds, melts, stretches and tastes delicious’ 🙂
I must say the cheddar style shreds lived up to its promise – the grilled cheese sandwich was quite a success with dad and son! Encouraged – I made a bold foray into the world of mac n cheese. The real taste test was when his friends who eat regular cheese tried it and gave it a double thumbs up 🙂 Yayy for the mom who made it but the real yayy goes to the ingredients used! Since then I have tried pepperjack style in mexican dishes especially quesadillas and the mozzarella style shreds on pasta and pizza and in pasta sauce, grilled sandwiches and lasagna.
Courtesy: All the pictures are taken from Daiya Foods website
Daiya has got it right – the cheese definitely gets a double thumbs up from me too. It makes me want to experiment and come up with new dishes which I will share in future blog posts – dips, appetizers, sauces and more!
The icing on the cake is seeing the pride and joy on my son’s face when he is able to take a bite of a grilled cheese or a cheese pizza just like his friends 🙂
To get further details about availability, recipe ideas and more visit their vibrant and user friendly website – http://www.daiyafoods.com/
Follow them on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/daiyavegancheese
Allergy Foodie 
On my Low Amine Recipes blog, I have created a free downloadable tool for people who like to cook, but have food allergies. My friends and I all have different food issues, so I have one set up for all of us.
Thought I would share the wealth and pass my useful cooking tool on to you.
Please use it and feel free to pass the link along to anyone else that might find it handy. I would love if you would link to it on your blog. It sounds like it could be really useful to your target audience. Good luck, and happy eating!
http://aminerecipes.com/cooking-with-allergic-friends/
Enjoy!
– Michelle Ferris
http://aminerecipes.com
We just tried this cheese and we have to agree. It’s yummy! My son has never had mac-n-cheese, so I made his first one ever with this cheddar cheese. He didn’t even like it. Go figure – he’s not a mac-n-cheese fan. 😦
Aah – same here 🙂 It took him a couple of attempts to get used to quesadillas but mac n cheese is still liked only in small quanitites. Surprisingly his fav is still Vegan Rella tho Daiya tastes much better! Unfortunately Vegan Rella supply is very iffy :-((