When I was a kid, cheese was one of my few food groups and I had it almost every day (could explain a lot!), my favourite staple food was cheese sandwiches that I would take to school. So it is no surprise that this was something I struggled to replace and for years I just went without it completely.
Recently after becoming a fully fledged vegan and steering completely away from dairy, I started to look at alternatives and try some out. They had always been pretty rubbery and very un-cheeselike, with little to no melt which is the definition of not being cheese!
This is before I discovered the delight of the Violife family.
Since the discovery I have been able to reignite a few favourites, some without photos but all have been a great addition to the meal. Mostly I use it on pizzas, add it to burger patties or use the spreadable on crisp breads or rice cakes.
My most recent favourite use of the cheese has been to top my new Lasagne-A, the cheese only melts well in certain dishes and this was definitely one of the better ones. So now it's time for my full review...
Availability of Product:
This has been moving in a good direction over the past year or so, the basic cheese block, slices and spreadable cheese are available in a lot of your usual supermarkets (Asda and Tesco have the better selection). Wholefoods and Holland & Barrett have a wider selection in most of their stores, H&B is where I would normally go to get my Violife needs.
For this growing trend I won't give them full marks as you do have to visit multiple stores in order to get everything you need but I will give them a good mark.
8/10
Quality of Taste:
In my opinion Violife Cheese tastes just like normal cheese, however I haven't eaten cheese in about 7 years so maybe I don't have the best information for this!
Some of the cheese although stated that it "melts great" doesn't always, so I find that using the mozzarella version is better when I need a good melt, although it is harder to get your hands on.
The spreadable cheese is of a great consistency, it spreads well yet it doesn't have that strong of a taste with competitors such as Sainsbury's own brand being a lot more full of flavour. At the end of the day it comes down to personal taste, I prefer the Violife version and it is the one I will buy before all others.
8/10
Easiness to Cook:
With the product being cheese, it doesn't really need much preparation. The only thing I will say is that you need to cook the cheese for the perfect amount of time in order for it to melt properly.
I hope that Violife cheese continue to improve their range and put their products in more shops. As you can see, I am quite a fan. I usually only have 1 or 2 things at a time but after a visit to Asda and Wholefoods in the same week I am inundated with it all!
If you are Vegan or Dairy Intolerant and haven't yet tried it, this needs to change! It will help you have lazy dinners whilst also boosting the more exciting dishes!
Keep up the good work Violife!