Loving Hut’s ‘Aussie Vegan Cheddar Cheese’
Nutritional yeast flavoured melty cheese
Pros: Melts, slices easily, grates
Cons: Slightly too hefty nooch flavour, turns oily when out for short periods of time
I ordered this cheese late in 2014, having been alerted by a Perth company that it was new on the market. This Western Australia made cheese is the solid block counterpart to the Aussie Vegan spreadable cheese, made by the same company (food chain Loving Hut Perth, Vegan Make Peace, who also make Notzarella — you can see their logo on the top of the label).
They call this one their ‘artisan’ dairy free cheese, so I’m assuming it’s a handmade cheese. I’m told it’s available now in some IGAs in Western Australia, but the rest of us can likely order it, as I did, from Vegan Online (though as of checking it seems that they’re out of stock). The internet also reveals that businesses can order it from Devings, which the back of the pack lists as the distributor. It’s fantastic to see another Australian vegan cheese on the market and I hope it does the rounds effectively to the other states.
Upon first viewing, I was surprised how much it reminds me of Notzarella. It’s spongey and slightly greasy but with a more orange-yellow intense colour — sort of like a firm tofu texture. It’s stronger in flavour than, say, Bio Cheese, but is softer in texture. It’s certainly oily. As this was mailed to me, it was kept out of refrigeration other than the cool pack it comes with more than I’d like. As you can perhaps tell from the pictures, the oil even leaked out onto the labels and the cheese appeared to ‘crack’ in some way, though it wasn’t dry and instead was actually a little damp on the outside of the cheese.
It grates and slices beautifully and the dampness seemed to not be in an issue, though I noticed that it does crumble up substantially if you play with it too much. The pack suggests that you should enjoy it sliced or melted. So I put it to the test in a typical toastie after trying it on its own. As you can see from the pictures, it stands up to both the smaller ‘parmesan’ type of grating and the thicker grating quite well.
When I tried it raw, it was unsurprisingly quite like the spreadable cheese, if a little subtler. The overwhelming flavour is nutritional yeast (as is the smell) and it’s soft, almost like a spreadable cheese, when you bite into it. It reminds me of my homemade cannellini bean cheese and when considering the ingredients (listed below, but including miso, nooch and oil), it’s unsurprising. It’s good that they have considered the umami flavours, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a good vegan cheese by default.
When sliced up it melts best and did go beautifully runny in the sandwich. It wasn’t sticky so much as it was a little gooey, but I found it to be fabulous. It is worth noting that visually when it melts it isn’t so appealing, almost separating in appearance. This may mean that it’s not the best topper for a mac and cheese, perhaps being best placed within a cheesey dish rather than to show it off.
It’s lovely, but in texture I prefer Bio Cheese and in terms of cheddar flavour I’d likely opt for Daiya or Cheezly (many reviews yet to come). Effectively, if it was more easily available I would opt for it, but with Bio Cheese now in my local Melton deli I can’t see myself ordering this cheese from Perth (or Vegan Online in Adelaide) solely due to the convenience factor.
The price
$10.35 from Vegan Online, though some in Perth have bought it for around $7 or $8. There was also around $9 of shipping, but I bought a few other things as well. It’s a 250 gram block. The block suggests four serves per packet.
The ingredients
Water, organic soybeans, refined coconut oil (non-hydrogenated), nutritional yeast, miso, agar agar, guar gum, xanthan gum, sea salt, citric acid, safflower yellow, invert sugar, chilli (which are actually very similar to the Notzarella ingredients)
The nutritional value
There’s a substantial portion of fat in the cheese, including saturated fat, likely given the coconut oil content. However, the nooch also provides some B12. All in all, it’s not a health food product — but I think you already know that about most vegan cheeses.
