Peace, Love & Vegetables ‘Curry Cashew Cream Cheese’
Nut-based curry-flavoured cheese dip
Pros: Australian-made, delicious, some of my favourite flavours, raw
Cons: More a dip than a cheese, fairly expensive
I have been a fan of Peace, Love & Vegetables for their dill cheese and krauts, so when I tripped in to Prahran Convenience I was very excited to see that they have another version — curry flavoured. The packaging is beautiful and the colour of the cheese is gorgeously bright. Curry is one of my favourite things to eat, so combining cheese and curry had me instantly ready to do a happy dance.
It’s made using “activated” cashew nuts. This means they’ve been soaked in water and salt for a period of time. I tried their activated garlic/dill one (after I reviewed the non-activated one) and I didn’t notice much of a difference other than that it seemed a bit lighter and not as dense. I actually prefer it dense, so it’s a bit of a shame (it seems more like a mousse than a spread). When you open it, it’s covered in a thin layer of very yellow (probably turmeric stained) oil, which keeps it fresh underneath.
I firstly tried it on its own (the scientific way, I suppose!) and it was quite strong. I also had it on a raw salad with lunch at work and in a cheese sandwich (with some bio cheese so it could be a melt). It’s tasty and does have a strong curry tang to it with a hint of spice… but it doesn’t really taste like cheese, it’s more like a curried hummus. The colour (from the tumeric) is great and the texture is nice too (thick and creamy), but I do tire of people blending cashews and calling it vegan cheese or nut cheese — cheese has a depth of flavour that has to be worked at to bring out the umami flavours. As much as I love this dip and will no doubt buy it again, it’s just not really representative of any cheese flavour. It was still beautiful on a hunk of gluten free bread and the spices gave it a warmth that I don’t normally get from nut dips.
I couldn’t really taste the nooch, which also meant it wasn’t that cheesey. Nutritional yeast is hard to balance with — it can either be far too much and overbearing or it’s hard to taste. It is amazingly smooth, though, which makes it really great on the palate.
It’s also hard to find the right applications for, short of having as a butter-replacement in sandwiches, as dip or just adding a spoonful of it onto a salad. For this reason, it’s not going to be a pantry staple for me. While a standard dill/garlic pale vegan cream cheese can be a nice replacement to boursin and complements nice light breads, mashed potato and even bechamel sauces, curried cream cheese overwhelms light flavours. It worked well in my raw salad, but I found that even a tablespoon of it in a big bowl really drowned out the delicate tastes of other lighter ingredients.
Salad Sauerkraut Broccoli Baby spinach Apple Avocado Fig (dried) Corn Kelp noodles Alfalfa sprouts Onion Habanero chilli Tomato Cucumber Carrot Curry cashew cream cheese
Dressing (blended) Cashew nuts Water Salt Garlic Coriander Ginger powder Lemon juice Nutritional yeast
It would probably go quite well added to a light curry sauce, or even eaten with samosas or something that demands that turmeric type flavour, but I wouldn’t add it to a platter or back into sandwiches any time soon. It would be a nice healthy dip with carrots and celery.
In effect, I scraped the jar clean with crackers. It was delicious, so that definitely gets it a thumbs up. But it won’t satisfy a cheese craving, so if you’re looking for something as your alternative to a dairy cheese then this isn’t it, sadly.
The price
It cost $9.60 for a 300 gram jar, 20 portions of 15 grams each and it keeps for quite a while — it’s best before 25 August 2015.
I think that’s a pretty good price from Prahran Convenience, but it spans wildly upwards in other shops. I’ve seen it online for north of $13, which I wouldn’t pay.
The ingredients
Activated cashews, turmeric, coriander, cumin, yellow mustard seed, fennel greek seed, black pepper, birds eye chilli, lemon, olive oil, nutritional yeast, Australian sea salt, L-planatarum culture
The nutritional value
It’s nut based, which means it’s usually quite fatty (but good oils). It’s raw, probiotic, GMO free, organic and gluten free. It didn’t leave me feeling gluggy.
