Go Veggie! Vegan Cheese

An embarassingly long time ago — um, January? — Go Veggie! sent me a very generous package of their vegan cheeses to try. But at the time, I was in the middle of a month-long cleanse. And then also around that time, I got in a number of other products to review. And, well, stuff just got behind. Really behind.

But over the past few months, I've been trying the cheeses (the slices and the vegan parm have a pretty long shelf life) in different ways. First, I worked my way through the vegan cream cheeses because those would expire soonest. They sent the Classic Plain, Chive and Garlic, and Strawberry.

One of my first post-cleanse meals in late January was a breakfast of an Ozery Bakery Bun with Go Veggie! Strawberry Cream Cheese Alternative and cranberry sauce. The strawberry cream cheese is very creamy, and it has a mild berry flavor. Good stuff.

The Chive & Garlic was my fave though. I'm just a savory kind of girl. I enjoyed it all kinds of ways — on bagels with hot pepper jam ...

On bagels with cucumbers ...

And in cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches!

I actually think the Go Veggie! cream cheese is the best on the market. Better than Tofutti and even Daiya! Go Veggie's other cheeses, which we'll get to in a minute, are second or third-tier compared to some of the other brands. But the cream cheese is spot-on. I find that it most resembles the taste of dairy cream cheese.

I wanted to spread the Classic Plain cream cheese on bagels, too, but I knew I needed some variety for this post. So I used it in Joni & Celine's Macaroni & Cheese recipe from Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites. Love this mac because it gets its creaminess from the cream cheese, and the Go Veggie is just perfect for this. In the book, you can find this recipe with the recipe for the fried mac 'n' cheese balls.

Go Veggie! also sent their slices in Cheddar, American, and Pepper Jack. Note that Go Veggie! does make some non-vegan cheeses, too. So, when you buy these, look for the word "vegan" in the top right corner. If you're looking for a place to buy the vegan slices, here is Go Veggie! store locator.

I used each of these in various ways, and while they're quite delicious, they're not my favorite slice on the market. I prefer Chao and Follow Your Heart slices, but these are okay. They remind me more of a vegan version of those Kraft American cheese slices I grew up with, while the Chao, FYH, and Daiya slices are more like fancy cheese. But sometimes, you need that basic Kraft-style slice.

I needed that for this Field Roast Hand-Formed Burger on Ezekiel Sprouted Grain. I used the Cheddar here, and it got all melty!

I also used the Cheddar slices to jazz up these Gardein Chick'n Sliders. Served with whole grain mustard. Yum! A fast-food classic.

And the American was perfect for my Breakfast Bagel Sandwich.

Somehow, I must have erased the pictures with the Pepper Jack from my phone, but, like I said, some of these were taken quite awhile ago. But the Pepper Jack was actually my fave, flavor-wise. It had just the right kick of spice.

Go Veggie! also sent me a package of their Mexican Shreds, but I opened the bag and started using them before I could get a picture! Here's what the package looks like.

These shreds had a nice kick of Mexican spice, and they melted quite well. I had some on a bowl of chili, and it really stepped my meal up a notch. 

They really do taste best when melted, but I enjoyed them cold too. The texture was a little waxy when cold, but that was sort of canceled out when the shreds were mixed into my taco salad. This had vegan beef, Fritos, Mexican shreds, guacamole, corn, vegan sour cream, and hot sauce.

Finally, they also sent me a canister of their Go Veggie! Grated Parmesan Style Topping.

LOVE THIS STUFF! It's really the only widely available vegan parm substitute on the market that actually tastes like parm. Some of the others, like Parma, are awesome, but they taste more like nooch. This one actually tastes like parmesan cheese. Perfect topper for my Spinach Linguine with Homemade Spaghetti Sauce!

In conclusion, I'll say that the best products were definitely the cream cheeses and the parm. Would buy those again and again. The slices are good for nostalgia, and sometimes you need that. And the Mexican shreds are original. No other company has a vegan cheese flavored quite like that, so it certainly fills a void.