Since I just bought Daiya, and Harry and I want to make pizza, I thought I'd share my friend Barna's review of Daiya in which he makes... pizza! After, I'm including a link to his video on making vegan pizza.
Below is an ad that is said to show Daiya's cheese-like qualities. I think it's a little over-exaggerrated, but that's okay if this tastes good.
Thank you, Barna, and ETHICAL PIZZA!
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009
The Daiya Review
Daiya is a new vegan cheese that we have been hearing about for months now. Actually "hearing about" is an understatement; this product seems to have developed something of a cult following with people singing its praises left and right. Daiya will supposedly change the world, if you can believe it. It is supposed to taste and melt better than any other vegan cheese. And, at last, it also is supposed to achieve the as-yet unachievable: stretchy vegan cheese.
Rainbow Grocery now sells Daiya, so naturally, I wanted to see what the fuss is about and recently picked up two half-pound tubs of it.
At $10 / lbs, Daiya is in about the same price range as other vegan cheeses (for two of my 14" pizzas, I use about half a pound of vegan cheese). It is primarily made of a variety of vegetable starches and fats, and contains no soy. The Daiya I bought came in shredded form. I'm not sure if this is how it is sold by Daiya or if it's Rainbow that did the shredding. In any case, it was a nice touch and made for slightly quicker assembly of the pizzas.
Daiya's raw taste is startling -- to me it tastes exactly like dairy cheese, to the point of prompting me to do a double-check to make sure that Daiya is indeed all-vegan (it is).
Anyway, here are some pizza shots:
When baked, Daiya melts very nicely. It is neither watery nor tough, but bakes up to just the right consistency. Because of this, it seems more foolproof than some other vegan cheeses. Baked Daiya tastes really good. It does indeed stretch some, and it has a rich, creamy mouthfeel and sticks to your palate a little bit. I do think that it comes close to dairy cheese, but then again it has been about a decade since I have last had dairy cheese (something I'm very glad about).
To sum it up, Daiya will be a strong contender in the vegan cheese market. It is an excellent vegan cheese for pizzas. I can see that a lot of research went into it, and I appreciate the fact that despite this, it is not expensive. Daiya's greatest strength to me, ironically, is its raw form. I can say that I haven't tasted anything quite like it and I can see myself making sandwiches with raw Daiya. And I am looking forward to more experiments with it in the oven and pan as well.
Will Daiya change the world, though? Not really. The truth is that other vegan cheeses such as Vegan Gourmet, Teese, Cheezly or Sheese also perform and taste excellent. I have gotten rave reviews for my pizzas from vegans and non-vegans alike, before Daiya came along. Daiya is really good, but really not all that much better than the rest, and it will be interesting to see if and how the others in the market respond to it.
The stretchiness factor of Daiya is a nice gimmick and indeed surprising / unusual at first -- but the excitement wore off quickly with me. (And truth be told, it's not as stretchy as the pictures on the Daiya website would make you believe. Or maybe I didn't bake it right.) I guess I don't have much of a fetish to replicate animal products as much as I am pursuing great tasting vegan creations. But if replicating dairy cheese exactly is important to you, then you should give Daiya a try - it may bring you closer to nirvana.
Another nice thing about Daiya is the fact that it contains no soy. If you're allergic or are baking for someone who is, you now have a great vegan cheese to use.
I think my wife summed Daiya up well with "It is pretty cool but it doesn't make you go, 'OMG my life is changed forever!'". And so it should be. If you look beyond the hype, Daiya is just one new product in a market that has seen a lot of interesting developments in the last few years. These are exciting times for vegans and my hope is that vegan manufacturers will keep innovating -- both as competitors and as a community.
http://www.ethicalpizza.com/2008/09/ethical-pizza-video.htmlThe Daiya Review
Daiya is a new vegan cheese that we have been hearing about for months now. Actually "hearing about" is an understatement; this product seems to have developed something of a cult following with people singing its praises left and right. Daiya will supposedly change the world, if you can believe it. It is supposed to taste and melt better than any other vegan cheese. And, at last, it also is supposed to achieve the as-yet unachievable: stretchy vegan cheese.
Rainbow Grocery now sells Daiya, so naturally, I wanted to see what the fuss is about and recently picked up two half-pound tubs of it.
At $10 / lbs, Daiya is in about the same price range as other vegan cheeses (for two of my 14" pizzas, I use about half a pound of vegan cheese). It is primarily made of a variety of vegetable starches and fats, and contains no soy. The Daiya I bought came in shredded form. I'm not sure if this is how it is sold by Daiya or if it's Rainbow that did the shredding. In any case, it was a nice touch and made for slightly quicker assembly of the pizzas.
Daiya's raw taste is startling -- to me it tastes exactly like dairy cheese, to the point of prompting me to do a double-check to make sure that Daiya is indeed all-vegan (it is).
Anyway, here are some pizza shots:
When baked, Daiya melts very nicely. It is neither watery nor tough, but bakes up to just the right consistency. Because of this, it seems more foolproof than some other vegan cheeses. Baked Daiya tastes really good. It does indeed stretch some, and it has a rich, creamy mouthfeel and sticks to your palate a little bit. I do think that it comes close to dairy cheese, but then again it has been about a decade since I have last had dairy cheese (something I'm very glad about).
To sum it up, Daiya will be a strong contender in the vegan cheese market. It is an excellent vegan cheese for pizzas. I can see that a lot of research went into it, and I appreciate the fact that despite this, it is not expensive. Daiya's greatest strength to me, ironically, is its raw form. I can say that I haven't tasted anything quite like it and I can see myself making sandwiches with raw Daiya. And I am looking forward to more experiments with it in the oven and pan as well.
Will Daiya change the world, though? Not really. The truth is that other vegan cheeses such as Vegan Gourmet, Teese, Cheezly or Sheese also perform and taste excellent. I have gotten rave reviews for my pizzas from vegans and non-vegans alike, before Daiya came along. Daiya is really good, but really not all that much better than the rest, and it will be interesting to see if and how the others in the market respond to it.
The stretchiness factor of Daiya is a nice gimmick and indeed surprising / unusual at first -- but the excitement wore off quickly with me. (And truth be told, it's not as stretchy as the pictures on the Daiya website would make you believe. Or maybe I didn't bake it right.) I guess I don't have much of a fetish to replicate animal products as much as I am pursuing great tasting vegan creations. But if replicating dairy cheese exactly is important to you, then you should give Daiya a try - it may bring you closer to nirvana.
Another nice thing about Daiya is the fact that it contains no soy. If you're allergic or are baking for someone who is, you now have a great vegan cheese to use.
I think my wife summed Daiya up well with "It is pretty cool but it doesn't make you go, 'OMG my life is changed forever!'". And so it should be. If you look beyond the hype, Daiya is just one new product in a market that has seen a lot of interesting developments in the last few years. These are exciting times for vegans and my hope is that vegan manufacturers will keep innovating -- both as competitors and as a community.
Rainbow Grocery now sells Daiya, so naturally, I wanted to see what the fuss is about and recently picked up two half-pound tubs of it.
At $10 / lbs, Daiya is in about the same price range as other vegan cheeses (for two of my 14" pizzas, I use about half a pound of vegan cheese). It is primarily made of a variety of vegetable starches and fats, and contains no soy. The Daiya I bought came in shredded form. I'm not sure if this is how it is sold by Daiya or if it's Rainbow that did the shredding. In any case, it was a nice touch and made for slightly quicker assembly of the pizzas.
Daiya's raw taste is startling -- to me it tastes exactly like dairy cheese, to the point of prompting me to do a double-check to make sure that Daiya is indeed all-vegan (it is).
Anyway, here are some pizza shots:
When baked, Daiya melts very nicely. It is neither watery nor tough, but bakes up to just the right consistency. Because of this, it seems more foolproof than some other vegan cheeses. Baked Daiya tastes really good. It does indeed stretch some, and it has a rich, creamy mouthfeel and sticks to your palate a little bit. I do think that it comes close to dairy cheese, but then again it has been about a decade since I have last had dairy cheese (something I'm very glad about).
To sum it up, Daiya will be a strong contender in the vegan cheese market. It is an excellent vegan cheese for pizzas. I can see that a lot of research went into it, and I appreciate the fact that despite this, it is not expensive. Daiya's greatest strength to me, ironically, is its raw form. I can say that I haven't tasted anything quite like it and I can see myself making sandwiches with raw Daiya. And I am looking forward to more experiments with it in the oven and pan as well.
Will Daiya change the world, though? Not really. The truth is that other vegan cheeses such as Vegan Gourmet, Teese, Cheezly or Sheese also perform and taste excellent. I have gotten rave reviews for my pizzas from vegans and non-vegans alike, before Daiya came along. Daiya is really good, but really not all that much better than the rest, and it will be interesting to see if and how the others in the market respond to it.
The stretchiness factor of Daiya is a nice gimmick and indeed surprising / unusual at first -- but the excitement wore off quickly with me. (And truth be told, it's not as stretchy as the pictures on the Daiya website would make you believe. Or maybe I didn't bake it right.) I guess I don't have much of a fetish to replicate animal products as much as I am pursuing great tasting vegan creations. But if replicating dairy cheese exactly is important to you, then you should give Daiya a try - it may bring you closer to nirvana.
Another nice thing about Daiya is the fact that it contains no soy. If you're allergic or are baking for someone who is, you now have a great vegan cheese to use.
I think my wife summed Daiya up well with "It is pretty cool but it doesn't make you go, 'OMG my life is changed forever!'". And so it should be. If you look beyond the hype, Daiya is just one new product in a market that has seen a lot of interesting developments in the last few years. These are exciting times for vegans and my hope is that vegan manufacturers will keep innovating -- both as competitors and as a community.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2008
Vegan Pizza: The Video
[[I originally made this video for the website SFVegan, but I plan to make an Ethical Pizza version of it as well.]
How To Make Vegan Pizza from Barna on Vimeo.
How To Make Vegan Pizza from Barna on Vimeo.
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