This cheese loving vegetarian needs help!

[Melkonian718]

Hey all,

My name's Michael, and I've been a Vegetarian for around six years. My wife and I often talk about making the switch over to veganism completely, but one thing keeps getting in the way: Cheese! We're something of cheese connoisseurs, or at least fancy ourselves as much. Giving up meat was not really that difficult, but cheese really is. I understand that it isn't ethical to keep eating dairy products for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that you're still supporting the farming of animals that will eventually be slaughtered, but I just can't get over this hump. I can imagine never having a steak again, but going the rest of my life without smoked Gouda, aged Blue or even just a pizza from Dominos terrifies me!

Anyway, I figure that as a vegetarian atheist this is probably a good community to join. In general I'd like to eat healthier and would probably be better off without cheese clogging up my arteries anyhow. As I said above, I already understand the ethical reasons for veganism and agree with them. I guess more than anything I just need advice on how to successfully "veganify" my diet without lapsing back into my old dairy eating ways. Glad to be here and I look forward to the discussions on this forum!

Michael.

[blackbeanfanatic]

An ethical compromise would be dumpster diving, I understand that's not every layman's cup of tea, but I've often found kilos of good cheese thrown away outside of my local supermarket. Also, it's not like the goal of being vegan is to be vegan, it's reducing suffering, environmental impact (this is really my main reason), and improving health. Reducing diary intake is also a very good thing. Possibly you can make it a rare treat one or twice a year, or you can buy it from places where you know the cows are living good lives growing old. I know I'm having a real hard time giving up my smoked cheeses, and those blue cheeses too, I'm aching right here.
I'm a newbie-vegan, but yeah these are my suggestions.

Also, here's a recipe using a replacement for cheese on pizza, it's reeeaaally good: http://minimalistbaker.com/my-favorite-vegan-pizza/
Now I shall go and make myself a cheese-free calzone :'D

[brimstoneSalad]

The best rich cheese replacement is cultured nut cheeses. You can even make them yourself with lactofermentation.

Try this:

http://fermentedvegancheese.blogspot.co ... heese.html

An ethical compromise would be dumpster diving,

Absolutely. Freegan is usually morally equivalent to vegan, although it requires some knowledge of economics (since not all free things are freegan).

or you can buy it from places where you know the cows are living good lives growing old.

unfortunately, that's not realistic, since commercial farms (those that sell the product), are running a business. When the cow stops producing milk, she is killed (if too old to be impregnated again, or with declining productivity). There's no real way around that without serious losses of profit.
The only way to get products from animals that are allowed to grow old is from small family farmers, usually Hindu and in India, who don't sell much if any of those products, and so are not as worried about profit.

[knot]

Hi!

Try nutritional yeast. It's really good for making things cheese-y

[garrethdsouza]

There are loads of easy vegan cheese recipes and depending on your location there may also be commercially avaialble vegan cheese options. Check out the vegan food enthusiast group which has many cheese recipe suggestions and plenty of other vegan food recipes. https://www.facebook.com/groups/100963363316044/