Thursday, October 21, 2010

Disappointed in Daiya

Lots of food-allergy blogging buddies have been sharing recipes with Daiya, a dairy-free alternative to cheese. I had been waiting for it to show up at my local health food store, and was very excited when it finally arrived.

I decided to make an allergen-free veggie pizza, with the mozzarella style Daiya. Made primarily from tapioca, arrowroot flour, pea protein, and oils (including coconut oil), this product is vegan, gluten-free, and top eight allergen-free (except for coconut). It boasts the ability to melt like traditional cheese, and it does. While you don’t get the stringy effect like traditional cheese, Daiya does provide a nice soft melted layer.

That said, my family was less than thrilled with the taste, which is more reminiscent of beans than cheese.

Despite being quite willing to try just about any new product, my son’s assessment was that he’d rather have had the pizza without the cheese. Oh well, you can’t win them all.



The pizza was made with Miss Roben’s pizza crust mix.

Have you tried Daiya yet? What did you think?

25TFFJSWVRWG

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't tried it, mainly because a vegan health store employee told me she found it disappointing. I don't miss cheese on my pizza -- I just use extra sauce and make a nice sauteed mushroom, garlic, wine, & herb topping.

Colette said...

Anonymous, it sounds like you have come up with a great solution!

Jean at The Delightful Repast said...

Colette, I haven't tried it yet. When I'm going dairy-free or cooking for some friends with definite milk allergy, I usually just skip cheese altogether. Was recently thinking about trying some soy cheese. Think I'll give this product a miss. On the other hand, I love the taste of beans.

Anonymous said...

FYI, Blog Jog Day will be November 21 if you're interested again. Last year was great! You can sign-up at http://blogjogday.blogspot.com

Colette said...

Jean, yup -- skipping the cheese is often the easiest answer!

Libby said...

I've never tried Daiya, because I've never found a vegan melting cheese that wasn't flat out disgusting!

For my son's dairy free pizzas, I spread garlic & herb flavor Tofutti "cream cheese" than cover it with sauce and toppings. (Thinly sliced zucchini is wonderful, btw.) It gives it a nice creaminess and cheesy flavor, even though it doesn't melt.

Colette said...

Libby, what a great idea for those who can have soy. Thanks for sharing!

Crystal said...

We were super excited when daiya came out and we tried daiya cheese according to a recipe that specifically called for it. I thought it was disgusting, my husband said he would prefer not to eat it again but my daughter (who has a dairy allergy and has never had real cheese) seemed to like it. Since she is still so young and doesn't know what she is missing, I will continue to buy it for her. Hopefully in the future she might outgrow her dairy allergy and can enjoy all the fabulous dairy products, until then its daiya cheese and coconut milk yogurt :)