Today’s prompt for JusJoJan is “cheese.”
Cheese is one of the things that makes it hard for me to be vegan. That and seafood. I can be vegan for lent, but so far, not forever. There’s a book called, Breaking the Food Seduction, by Dr. Neal Barnard, MD which explains the addictive nature of cheese. I heard Dr. Barnard speak about this at a convention years ago.
There are many vegan cheeses, and I have not tried them all. Some are better than others. I believe they are getting better. My husband David doesn’t like the vegan cheeses I’ve tried, but he’s okay with this cheesy vegan chickpea sauce I’ve been experimenting with. It tastes kinda like cheese and works well for casseroles, pot pies and scalloped potatoes.
Chickpea Cheese Sauce:
¾ cup Chickpeas (canned or home cooked with liquid)
¾ cup Non-Dairy Milk (almond milk, oat milk or other, plain and unsweetened)
¼ cup Nutritional Yeast
1 clove Large Garlic
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Turmeric
¼ teaspoon Black Pepper (ground)
1 tablespoon Fresh Chives (snipped)
Mix it in a food processor or blender.
I tend to be creative and relaxed about measurement and use one can of chickpeas, extra garlic or garlic salt, and added a few tablespoons of olive oil. I used this sauce inside my Christmas lasagna and it worked well. But I confess to using real cheese from whole foods on top of the lasagna. I asked the whole foods cheese person about the most humane cheese they had since they didn’t have any that was “humane certified.” She said she’d visited the farm of the brand I used, and they seemed to care a lot about the cows. I am a work in progress.
My next venture is to figure out how to thicken the chickpea sauce for a pizza. (no oil?) I’m not going to use tomato sauce, but plan to put sliced tomatoes on top of the chickpea cheese sauce. We’ll see….
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For more information on Just Jot January, visit out host, Linda Hill at the link below. Linda has shared some fun fictional tidbits for JusJoJan. It’s never too late to jump in!
#JusJoJan prompt the 10th – “Cheese” | (lindaghill.com)
Anything is Possible! 
January 10, 2021 at 1:11 pm
I have been less partial to cheese the older I have become
January 10, 2021 at 8:18 pm
Our bodies give us clues – sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious – about what we need to function well. You must be paying attention. 🙂
January 11, 2021 at 1:37 am
🙂
January 10, 2021 at 3:23 pm
Cheese was the last thing I reluctantly had to give up, following my doctor’s recommendation for lowering my high cholesterol level. It made so many meals more tasty!
January 10, 2021 at 8:21 pm
It is tempting, but I’m glad we have more options than in the past.
January 10, 2021 at 4:43 pm
Mary tried vegan cheese once. It was the last time, fortunately…
January 10, 2021 at 8:31 pm
Yeah. Some of it’s strange. Maybe some day there will be a better alternative. After all, they can put a man on the moon….
April 23, 2021 at 9:06 am
It’s good that you are on the journey away from cheese, every journey begins with a single step.
You will get past that cheese addiction eventually, just like any addiction, it’s difficult but do-able. Depending on the substitutions is not always possible, sometimes it’s necessary to find other things instead of cheese altogether, rather than trying to substitute it.
You can do it!
Just remember that cows die in the production of dairy. They are impregnated every year to keep them producing milk, and when they give birth to boy cows, the boys are sent to slaughter. The females are also only kept alive as long as they keep making more milk. When they slow down, they’re sent to slaughter. While they’re alive they aren’t happy either, because their babies are being stolen, so they are heart broken every year, subjected to the discomfort of pregnancy and the misery of grief from losing their babies. Thinking about that will help you not to buy cheese any more, and you’ll find you get over your addiction soon enough.
Don’t feel guilty, you were told that the cows are happy, so up to this point it was not your fault. But now you know these things, you can move forward and save lives every day! 🙂
You can do it! 😀
April 23, 2021 at 7:27 pm
Thank you for reminding me of these horrors, Isadora. It is all terrible, but the stealing and slaughter of the babies gets to me every time. I appreciate your encouragement!