Italian vegan cheese guide
Looking for (Italian) vegan cheese? You’ve come to the right place! Here are my top vegan cheeses such as parmesan, mozzarella, gorgonzola to blow away your friends, family and yourself! Say, no more, to plastic-like parmesan for your pasta’s and gummy mozzarella.
What is vegan cheese?
Vegan cheese is cheese that is 100% free from any animal products. Most of the vegan cheeses that we are blessed with today are made out of nuts, oils, seeds or legumes. In this blogpost the cheeses are mostly made out of chickpeas, coconut oil, cashews and a whole lot of love.
When we think about Italian food, we think about cheese. Nothing better than a simple pasta with grated parmesan or a caprese salad with tomato and mozzarella right? At least that’s what I missed when going vegan. That’s why I did a whole lot of research and tasting to find the perfect cheese to my pasta. And as an Italian cook, who has a very traditional father, it was very adventurous and tricky. But I can proudly say I found the best vegan Italian cheeses out there! And yes they are approved by my Italian dad. ;)
So let’s dive into this guide so you can enjoy these delicious cheeses too!
First up!
Gondino parmesan.
This parmesan is literally my holy grail. Our restaurant Spritz can’t function without it.
It’s made out of chickpeas and coconut oil and it needs to ripe or age for a while just like dairy parmesan and I don’t know how they do it but they are doing something very very very right.
Where to buy? You can buy this cheese (in Belgium) at our restaurant Spritz, at Vegaliano and Veggie4U. For other countries you could try and google ‘gondino stagionato’. I’ve seen some online shops in France, Italy and Germany who carry this cheese.
Cashew Heart Burrata.
This vegan mozzarella/burrata cheese is made from cashew nuts and is available in 2 styles. A more firmer mozzarella style cheese ball or a mozzarella ball with a soft centre to recreate the dairy burrata cheese. Both are delicious, but my favorite is the burrata style one. It’s called ‘cashew heart’. This cheese melts perfectly on top of pizza or oven dishes. But even ‘raw’ as a caprese salad it’s delicious.
Where to buy? Again for my Belgian friends you can find this cheese at Vegaliano. In other countries I’ve found an Italian and french webshop.
Almond milk ricotta.
Aaaah my favorite cheese, ricotta. It’s perfect for salads, bruschette, pasta’s, pizza and so much more. I literally love ricotta so much that I sometimes use it as a substitute for my yogurt in the morning. Especially in summer it’s delicious with a bunch of seasonal fruit and agave or maple syrup. I’m so ready for summer!
The best thing about this ricotta is that you can make it at home. It’s super easy and it requires only 4 ingredients. Almonds, water, lemon and salt. You can find the full written recipe here.
Gorgonzola.
This blue cheese will be the one that will blow your and everybody else’s socks off! When I gave some to my parents to try they even thought it was dairy gorgonzola.
The strong gorgonzola taste is given by careful fermentation and ageing for three weeks by my colleagues over at the vegan butchers choice in Brussels.
Where to buy? This cheese is exclusively available in the webshop from the vegan butcher and is very limited in stock but so much worth the wait. Shop here.
Alternatively the blue cheeses from the black cow shop are also very good.
And voila! This was my small but delicious Italian cheese guide. I hope you like it and try some or all of them. Let me know how you find them, my instagram inbox is always open!
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