So I’ve been a veganish person for the past six years. I say veganish because I do eat eggs, I started again around a year ago. I also eat honey. But being very lactose intolerant, it’s usually easier to tell people I’m vegan than a lactose intolerant vegetarian… because then I’ll have to explain what that is. But I digress, being veganish has introduced me into the world of food alternatives for better or for worse. For the first few years I never ate any “fake meat” or “fake cheese” because the idea freaked me out, but then I found myself have texture cravings that I just wasn’t getting from my veggies. I wanted something meaty or creamy and it was driving me mad. So I experimented and satiated those cravings like crazy and haven’t really turned back. However, there is a lot of alternatives out there and a lot of them are awful, especially texture wise. But one brand that I can wholeheartedly praise and recommend is Daiya. They make plant based dairy alternative cheese products, and their cheese actually melts. I know that will sound horrifying to you normal cheese eating people, but for us veggies who can’t stomach the true and blue stuff, this is a major issue. Lots of vegan cheese just kind of gets warm and goopy, but won’t actually melt. Daiya melts into a gooey and rich mess of amazing.
A week ago I heard of something amazing. Daiya, my favorite non-dairy brand of deliciousness, had come out with yogurt. And not just yogurt, but Greek yogurt. It’s the holy grail of yogurt. Thick and creamy and packing a punch with plant based protein, I cannot tell you how excited I was. And of course, I couldn’t find it anywhere. It was new, of course it wouldn’t be in my little satellite city! But low and behold, I found it. I may have screamed.
Most vegan yogurt leaves a lot to be desired: it’s watery, it’s basically just empty carbs and calories, and it’s kind of gross. I’ve tried a lot of vegan yogurt, desperately trying to find something for my morning that had the protein I wanted and needed but also the taste. Coconut and almond yogurt were tasty, but thin, and had no protein really to speak of. Soy yogurt, specifically Silk, was my go to for the past year because it actually had protein… but there was also the issue of it being soy. There’s a lot out there on the mighty plant that is in practically everything, and not a lot of it is positive. It’s a filler for so much of our food and, like most things, too much of it is not good for you, especially us ladies. Yes, I will acknowledge that fermented soy is good for you, and that’s not what I’m talking about. I love miso soup like a fiend and I do eat tofu every now and then, but just take a look at the ingredients in a lot of the stuf fin your pantry. You’ll be shocked at how much soy and soy derivatives are in it. And don’t even get me started on Monsanto. There’s a lot of debate about it, and I won’t get into that here.
My sister use to be deathly allergic to soybean, like anaphylactic shock level allergic. So I spent most of my time growing up obsessively reading ingredients to make sure no soy was in anything that came into our house. It was probably a good thing I was’t veggie back then. She’s not allergic anymore (fun fact, our body chemistry kinda changes every 7ish years, so you can grow out of allergies even as an adult… you can also magically get allergies as an adult, it’s annoying), but she still avoids it understandably. So I try to as much as I can because I feel guilty and also I want to keep my diet balanced and not so reliant on it.
So when I found the Daiya yogurt at my local Mom’s Organic Market, I grabbed one of each available flavor (they didn’t have the peach), and headed home. At $1.65 a pop, they’re pretty much the same price as all the other non dairy yogurts, so that was nice, and honestly, I wouldn’t mind paying more for it. I love Daiya that much.
And with good reason. Their products are ACE. This yogurt is delicious. It’s thick, creamy, and loaded with flavor and fruity bits! It definitely fills that Greek yogurt craving and it has a killer 8g of protein in each cup! I’m just plain delighted.
I know many of you are asking, what is IN this stuff if it’s not actual yogurt?! You can find the full ingredients on Daiya’s website, but the short version is that there’s coconut cream, creamed coconut, pectin, and pea protein. Also potato protein… which I did not know was a thing.
Also, the irony of there being Silk chocolate soy milk in my fridge is not lost on me.
If you want to learn more about Daiya’s products, they have all the info you need on their website, complete with full ingredient lists and nutritional facts… because it’s nice to know what you’re putting in your body.
Very Nerdy Curly 