Have you played with nutritional yeast, WindSparrow? Vegetarians and vegans like it because it gives that sort of rich, meaty,
umami,
flavor. I keep seeing it described as "cheese-like" but I really don't think that's an accurate description.
I like it in gravys and sauces now that I make them without stock. It is pretty low in sodium and really punches up flavor.
Personally I find the name intimidating but use is simple, you can sprinkle and stir like you would with salt. Many health food stores sell it by the pound so you can just get a little to play with.
If you can't tell, I really like the stuff. [link]
Vegetarians and vegans like it because it gives that sort of rich, meaty, umami, flavor. I keep seeing it described as "cheese-like" but I really don't think that's an accurate description.
I've seen vegan recipes for mac and cheese that use nutritional yeast for the cheese flavor. (I've not tried them, so I don't know.) And I have a friend who always sprinkles it on her popcorn.
It
is
"cheese-like"
but not to the absence of being "mushroom-like" or "meat-like" if that makes any sense.
And, imho, it acts like salt. If you have chickpeas and you just eat them out of a bowl they tase fine. If you sprinkle the nutritional yeast on them they taste AWESOME. It's not "Mmmmm! Who put cheese on these garbanzos?" so much as "I can't stop eatin these things!"
My grandma ate it constantly(around here in the eighties, that was pretty fringe.) But she used to put that and cranberry juice on cereal and it looked like brains.
In Milwaukee you get brewers yeast at the movies to put on popcorn. So delicious. Regular popcorn doesn't cut it anymore. .
Nutritional yeast can be used as an ingredient in vegan cheese, but I think you also need the other ingredients before it tastes cheesy. On its own, though, it's really good sprinkled on all sorts of savory stuff.
ION, my glasses just broke. I'm trying to decide whether driving home at dusk would be safer with these glasses, where I can only see out of one eye, or with sunglasses.
I thought yeast was sort of animalish, ie, spores and such.
I thought yeast was sort of animalish, ie, spores and such.
Yeasts are fungi, which puts them closer to animals than plants, but still vegan-friendly.
I got home OK with the sunglasses. I tried super-gluing my regular glasses back together, but it wouldn't hold. Now I replaced the scotch tape with duct tape, which works a bit better. Going to LensCrafters tomorrow.
