I was just wondering about how they make a few things, like veganaise, or vegan cheese. I know how tofu and most faux meats are made, but as a former chef I always made my own mayo, so the vegan stuff is creepy to me, I was wondering if anyone ever found any make your own veganaise recipes?
I am starting to get where I cant handle the thought of eggs anymore.
Thanks guys.
Posted Aug 7, 2012, 6:52 AM UTC
If you think about it, mayo is just a thick spread with a bit of a bitter tang to it. I've made homemade stuff with soft tofu and a bit of cider vinegar (amongst other things). Worked just fine.
Food became a lot better for me when I realized that many of these 'mock' products aren't trying to be a 1:1 replacement in texture/taste/etc. They're there to take the place of it. My fake mayo was great on sandwiches and salads/etc. Would it pass a blind taste test? Oh hell no. But it worked and worked well.
I occasionally make my own vegan substitutes and generally use recipes from vegweb.com that have good reviews.
Vegan on the Cheap is another good source for these things. It even tells you how much each recipe costs to make.
Vegan mayo?
There are lots. A really simple one (I prefer it to egg mayonnaise in things like potato salad):
Take soya milk (I use unsweetened), add olive oil whilst beating like hell (I use one of those hand blenders). Once you've got enough oil in it'll start trapping air and become mayonnaisey. (If anyone's wondering, this is pretty much how you make low fat mayonnaise of any type, ice cream with less cream, etc.,)
The mustard/salt/lemon juice in, say, http://cleangreensimple.com/2011/04/vegan-mayonnaise/ are pretty much for taste.
I don't know how they make the Vegenaise, but you can make your own vegan mayonnaise pretty easily.
You'll need:
Combine the oil and milk in a food processor until the mixture's smooth. Then add the vinegar slowly (the mixture will thicken). Finally add in salt and mustard as required.