Choc & Cheese: The Best Vegan Friendly Cheese & Chocolate from the Allergy Expo
I am not a vegan, I’m not even a vegetarian. In theory I would love to be, I’m all for it for numerous reasons. And if the insanely beautiful glowing complexions of vegan friends are anything to go by, it’s an incredibly healthy way to eat. But while bacon and steak would be difficult things to live without, it is cheese that gets me. For others it’s chocolate. At the Allergy Expo in the RDS last weekend, we made some delectable discoveries for those of you who are either vegan, or just avoiding dairy.
Cornucopia had told me about their new vegan cheeses and while it sounded like a great idea, it didn’t go any further than me just thinking, “Oh that’s nice. For vegans.” Well, for those of you on the fence about becoming a vegan because you love cheese so much, or struggling to keep dairy out of your diet for specific health reasons, this is important: their Cashew Blue and Brie will rock your world.
Cashew Blue is a play on Cashel Blue – one of my all time favourite cheeses, so picking up a little piece it had high standards to meet, but it’s perfect! Obviously it’s not the same, but it’s so good. Tony Keogh is a bit of a genius. The brie is equally perfect, so similar in texture it’s hard to believe it’s dairy free.
And chocolate lovers, I am still munching away on lovely Mini Moo bars from Moo Free, an excellent little range of dairy free, gluten free and vegan friendly chocolate. While some chocolates ‘free of’ stuff seem to be largely in packaging and marketed to swanky adults, this range is lovely for kids. As a child who couldn’t eat quite a few things myself, I understand how upsetting it can be to have to eat soda bread when everyone else is eating lovely white sliced pan sandwiches, and I imagine heading to school with a very serious looking chunk of raw chocolate might feel similar. Whereas I can see these happily popped on tables and snapped up at a kid’s birthday party. Caffrey’s Irish Chocolate company are their Irish distributor if you’re looking to get them in stock. They’d be a great one for Halloween. So much kinder to kids to give them things that are healthy!
