Daiya Shreds

Cheese is a quick meal staple in our house.  From cheesy bread to English muffin pizzas to grilled cheese, it's an easy way to throw together a meal for the whole family.  This morning for example, we wanted chicken quesadillas.  Well obviously you can't make a quesadilla without cheese, which is kind of tough on the full elimination.  Enter: Daiya brand products.  I did some research on cheese alternatives before the diet started, and this company is pretty intriguing.  Unlike most fake cheese, Daiya products do not contain any soy or nuts, making them truly allergy friendly.

Here's the ingredients for the Cheddar Style Shreds:

Filtered water, tapioca flour, expeller pressed non-GMO canola and/or safflower oil, coconut oil, pea protein, salt, inactive yeast, vegan natural flavours, vegetable glycerin, xanthan gum, yeast extract, citric acid (vegan, for flavour), annatto (for colour), titanium dioxide (a naturally occurring mineral).

The reviews I could find said that, miraculously, the product really does melt and become stringy like cheese.  It sounded too good to be true, but I picked up a bag of the Cheddar Style Shreds anyhow, knowing that a day like today was inevitable.

So for Daiya's first challenge, we had quesadillas.  Lo and behold, it really did melt.  It held the two tortillas together just like cheese would.  The texture, once melted, is best described as gooey, which is more or less a good thing with regards to cheese.  The flavor and mouth-feel were slightly off, I think because of the lower fat content.  But overall, I did feel like I was eating a quesadilla, and it allowed me to have roughly the same meal as my husband and daughter (I made theirs with our standard Kerrygold cheddar).  I am definitely inspired to try a few more of their products, and perhaps some of the recipes suggested on their website.