Day 164 - Tofu Ricotta

Tofu Ricotta

I'm fascinated by the concept of cheese substitutes. I mean, cheese is just so distinctive and amazing. How can you possibly imitate it?

Well, many vegan magicians out there have come up with some pretty great ideas, and here's one of them from I&T. Evidently, this is from an earlier book, Vegan with a Vengeance; I guess it's just too good not to include here again.

Since I was making some more sourdough pizza crust, I thought I should have some vegan cheese for my pizza. (Confession: I also had some Yves Meatless Pepperoni on hand, so I really wanted to go to town with these pizzas.)

I think I made a bad call, though, with the tofu I used. There's a Trader Joe's product called Super Firm High Protein Tofu, and I think this was a little too firm for this recipe. The "ricotta" was incredibly dry. In fact, I had to add some extra oil to compensate for it. Next time, I'll just use your garden variety extra firm tofu.

Turns out this ricotta is so tasty, I just wanted to eat it right out of the bowl. I don't even feel that way about real ricotta! The subtle combo of flavors: lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, basil, olive oil, and nutritional yeast, is just delicious! And while it doesn't taste like cheese, per se, it evokes the same feelings I have about cheese - salty, fatty, comforty goodness.

The pepperoni pizza was pretty great - My friend Rena tried it. She's the one who coined the phrase "Vegan My Ass" to describe my eclectic and irreverent eating habits. And Rena, who's decidedly UN-vegan, thought it tasted great, although she said it didn't taste anything like pepperoni pizza. :-)

SFO: 9
One tiny point off for total lack of meltiness.