Vegan Substitute for Parmesan Cheese - A way for everyone to enjoy the benefits of parmesan!

Veganism is the practice of not eating any animal related products. It can be taken a step further and include not using any products, which contain material taken from animals. This is something more than standard vegetarianism, which is generally just not eating meat. Indeed, the term vegan was born in 1944 when some members of the Vegetarian Society in Great Britain decided to give up dairy products as well and formed the word 'vegan' by abbreviating 'vegetarian', in order to refer to their new approach to eating.

There are a number of reasons why people adopt veganism. One of the main ones is due to the potential health benefits of consuming a natural, low-fat diet based on plant products. There could be other reasons, such as in the case of people who react badly to certain animal-based products (for example lactose found in milk) and so need to avoid eating them. Some people want to fight against cruelty to animals, to promote a green lifestyle, or simply belong to a religious group that believes in veganism.

Whatever the reasons for veganism, one thing's for sure and that's that it's on the rise! Statistics show that many countries in the world have at least a small percent of the population who are vegan. In Great Britain for example, the number of vegans has grown from 150,000 in 2006 to 542,000 in 2016.

Obviously, if someone converts to a vegan diet it will mean giving up a lot of the foods that they enjoy and are used to eating. However, these days, due to the popularity of veganism there exist many plants based alternative foods that people can include in their diets. Following on, we are going to look at just one example, that of a vegan substitute for Parmesan cheese.

Parmesan, the king of cheese toppings

Parmesan is a cheese well-known for its use in grated form as a topping for many dishes in order to add flavor. The authentic Italian version of Parmesan cheese is called, 'Parmigiano-Reggiano'. This is a hard cheese, which has been produced for hundreds of years in certain regions of Italy. Its hardest and crystalline texture combined with strong pleasant taste is what makes it is ideal for grating and adding to dishes as a flavoring.

Buying original Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese produced in Italy can be expensive due to a number of reasons; it can only be produced by manufacturers in certain regions of Italy; it undergoes a traditional, well-controlled manufacturing process and finally, once made has to be shipped out all over the world for sale. As a result of this, a number of cheaper alternative Parmigiano-Reggiano style cheese exist, which are cheaper and generically known as Parmesan cheese.

Unfortunately for vegans, both Parmigiano-Reggiano and these other Parmesan cheeses are all off limits as they are made using cows' milk. However, the good news is that a number of plant-based alternative Parmesan cheeses exist.

Soybeans to the rescue.

Soybeans were cultivated in East Asia long before records even began and gradually over the centuries their cultivation has spread throughout the world. Initially, their use was more for practical purposes, such as in crop rotation due to the fact that the soybean plants helped renitrogenese soil. Also, they were used in animal feed. Gradually though, people been to discover and appreciate their many other uses as a food substance.
Soybeans are an excellent source of protein and can be used as a meat substitute due to the fact that they contain a good spread of proteins, such that by consuming them someone obtains the proteins they need without having to worry too much about eating other foods. For this reason, they are a good option for vegans who are in danger of lacking proteins in their diet as a result of not eating meat or dairy products.

By boiling soybeans and then filtering the product soy milk can be produced. Yogurt or a yogurt starter can then be added to this milk, which after being left to stand in a warm place, will start to separate into liquid and solid, mimicking the process of curdling cheese. The curd produced can be used just like any other cheese, giving rise to, amongst other things, the possibility of Parmesan cheese suitable for vegans.

Almonds, a nutty alternative

As well as beans such as soy, nuts are also a good source of protein for vegans. This is good news for vegan cheese lovers as nuts can be very easily blended into a cheese-like food that can be used in many ways.

In the case of almonds, they are simply blanched (that is to say boiled briefly in water and then cooled and the skin removed), and then blended in a blender with nutritional yeast, salt, and garlic powder until a fine powder is formed. This can then be stored and used to sprinkle on food as an excellent alternative to Parmesan cheese.

Cashews, a nutty alternative to the nutty alternative

The above mentioned Parmesan cheese using almonds can just as easily be made using cashew nuts. The method and ingredients are identical except that cashews replace the almonds and so the process is slightly simpler as the cashews don't need to be blanched. It is even possible to use a mixture of blanched almonds and cashews to produce a nut combination Parmesan.

No need for vegans to miss out

As we have seen, it is quite possible for vegans to enjoy the taste of Parmesan cheese on pasta, pizzas and the like. There are a number of commercial products available that imitate well Parmesan cheese, but use plant-based ingredients such as soybean, almonds or cashews. Those of us, who for whatever reason are following a vegan diet can try out some of these commercial products to see which one is most to their liking. But, as these vegan substitute Parmesan cheese are so easy to make, it's also worth trying to make your own at home. By experimenting you can come up with your perfect combination and never have to miss out on that Parmesan cheese goodness again!


Feel free to leave below any experiences or suggestions you have regarding alternative Parmesans.

Parmigiano Reggiano

The king of cheeses!

We human beings like to categorise everything. From best to worst, from biggest to smallest, from cheapest to most expensive, you name we've got a category for it.
The world of cheese is no exception. Many paragraphs could be written discussing the smellest, tastiest or most expensive cheeses, or making top ten lists of such. However, when it comes to the category of the world's best cheese there is already an unofficial champion, who in many people's books, makes such pontifications unnecessary.

Our champion is non other than Parmigiano regiano, otherwise knicknamed the king of cheeses. Is this status justified? Following on, we will look briefly at this cheese and try to understand how it got such lofty position in the world of cheeses.

Where did Parmigiano Reggiano come from?

The question abouts origins can be a tricky one to answer in many cases, such as embarassed parents discussing with their offspring about the origin of a new baby brother or sister, or the many heated debates that rage about the origin of the universe or life on Earth.

When it comes to cheese though their origins are not usually quite so embarrassing or hotly debated. That being said, it can still be difficult to know the exact details of how certain cheese came into being.

In the case of Parmigiano Reggiano, it is believed that monks around the Parma area (hence the Parmigiano, meaning ’of Parma’) first started making a hard cheese by maturing the solid extract from cow’s milk as many as 800 or even 900 years ago. It is believed that this forerunner to Parmigiano Reggiano was not very different to the modern variety, thus it can be claimed that Parmigiano Reggiano has been a prominent cheese for at least nine centuries.

The first recorded mention of Parmigiano Reggiano is in a 1254 document in which a noble woman from Genoa trades her house for a guaranteed annual supply of 53 pounds (24 kg) of this cheese.  From then on, there are many historical and literary mentions using various different names. One famous one is in the 1351 work called, ”Decamerone” by Giovanni Boccaccio. Here a fictitious land of food named Bengodi is described, which includes a mountain of grated Parmigiano cheese! (Now, that truely would be paradise!).

How is it made?

Now, maybe you are wondering about the significance of the Reggiano part of the cheese’s name. This refers to the town of Reggio Emilia, which is not far from Parma. In the area between both towns, a very similar hard cheese was produced. Over time, it’s production spread to a few other local areas.

Since 1954, cheesemakers in these areas joined together to form the ’Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano’. This is an alliance, which standardised the production of Parmigiano Reggiano and ensures that until this day strictly controlled traditional methods are used to produce the cheese.

There are in essence only three ingredients, milk, salt and rennet (enzymes that initiate a process that seperates the solid and liquid part of the milk).

Local cows are milked twice a day (a rule is that the milk has to reach the factory where the cheese is made in under two hours). Each mornings’ milk intake is mixed with skimmed milk from the previous evenings’ milking. This milk combination is poured into copper bell shaped vats and has rennet plus the previous days’ whey (the liquid produced as a result of seperating the solids out of milk) added.

In around 10 minutes the milk coagulates, in other words the solids start to seperate out. A special tool called a ’Spino’ (sort of like a large whisk with a long, wooden handle) is used to mix the solution. It breaks down the curd (solid milk) into small granules.

This milk solution is heated to up to 55 degrees celsius, which causes the milk granules to sink to the bottom of the vat and to form one, big solid mass. This mass is skillfully removed by a cheesemaker and cut into two parts. Each half is wrapped in a special cloth and put into a wheel shaped container, which will be the cheese’s home for the next few days, until it has started to become dry and firm.

The final step is for the cheese to spend a period in a bath of salt water, in order to absorp the salt that preserves them. This salted cheese wheel is then placed in a maturation room, where it will sit for many months until it has reached the desired hardness.

A Quality Product

As you can see, this is a relatively simple process. Two of the main factors that are influencing the quality of the cheese are the milk that it is being made from and the conditions in which the cheese is produced and matured.

Along the way, the production process is strictly controlled to ensure a quality product. The cows, from which the milk is taken, are fed only on local grasses. The milk is quality controlled before use.

Each cheese is given a unique number, which allows it to be traced and quality controlled. After 12 months in the maturation room, all cheeses are inspected and only those that pass the test, are allowed to remain and be matured and sold.

The End

The final products are cheeses that have been matured for at least 18, 22 or 30 months. All are granular in structure and crumbly, but each has a distinctive taste.
They can be eaten on their own, as an accompliment to different foods and drinks, but in particularly they shine as cheeses to grate onto many dishes to add flavouring.

A true champion

Overall then, Parmigiano Reggiano, is a cheese with a rich history and due to the great care taken in monitoring its production, the consumer can have confidence they are getting a quality product.

The cheese itself is versatile, with different uses and as we have seen is produced naturally, without additives, resulting in a tasty, easy to digest cheese.
It’s not hard to see why Parmigiano Reggiano has been knicknamed the king of cheeses!

Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah were two ancient cities that over the centuries have become synonymous with judgement due to the Biblical story of God destroying them by raining burning sulphur down upon them as a result of their wickedness.

The meaning and origin of their names is unclear. However, from the Biblical accounts it is clear what the state of affairs were like in them. And it wasn't good!

There is much speculation about where these cities were. From Genesis 13 we see that they were in the plain of Jordan, which before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was a fertile land that attracted Lot. Also, in Genesis 14 we see that the king of Sodom, Bera, joins forces with five other kings (including the king of Gomorrah) in the valley of Siddim, which we are told is the Dead sea valley. Thus, it is not hard to reach the conclusion that Sodom and Gomorrah were near the Dead sea. Interestingly, Josephus Flavius, a famous Jewish historian, also connects the location of Sodom with lake Asphaltites, which was Greek for the Dead Sea (see chapter 9). Another interesting point is that, as mentioned, the area around Sodom and Gomorrah is described as being fertile until their destruction and today we see that the area where they probably were located is now barren and contains the Dead sea!

How Close to the Edge?

Beyond the archaeological curiosities connected to these two cities, there are a number of things that we can learn from reading about them in the Bible.

 Firstly, we see in Genesis 12:13 that Lot was living near to Sodom. However, by Genesis 14:12, when the four kings attack, we find that Lot is now living in Sodom! He started off just living near to the sinful city, benefitting from the surrounding fertile land, but ended up a little while later living in the sinful city. As human beings we are often tempted to ask ‘how close can I get to sin, without actually sinning?’. A better question would be ‘how can I stay as far away from sin as possible?’

Lot obviously thought in the beginning it would be fine to live in the plains around Sodom as it was fertile land. He would stay well away from the bad things going on in Sodom and just take advantage of grazing his animals on the grass nearby. Everything would be fine right? Unfortunately, the problem with sin is that it is deceptive. Little things that don't seem too much of a problem, trifles that we are sure we can handle, gradually allure us and as we get use to them we slowly accept more and more.

This is what happened to Eve as she found herself standing near the forbidden tree, then she entered into a harmless dialogue with the serpent, who suggested that she had got things wrong and that she was missing out on something good and before she knew it, she had committed a terrible mistake, leading to dire consequences. Likewise Lot, after having roughed it a while in tents, probably started to think why shouldn't he enjoy a bit of comfort in the city? After all, it's not like he was going to condone or get involved with what the people there were doing. However, he got too close to the edge and wasn't able to avoid falling into great problems.

A Long Way Down

We see the consequences of Lot's flirtation with the people of Sodom in chapter 19 of Genesis. Here the two angels sent by God arrive in Sodom. Lot has to invite them to his house to protect them as he is aware of the wicked tendencies of the men of Sodom. Nevertheless it is not enough to stop the men of Sodom coming to his house to try and fulfil their wicked thoughts. Lot then has to offer his daughters as a sacrifice to save the angels and is only able to get out of a disastrous situation thanks to the miracle of the angels, when they strike these men of Sodom with blindness.

More so than that, he then has to flee Sodom for his life. In verse 14, we see that his daughters are engaged to marry men of Sodom, men who think the threat of God's judgement is a joke! Indeed, Lot's daughters have obviously been deeply affected by their time in Sodom because the chapter ends with a section about how they devise (not to mention carry out!) a terrible plan to get their father drunk and then use him to impregnate them. Thus, resulting in the Moabites and Ammonites, two peoples born of incest, who later on cause God's people much strife.

There is one more tragic consequence of all this as Lot's wife decides to turn back after having reached safety and ends up as a pillar of salt after having been caught up in Sodom's judgment.

All in all then, we see that sin, no matter how innocuous it might appear in the beginning, can lead to serious outcomes. Lot's lack of attention in his own life to what was going on around him resulted in him destroying his family. Hence we need to be alert in our lives, always be aware of the harm that sin can do.

Collateral Damage

Two other spin off lessons that we can learn from here are that sooner or later God will punish sin as sin is a breaking of God's law and being a justice God, He has to punish this. However there is hope. Lot, although falling into sinful circumstances, still benefits from God's grace as the angels show him the way to avoid falling under this judgement. Likewise we human beings are all under the threat of God's righteous judgement for our sins but there is hope because God provides a way out for those who trust in Him, even if we have fallen into bad circumstances.

Secondly, and sadly, some people even when warned of God's judgement and offered a way out, just treat it as a joke. Lot's son-in-laws could have fled too and then lived a happy life with their new wives but unfortunately they preferred to linger in the darkness of Sodom and suffered the consequences.

Liverpool vs Wolves

Life Lessons from VAR. 

 Human beings are funny old creatures. In the past, when watching football highlights, there always used to be lots of debates. He was offside! No, he wasn't. Yes, he was. Or Look at that! The ref has made a blatant mistake. They were robbed!

So, after many years of such arguing and with the development of technology, a natural and logical solution to the problem arose, ‘Why don't we just use video technology to correct the mistakes?’

 It seems to make sense. A lot of the controversy is a result of the fact that so many matches are televised and the people analysing them have access to all sorts of video replays. So, why not give the people officiating access to said replays when they are judging so that they can make the right decisions?

 A Tale of Two Goals 

Well, in yesterday's Liverpool vs Wolves match, there were two interesting incidents. Firstly, the ball was played forward and it looked like it bounced off the attacker’s arm into the path of a second attacker who scored. Not only that, but the defender who played the ball forward also appeared to touch it as he got it under control.

However, using video replays someone was able to check and come to the conclusion that in the second case the ball came off the shoulder and in the first it was inconclusive and so didn't merit being penalised. Maybe these were the right decisions although with regard to the goal it could be considered unfair as there were suggestions that the whistle had been blown and so the defensive players eased up, thinking that a free kick was going to be given (debatable though, as some of them at least continued playing).

A few minutes later, Wolves went into attack and scored an equaliser to make up for this first incident. Or so they thought! The equaliser preceded to be ruled put for offside. On the video replay, it could have only been offside by a fractional margin, so called millimetres as it were! It seemed harsh, especially considering what had happened moments earlier when a goal had been given because there was no conclusive evidence against it.

 Expert Analysis 

The interesting aspect to all this was that during the highlights programme, the football pundits spent their time debating the ins and outs of all this. Thus, technology was introduced to stop all the debating and arguing about different decisions, but all it has done has been to transfer the debating and arguing from one subject to another. Instead, of discussing the rights and wrongs of the referee’s decisions, the experts spend their time bemoaning technological mishaps and controversies.

 It would seem that this says something about human nature. Decisions in something like football, which is fast paced and not clear cut, are always going to be subjective. There are some things that are obvious such as a direct elbow to the face or a man being a yard offside but what about when two men are practically level? It's then just down to camera angle and the straightness of computer drawn lines. Likewise, many fouls are open to interpretation so it doesn't necessarily help seeing it 10 times from 20 angles as it's a matter of opinion. Did he catch him or not? Was it intentional?

 In other words, somethings are down to how we interpret the situation, something that is never unbiased because we are all influenced by the circumstances around us, or indeed in us, so surely it's better to let the referee make his mind up and just go with that. Indeed, in many situations our first, instinctive decision is often best (how many students have regretted changing their original answer to an exam question!). In any case, human beings are fallible creatures and so, even with video technology, mistakes can be made.

 Anyone up for a good argument? 

There is another aspect to this. It would seem that it's human nature to criticize and be negative. This whole VAR situation arose because in the past many refereeing decisions were taken to task for being wrong. But we could have just been positive and accepted that mistakes happen because that's human nature and accepted them. Trying to use technology to eradicate mistakes isn't going to happen because it is ignoring the source of them.

 The mistakes are not simply a result of the fact that the referee hasn't seen something clearly but rather there are many complicated factors, not all of which can be avoided by watching video replays.

 Play to the Whistle 

Beyond the debate about the strengths and weaknesses of the VAR system, there is another lesson to be learned from this particular match. Wolves, the team seemingly wronged by the VAR decisions in the first half, could have let their heads go down and give up due to frustration. However, they didn't. Indeed, based on the highlights, they were the better team in the second half and came closed to scoring. Liverpool didn't have any good second half chances and the match could easily have been a draw.

 So, here we learn that in life, even when some thing doesn't go your way, it's not a good idea to just give up. If we keep going, we still have a chance and actually some times, things can work out better than expected!