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We Tried More Than 80 Vegan Cheese Brands—Here Are The 15 Best
These pleased even the most loyal cheese devotees.
Whether you practice a plant-based lifestyle or are fully vegan, you have probably ditched a number of foods, like dairy, meat, and seafood. Some may have been easy to eighty-six from your life, but others were undoubtedly a bit more challenging. (Looking at you, cheese).
While a variety of cheeses that are made for vegans have hit the market, not every brand has perfected the exact taste and texture of dairy-free or plant-based cheese—but some have come pretty darn close.
Meet the expert: Stephanie Wells, RDN, is the owner of Thyme to Go Vegan Nutrition Services, a private practice specializing in vegan and plant-based nutrition.
“Cheese is an animal-based product traditionally made from dairy products such as cow's milk, goat milk, or sheep milk, meaning that cheese is not naturally vegan,” explains Stephanie Wells, RDN, owner of Thyme to Go Vegan Nutrition Services, a private practice specializing in vegan and plant-based nutrition. Instead, she explains that vegan cheeses are made from plant-based ingredients meant to mimic the color, flavor, and texture of dairy cheese. “Ingredients vary based on the brand, with some vegan cheeses based on a blend of oils and starches and others created from plant-based milk like cashew, coconut, or oat milk.”
From coconut oil-based cheeses to nut-based cheeses to tofu as the star of the show, our team put more than 80 different cheese-less cheeses through the wringer, errr, grater. The Women’s Health test kitchen (with the help of WH editors, co-workers, and friends) tasted every kind of cheese you could think of including cheese blocks, cheese dips, cheese sauces, cheese slices, cheese spreads, cream cheese, and queso.
The results are in and these are 15 of the best dairy-free, plant-based vegan cheeses we could find.
Siete Dairy Free Mild Nacho Cashew Queso
If you love nacho cheese for your tortilla chips then Wells recommends this option. “I love the Cashew Queso from Siete because the cashews make it incredibly creamy while nutritional yeast adds a delicious cheese-like flavor without the dairy.” Plus, Wells says since it is made from cashews, you get the added benefit of health-promoting micronutrients like copper and magnesium.
VioLife Just Like Mature Cheddar Slices
These easy-to-peel slices are the ultimate triple threat: They’re soft, melty, and buttery, which makes them ideal for stacking on sandwiches and burgers. Consider them the vegan answer to your Kraft Singles dreams.
This one-of-a-kind wedge from Violife is a must-have for anyone who's dairy-free but misses the fresh sprinkle of parm on pasta and other eats. In addition to being gluten-free (and nut- and soy-free), this pick doesn't use any preservatives and has a crumbly texture that feels like the real deal.
Frankly, WH's testers were hard to impress when it came to cheddar-style vegan shredded cheese. With its almost-neon color, this cheese turned a few heads on looks alone, and turned out to be a crowd-pleaser, thanks to its salty and truly cheesy taste.
Tofutti Better Than Ricotta Cheese
Whether you're craving comfort food like lasagna or just need a little creaminess in your life, this nut-free ricotta alternative really delivers on taste. Its blend of oils, tofu, and soy protein gives it an impressively legit ricotta texture for a dairy-free cheese.
Treeline Herb-Garlic Treenut French-Style Cheese
This cashew-based vegan cheese has fancy vibes, a simple, clean ingredient list, and is loaded with garlic herb flavor. It's a great pick for vegan cheese boards and easy to spread on anything from crusty bread to veggies.
Good Foods Plant Based Queso Style Dip
This plant-based queso is super creamy and makes a delicious dip for everything from crackers, to tortilla chips, to sliced veggies. Plus, it's one of the cleanest products in the game and boasts a seriously impressive (and simple) ingredient list. With cauliflower as ingredient numero-uno, it's a pick you can truly feel good about.
Kite Hill Everything Almond Milk Cream Cheese Spread
If you're missing that thick shmear of cream cheese on a bagel, look no further than this totally vegan cream cheese.
The WH testers preferred flavored plant-based alternatives over plain, and this creamy and tangy almond-based spread was a hit. The everything-but-the-bagel vibe is delicious without being too overpowering.
365 by Whole Foods Market Non-Dairy Mozzarella Shreds
365 by Whole Foods Market Non-Dairy Mozzarella Shreds
Vegan shredded cheese has a bad rep for tasting plasticky. Of the 20-plus options WH sampled, though, these plant-based shreds melted the most like the real thing.
They have a coconut-meets-mozzarella flavor that makes them mild and versatile, just like the OG mozz.
Treeline Vegan Soft Scallion Cheese
Along with Treeline's herb-garlic flavor, their tangy scallion cashew-based spread scored big with WH's vegan cheese testers.
Made with just seven ingredients, this soft vegan cheese pairs well with dried fruit, crusty bread, and crackers.
Of the 80-plus vegan cheeses WH tasted, this bright white block of vegan feta was the true MVP. With a melty and creamy texture and a salty, cheesy flavor (that actually tasted like a cross between real feta and goat cheese), it impressed testers so much that they actually went back for seconds.
Follow Your Heart Dairy-Free Cream Cheese
Plain cream cheese proved to be the hardest take on vegan cheese to nail, with comments like “gummy,” “impossible to spread,” “sour,” and “chemically" dotting reviewer feedback.
Of the seven sampled, though, this tub was the best of the bunch. Made primarily of water, oil, and soy milk powder, it has a beige color, creamy texture, and mild, slightly sweet flavor.
Violife Just Like Smoked Provolone Slices
The strong, smoky flavor of these sandwich-worthy slices scored big amongst the WH team. As one tester wrote, “I cannot tell it’s vegan at all,” noting that thanks to the soft texture, it actually tasted like real cheese.
Field Roast Creamy Original Chao Slices
These slices are made with coconut and fermented tofu (say what?), but impressed the vegan cheese taste-tasters with their soft and creamy texture and mild, slightly sweet flavor. “I’d take it on a sandwich, one tester even said.
Kite Hill Dairy-Free Almond Milk Ricotta
Kite Hill Dairy-Free Almond Milk Ricotta
Though this tangy almond milk-based cheese from the popular brand Kite Hill is a bit crumbly, it still somehow feels ricotta-like in texture. Its nice consistency makes it prime for baking (a la lasagna) or even cream-filled vegan cannolis.
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