If you are having a hard time with cheese cravings on a vegan diet, you are not alone. Cheese is often one of the hardest things for people to change since it’s so popular. 

The good thing is that there are plenty of delicious vegan options when it comes to dealing with those pesky cheese cravings.

How to Get Over Cheese Cravings on a Vegan Diet

If you love cheese and are going vegan, you might run into some serious cheese cravings right off the bat. This is normal, and it just needs time as you adjust to vegan food. There are some ways that you can make the transition more pleasant, however. Especially since there are several tasty options of vegan foods that are just as cheesy and even more delicious.

Here are a few tips to help you beat those dairy cheese cravings on your vegan diet!

Find Cheesy Alternatives

Source: Cheesy Pasta Bake

The best way to nip those cheese cravings in the bud once becoming vegan is to find cheesy alternatives to eat instead. This will help you not only still get your cheesy fix, but it will also help you to recreate your favorite meals!

The best cheese alternative that is not only vegan, but also healthy is nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is a type of inactive yeast that is made to be eaten as a kind of seasoning. It does not act nor taste like regular yeast at all.

Nutritional yeast has a natural orange color similar to cheese and is amazingly similar in taste. If you are not much of a cook, you can just sprinkle nutritional yeast over your food for a cheesy fix.

Many vegan recipes that have a cheesy flavor call for nutritional yeast, and you can find it in most grocery stores in the baking or health food aisle. 

Check out some of these recipes that include nutritional yeast: Lobster Mushroom Mac ’n’ Cheese, Breakfast Burritos, and Wild Mushroom Buckwheat Risotto.

Make Your Own Vegan Cheese

Source: Sliceable Vegan Cashew Cheese

Another great option that you have if you are eating a vegan diet but having cheese cravings is to make your own vegan cheese.

Unlike dairy-based cheese, vegan cheese is remarkably easy to create at home. All you will need is a handful of common kitchen ingredients and a few specialty items. One ingredient that you might want to buy if you plan to make vegan cheese is agar agar. This is a seaweed-derived ingredient that acts as gelatin does. It is often used to thicken up cheese recipes and make them have a cheese-like texture.

You can make any kind of vegan cheese that you are craving! There are all kinds of delicious dairy-free cheese recipes, from mozzarella to Cotija to cheddar to blue cheese.

This is a great option if you have frequent cheese cravings and need a daily cheese fix.

Make Cheesy Sauces

Source: Life-Changing Cheese Sauce

One of the easiest ways of still getting to enjoy cheesy foods on a vegan diet is to make cheesy sauces! Vegan cheese sauces are so easy and quick to make and taste good on just about everything. They can be poured over mashed potatoes, pasta, steamed vegetables, and so much more! The options are endless when it comes to how you can enjoy a homemade vegan cheese sauce.

Vegan cheese sauces also require fewer ingredients and are easier to make than vegan cheeses. They can be enjoyed immediately and don’t require any special ingredients like agar agar. The most common ingredient in vegan cheese sauce recipes is nutritional yeast since it gives the cheesy flavor as well as a cheddar cheese color.

Try these recipes for Green Chili Nacho Cheese Sauce, Smokey Oat Cheese Sauce, and Vegan White Cheese Sauce.

Buy Vegan Cheese

The next best option if you are having some serious cheese cravings is to buy vegan cheese from the store. This option is considerably more expensive than the others since vegan brands can be a bit pricey at times. You might also not have access to as many of the best vegan cheese brands.

Most grocery stores will carry one or two vegan cheese brands to choose from. Keep a lookout for brands like Miyoko’s, Violife, Daiya, and Follow Your Heart. Some grocery stores also have their own line of vegan cheese. They can usually be found in the cheese aisle or the refrigerated health food section.

These cheeses are made to melt and act like regular cheese, so they can be added to just about anything.

Store-bought vegan cheese is delicious on pizza, in mac and cheese, or eaten with crackers. You can eat this type of vegan cheese the same way you would any other type of cheese.  

Other Tips for Cheese Cravings

If you are just going vegan and experiencing the worst of the cheese cravings, you could also try using these tips when going vegan and cutting out all dairy products. These extra tips will help you to better transition to a diet that doesn’t contain any dairy-based cheeses.

Wean Off of Cheese

If you are a true cheese lover, you can try to slowly wean yourself off of cheese. It will help you to adapt to a diet that isn’t laden with dairy-based cheeses. Go slowly so that you are able to adapt to the changes in your diet.

Slowly Add Vegan Alternatives to Your Diet

As you are slowly weaning yourself off of cheese, try to add vegan cheese alternatives into your diet. This will help your taste buds to start getting used to the different tastes of vegan cheese alternatives.

You could always do this by adding store-bought vegan cheeses into your diet as well as cheesy sauces. These two options are easy on the taste buds and can help you to adapt to vegan food.

Try Nut Cheeses

Nut cheeses are one of the most likable types of vegan cheese alternatives. Most people don’t even realize that this cheesy treat is completely vegan and dairy-free!

Nut cheeses are easy to make at home with a handful of ingredients and turn out tasting delicious. They are amazing when eaten on their own with crackers, spread on bread, eaten on top of potatoes, or on pizza! The options are endless.

Learn How to Cook Plant-Based Meals at Home

Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental wellbeing, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, gut health, and more! Unfortunately, dairy consumption also has been linked to many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, prostate cancer, and has many side effects. 

For those interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend purchasing one of our many plant-based cookbooks or downloading the Food Monster App which has thousands of delicious recipes making it the largest vegan recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Here are some resources to get you started:

• Weekly Vegan Meal Plans
• Plant-Based Health Resources
• Plant-Based Food & Recipes
• The Ultimate Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition
• Plant-Based Nutrition Resources
• Budget-Friendly Plant-Based Recipes
• High Protein Plant-Based Recipes
• Plant-Based Meal Prep

Easy Ways to Help the Planet:

• Eat Less Meat: Download Food Monster, the largest plant-based recipe app on the App Store, to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy. You can also buy a hard or soft copy of our favorite vegan cookbooks.
• Reduce Your Fast Fashion Footprint: Take initiative by standing up against fast fashion pollution and supporting sustainable and circular brands like Tiny Rescue that raise awareness around important issues through recycled zero-waste clothing designed to be returned and remade over and over again.
• Support Independent Media: Being publicly funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!
• Sign a Petition: Your voice matters! Help turn petitions into victories by signing the latest list of must-sign petitions to help people, animals, and the planet.
• Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest news and important stories involving animals, the environment, sustainable living, food, health, and human interest topics by subscribing to our newsletter!
• Do What You Can: Reduce waste, plant trees, eat local, travel responsibly, reuse stuff, say no to single-use plastics, recycle, vote smart, switch to cold water laundry, divest from fossil fuels, save water, shop wisely, donate if you can, grow your food, volunteer, conserve energy, compost, and don’t forget about the microplastics and microbeads lurking in common household and personal care products!