Vegan Cheese Review

So, in the sweltering heat that transpired yesterday, I decide that I was going to make tortilla pie...Good plan. Cook black beans and steam the house out for two hours raising the humidity to unearthly levels. Cook homemade corn tortillas in a dry cast iron pan sending those lovely, wiggly, eyesight distorting waves of heat off to play in the incinerator that I call a house. And for the finale, turn oven on to 350 degrees and bake the thing. Wow. Yes, Good idea. Not. So. Much. At any rate, I finally got a chance to try out Daiya's Pepper Jack cheeze. It's good, not "WOW" good, but good. It's creamy, VERY creamy and melty. It would make a great creamy/cheesy hot dip. The flavour is decent, but not overly cheese like. I will say it does make a good substitute though, and I think adding in a little nutritional yeast to the mix might have raised the bar a little. It's a little oily once melted, but not disgusting. Would I buy it again? Yes, probably. I would like to try making a pizza or even poutine with it and I think I'll try the cheddar kind next. Like I said, this stuff is creamy beyond words (once melted and hot, of course), like warmed cream cheese. I like that about it. Very soft cheese- esque. When I get around to trying it in a variety of dishes, I'll report back with my experiences. If anyone's interested, here's the gist of the tortilla pie that I made:

3 homemade corn tortillas - masa harina and water to form a dough.
Approximately 2 cups pre soaked and cooked black beans stewed with veggie stock, cumin, coriander, garlic, onion, taco seasoning (homemade), fresh cilantro and chipotle.
2 diced peppers (I used one red one orange)
3 diced small roma tomatoes
Salsa verde (or enchilada sauce - whichever you like)
Daiya Pepper Jack cheese.

Layer all ingredients starting with one of the tortillas. Top the final lid tortilla with a little more salsa verde and some more cheeze. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or so.

All in all it was a success. I did manage to eat half the darn thing, so that says something :). And even better? The corn tortillas combined with the black beans makes this meal full of complete protein. (Not that you have to complete a protein at each meal. As long as you get the proper amino acids throughout the day, your body will do it for you, it's smart like that).

I had some black beans and diced veggies left over, so I mixed them together, added some avocado, lime juice, more fresh cilantro and topped a salad with the black bean - salsa/guacamole mixture. YUM!