Out with the shaker, in with the grater! At last, a big wedge of pungent vegan parmesan to grate on your pasta! There have been vegan parmesan substitutes for years, but few in block form, with most sold in shaker pots. The Violife cheese brand is now a firm favourite, so it's only right they should take up the parmesan challenge.
The packaging is stylish and sophisticated - this is a first for vegan cheese too! Once unwrapped, you could happily have this authentic looking wedge on your dining table, or even use it in a restaurant. The pungent ripe cheese smell is certainly there too.
The cheese is very hard, but grates well with a fine grater. This is not a cheese you want to eat by the slice though, as it's salty, dry and very strongly flavoured.
Grate it straight onto some pasta and that strong flavour gets spread out, to make plain pasta quite tasty. You do need a sauce though, as the Prosociano doesn't melt on hot food so can taste quite dry (it melts if you cook it).
Risotto too is another place where a good vegan parmesan is very welcome, and will melt a little if you stir it through.
We've reviewed plenty of vegan parmesans over the years, including Redwood's (now VBites) version, but this one is a cut above the rest.
Violife Prosociano looks and smells quite authentic, it's presented beautifully, and has a decent shelf life once opened of 2 or 3 weeks. It grates well, melts a little and adds a punchy cheesy flavour to your dishes. We'd still like to see an artisan cultured product in this niche, but Violife have done a great job with this one and we can recommend you give it a try.
We bought ours from Natural Food Co in Nottingham.
The Good: Looks, smells and tastes the part
The Not-so-Good: We'd love an artisan cultured version
Veganoo Score: ★★★★★
Violife 'Prosociano' Vegan Parmesan
Violife 'Prosociano' Vegan Parmesan
Footnote: Ingredients
Here is the ingredients panel from the pack we reviewed.
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I'm pleased that I grabbed a block of this as I was passing through Brighton last week. I'll probably use it on some kinda pasta dish this evening.
ReplyDeleteYep, great on pasta. Try parmesan shavings - that's a new vegan thing you can do now too :-) Just use a veg peeler...
DeleteWhere did you buy it in Brighton please?!
ReplyDeleteSurely Infinity have it. If not, ask them to stock it. :-)
DeleteIs it possible to buy this online? I live in the US.
ReplyDeleteAs far as we know, Violife products are not sold in the US, but some Viotros-manufactured products are sold over there, such as Field Roast Chao Slices. Keep your fingers crossed for Prosociano getting rebranded too.
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