I almost wrote Happy Hump Day but I missed yesterday’s post because I finally took some time off and spent the day in the mountains!
It was some much needed time away, believe me! Not that I’m a workaholic these days, but for the last few weeks the weather thwarted my plans. I was determined that wouldn’t happen this week and it doubled as a mini-celebration for my new pen name book release. Assisting the Billionaire, if you’re interested!
We didn’t do much of anything but walk around and have an espresso, which isn’t worth mentioning. I needed a few hours without any screens and getting outdoors was the best way to do that. We talked. We laughed. I got my steps in, so I considered it a win and now I’m refreshed and ready to get back to it!
Vegan Cheese Wasteland
For as long as long as I’ve been vegan–nearly a decade–there’s been one gaping, unsatisfactory hole: vegan cheese. At first it was thick and waxy and mostly tasteless. And then it got fattier and softer and even more flavorful, but the meltability was still abysmal.
For me, it wasn’t a big problem because once I went off animal cheese, it turned out that I didn’t miss cheese in my diet. But sometimes, when it comes to pizza and lasagna, for example, cheese is a required vegan ingredient.
The game changer for me was Naturli brand vegan gouda (goudah), which is absolutely delicious! It has a wonderful gouda flavor without the downsides. I still don’t have it often but when I want cheese, that’s my go to. That being said, it still isn’t super great for a proper vegan grilled cheese. It melts but marginally, so at least the flavor is nice!
And then I spotted this beauty at Lidl this week and I forced myself to believe, just a little, in the advertising. Can you blame me?
I wanted to believe it so I grabbed it and some wheat bread and crossed my fingers.
The Hype Was Real
I made your basic vegan grilled cheese sandwich. I slathered, okay I didn’t slather anything because that’s not my style, but I did spread vegan margarine on the bread slices and placed them butter side down on a skillet heated to medium-high. I let that slice start to brown while I layered the vegan cheese slices on top.
I used 1.5 slices per sandwich because these suckers still have calories and fat and that was more than enough. While the first slice warmed up along with the cheese, I buttered the other slice and laid it on top.
When that sweet, sweet smell of melted butter and bread hit the air, I knew it was time to flip it, so I did. I wish I could tell you how much time to cook it on each side, but I was making cookies for my mother-in-law so I wasn’t really timing it. Sorry.
And guess what? This Vemondo brand cheese totally lived up to the hype. It was cheddar-y, though mildly so. It was super melt-y though and my hubs requested that I make it at least once a week for lunch until one of us gets sick of it.
Grilled Cheese & What?
I kept it simple and served this vegan grilled cheese with a cucumber & apple salad with chopped almonds. I think a dish like these really needs something fresh and high fiber for balance, but you pair it with whatever you like.
How do you make your grilled cheese?
Beer. Grilled cheese & beer, that is the answer. Or at least that was supposed to be the answer. We hit up CarreFour on the way home from Sinaia and grabbed a few things, beers among them. I’d never heard of Kaiserdom before and I have cut back dramatically on my alcohol intake (tyvm, World Health Organization!), but I was in the mood for a beer.
Fun fact: Beer in Romanian: Bere (sounds like: bare-ray). Beer in German: bier (sounds like…beer).
The dark lager was okay. The flavor was nice but it was kind of flat. The rauchbier (smoked beer) was…a big fat no thank you. The smoky flavor was overwhelming, almost like smoked meat, which was unpleasant. We finished the lager but after 2 sips gave up on the rauchbier.
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The Spicy Spatula 
Whatcha think?