VeganMoFo #2: Daiya Deconstructed
It is all the rage but what is Daiya? What’s in it? Here I go, deconstructing sunshine.
- Purified water
- Ground cassava: a starchy root from the tropics you may know as yucca. It’s related to tapioca.
- Arrowroot: another tropical starch related to tapioca
- high oleic sunflower oil: sunflower oil that is at least 82% oleic acid, a mono-unsaturated omega-9 fatty acid
- Safflower oil: safflower is close to sunflower oil. It can be used as an oil paint binder too, like linseed oil.
- Coconut oil: Damn, Daiya is so tropical
- Pea protein: veggie protein
- Salt: you know, the mineral
- Inactive yeast: a dough conditioner for stretchiness
- Vegetable glycerin: an emulsifier (see sunflower lecithin) and thickener
- Natural flavors: a combination of plant-derived gases that release as flavor/scent as we chew. So weird.
- Xanthan gum: increases viscosity, creates a bounce-back bite, so to speak
- Sunflower lecithin: another emulsifier, keeps all these oils and gooey things binded together
- Natural vegan enzymes: help with digestion and other bio-tasks
- Natural vegan bacterial cultures: to bless digestion and taste
- Citric acid: flavor additive from citrus fruits
- Natural color: vegetable-derived dye (I hope. Natural color on a label could be sourced from veggies, animal or mineral. I’m curious why they wouldn’t confirm a vegetable source like they did with the enzymes and bacterial cultures.)
There are 10 Comments to "VeganMoFo #2: Daiya Deconstructed"
nice deconstruction! I hate reading ingredient lists and not knowing what stuff is.
I still need to try that crazy Daiya stuff.
Really interesting!
Hm, it takes some serious Science to make stretchy cheese.
Ha ha! This is awesome. I love Daiya so freaking much.
I looks soooo good!
do you think the "inactive yeast" is just an alternative name for nooch? (aka nutritional yeast, aka stuff that makes things taste like cheez)?
cool! I've still never tried Daiya, but I am eager to… just as soon as I can find it somewhere. neat post!
Love Diaya! I hated Teese and was afraid to try this, but I'm hooked. A friend and I just split a 5-pound bag of cheddar shreds from Food Fight! Grocery–I put some in the freezer. (Somebody on Facebook claims to have frozen & thawed it with no ill effects, so we'll see.)
Love Diaya! I hated Teese and was afraid to try this, but I'm hooked. A friend and I just split a 5-pound bag of cheddar shreds from Food Fight! Grocery–I put some in the freezer. (Somebody on Facebook claims to have frozen & thawed it with no ill effects, so we'll see.)
[...] for my upcoming holiday cookie marathon. But yes, Daiya–the hot topic vegan cheese. I have taken it apart before but never had a stash of my own to experiment with.I don’t know what to make with [...]