Vegan cheeses have improved a lot. I’ve been vegan for almost 25 years, and the last few years have been the best for cheese alternatives. I don’t know if you’re in the US or if these are international brands, but Miyokos and Parmela Creamery both make some good stuff.
I feel like it varies quite wildly. Hard cheese seems to be pretty difficult to emulate well, while softer cheeses seem to be more doable (though there are some horrible ones). We have a local store that makes their own vegan replacements for stuff, and they have some soft cheeses that use the same mold as the originals, and they’re pretty good.
If you haven’t had cheese in 25 years, I can see how you’d think the snotty vegan approximations are acceptable.
-A vegetarian who is also addicted to cheese
Fair enough point on its face, but if you haven’t tried any new offerings lately, you should check in. I’ve made grilled cheese and quesadillas for vegetarians that couldn’t tell the difference. Probably the more specialty or fancier cheeses don’t have good substitutes yet. I hope they don’t bother replicating feta ;)
Oh hey, I tried vegan feta in salads recently, and it was almost indistinguishable (to me), which was surprising! I didn’t expect it to actually be good, lol
There’s a bunch of vegan feta cheeses in Germany. The one we’ve been buying the most recently is from Lidl’s own vegan brand “Vemondo” and costs like 1,30€ for 150g. It’s really good - melts the same as “og” feta, has a good consistency when raw, and tastes like actual feta.