Where to get vegetarian parmesan-style cheese?

Badgergal

I know that no true "official" veggie parmesan cheese exists, but some recipe books suggest you can get a vegetarian parmesan "style" cheese (ie one that doesn't use animal rennet like the official parmigiano reggiano does).

I am cooking dinner for friends and we are all veggie to some degree, one in particular is very strict. I want to do a risotto that needs parmesan, but have never seen this veggie parmesan style cheese? Has anyone? I live in London so have access to most of the main stores etc...

nb - it needs to be proper fresh cheese and not the ready grated stuff you can buy if poss!

Caterina

Sainsbury's sell a vegetarian Parmesan-type cheese (in wedges, not grated) which is very good, it tastes like the real thing and uses veg. rennet. It is not always in stock and unfortunately I do not remember the name of the product. I have also seen it sold in Waitrose and some health food shops.

You could try and ring Sainsburys, tell them that they stock it in their Greenwich Peninsula store and could they find out more where they stick it where you live.

Otherwise another product, which is Vegan, is called Parmazano, it is soya based and it is like grated dry parmesan (but doesn't even begin to taste like the real thing!). Also Sainsbury, Asda, health food shops.

Good luck!

Caterina

whistler-alison

Hi - waitrose do one. But I can't remember what it is called. It is next to the parmesan cheese.

thriftlady_2

Yep,Waitrose do one but I can't remember what it's called either - looks the same as ordinary Parmesan.

melancholly

i have one too from dairy avoidance days - it's in a plastic tube thing like grated parmesan. i think it came from tesco....

timefortea

Bumping this topic because I've got the same question and things change in 5 years. The cheapest Parmesan-style cheese I've found is from Sainsbury's, but there isn't a big one near me, so I'd have to order it for delivery and if you spend less than £40 the delivery charge is £6. :mad:

Any other veggies have a better solution?

Pink.

Hi timefortea,

As we now have a grocery shopping board I've moved the thread over there to see if you can get an answer.

Pink

timefortea

Sorry, I thought I was doing the right thing by bumping an old topic rather than making a new one.

Marinegirl

Bookhams do a Parmesan style hard cheese made with vegetarian rennet instead of calf rennet. Formerly Known as Twineham Grange Vegetarian Parmesan, it is now cheesily called Not Just a Pasta Cheese. You can buy it online from bookhams.com or use their store finder, plus Waitrose have just started selling it. Sainsburys do their own brand vegetarian hard cheese which is exactly like Italian Parmesan, very nice and quite cheap.

parmigiano

hi all at parmashop you can buy the real vegetarian parmesan cheese right from italy parmashop.it/english/parmigiano-reggiano.html

mr_rg12

parmigiano wrote: »

hi all at parmashop you can buy the real vegetarian parmesan cheese right from italy parmashop.it/english/parmigiano-reggiano.html

::sigh::

:mad:

There is no such thing as vegetarian parmesan. Parmesan has PDO status. You cannot legally sell something as "parmesan" if it's not made in the traditional way in the appropriate geographic region, and the traditional way in this case means using rennet extracted from slaughtered calves.

Sainsbury's do a "Hard Italian cheese" in their Basics range - it has a similar texture and cooking properties to parmesan, but it's suitable for vegetarians. I'm told the flavour isn't much different (I won't eat parmesan so I haven't compared) but it's a LOT cheaper!