Free & Easy cheese flavour sauce mix

[Rae]

Having tried and failed to make a consistently good (well, tolerable) cheese sauce from a roux (using soya milk and dairy-free spread) and grated cheese, I found this cheese sauce mix "Free & Easy cheese flavour sauce mix". Although skeptical at first, it has grown on me. For one thing, it is much quicker than starting from scratch and you no longer have the problem of trying to get the "chalky" soya "cheese" to melt.

I have found it tastes best using soya milk and adding some extra thickener (e.g. corn four). I tested it out in a dairy-free lasagne and my parents couldn't tell that it was dairy-free - and as I'm sure you know, for "cheese" products, that's amazing. I have also tried adding it to mashed potato on top of shepherd's pie etc, yum yum. However, I'm not sure about the taste when used as a cheese sauce in its own right, but this might just be me - my cheese memories are now idolised so nothing will ever taste as good as my memory of cauliflower cheese!

Let me know what you think of it.
Rae

Availability: I have bought this product 3 times from Tesco in their Free From section (it has never been out of stock when I wanted it), but have not seen it in Sainburys.

[cnc]

Is that the one that has the green flecks of herbs through it or is that a different one? I've not had too may problems making a roux to be honest, with any milk, although oat milk seems to work well.
I go with Pure, cornflour, oat milk and two types of tofutti cheese- the soft cheese works well because it dissolves really easily.

The instant cheese sauce I tried was horrible but I tried it to make macaroni cheese which is perhaps where I went wrong?Glad you enjoy it though.

[Rae]

Yeah, it's got some herbs/clove bits in it, so probably the same one. (in an orange tub?)

If it is the same one, I'm not surprised you didn't enjoy it on macaroni, as I don't think it can carry the flavour by itself. I find putting it in a lasagne saves a lot of time, and can add a cheesy-flavour to mashed potato toppings.

I think my problem with the roux method is the "cheese". I haven't heard of tofutti cheese before, only Sheese, cheezley and vegelese. I have used the super melting cheezley in a cheese sauce with moderate success, but finding it is an issue for me and I haven't found any others that melt well. I tried putting soft sheese into the sauce but objected to the flavour.

I'll have to search for tofutti cheese and might try it with the roux.

Thanks for the advice,
Rae

[jill]

I use this all of the time. I sling some cooked macaroni, mushrooms and ham in a pan, add about 4 tsp of the powder, some milk and stir to bring it to the boil and heat through. Never fails , also add a bit of black pepper to taste. Very quick tea, i've also used it on cauliflower cheese and lasagne. If you don't compare it to proper cheese then I think it is an excellent alternative.