One of our absolute favourite cheeses to eat is blue cheese and when we went vegan in 2015 we were on a mission to see if blue vegan cheeses existed.
It is originally a cheese that is made from the milk of a cow, sheep or goat and is a creamy cheese that has striking blue veins of mould throughout, this is what gives this category of cheeses its name.
Because of the addition of an animals milk, it means that dairy cheeses are not vegan, but that doesn't mean you don't have an array of choices which we'll go through below.
There are many families of blue cheese, with varying flavours which all depends on how long it was aged for and what type of mould is added.
Penicillium roqueforti is also added to vegan blue cheeses and ages the cheese in the exact same traditional way, the only difference is that of the protein used to start the cheese, with vegan blue cheeses, this is with a plant based protein.
Above you can see this in action with the Tyk Affinage, a blue vegan cheese from France. It is made with cashew and coconut milk at its base with penicillium added to create the distinctive mould layering you see above, what a stunner.
Here you can see inside of a different blue vegan cheese.
It is one of around 70 blue vegan cheeses that you can buy and try today from around the world.
This is the Nutty Artisan blue which is available in Spain and can be bought in parts of Europe.
