New Zealand Veggie Cheeses Part 1 - Hard Cheese

Last month I popped over to New Zealand to visit some fabulous friends there. Whilst high on my agenda, was to hunt down and review a vegetarian eatery, in amongst all the cocktails and shopping I quite ran out of time! However, I did manage a whistle-stop shop for some cheeses to take home with me.

Most Vegetarians will have cheese factor as a large part of their diet (if not suffer an all consuming absolute obsession with the stuff) But sadly sometimes meat manages to sneak it's way into cheese via the sneaky substance that is Rennet (boooo).Vegetarian cheese use a microbial rennet, rather than animal rennet, whilst in the UK there is a handy big green 'V' tick on anything that is veggie friendly, this isn't the case anywhere else in the world and spend an awfully long time in the Supermarket checking the backs of packets, and let's face it, that is no ones idea of a good time. So I thought a handy guide to New Zealand Veggie Cheese might be a good article idea! 

Hard Cheese

Dairyworks Vegetarian Parmesan- the holy grail for Vegetarian Cheeses! Veggie Parmesan is not so easy to across even in the UK. I lived in New Zealand just a year and a half ago and this little beauty wasn't on the market at the time. It is steep, at nearly $10. It comes in an authentic Italian thick wedge (which for some reason made it even better to me!) It is very crumbly, but melts beautifully into risottos and pastas alike.

Dairyworks also do some great pre-sliced package cheese. I've only found their Smoked Cheese in the teeny-tiny child sized slices, but if you are a smoked cheese fan you will find the options slender in NZ. Once I had discovered this, I pretty much ate it every single day for lunch for about two weeks. All the mini-slices kids range are Vegetarian, but I can't find any info to confirm if the entire range is good-to-go, but I will be sure to re-check on my next visit to the isle of the All Blacks!

One thing you've got to respect about NZ is the size of the blocks of cheese. No polite 100-200g packets of Europe, here it's go hard or go home. Most of your 'standard' cheese varieties come in hearty 1KG blocks. You'll never get through that, you think. Oh, but you will. Your stomach will thank you, your thighs will not. A good strong Cheddar won't be easy to come by the closest you will get is 'Tasty' and Rolling Meadows offer the mammoth 1KG of Veggie Friendly Cheese. The only vegetarian-friendly crumbly sharp 'Cheddar style cheese' I have discovered comes from Whitestones Artisan Cheesemakers, from Oamaru - whose full range is Vegetarian, Hurray Whitestones!

No one can sign off on the subject of Hard Cheeses without a mention to the Vegetarian Steak of Cheese - Haloumi. This salty Cypriot cheese is so firm it can withstand frying, it was traditionally wrapped in Mint leaves to keep for longer and some varieties will some come in liquid with pieces of mint floating around it it. The Collective's version doesn't come with mint but it still handmade packs the salty punch in super cute packaging. As a side note- look no further than The Collective for delicious gelatine free Gourmet fruit & Greek Yoghurts - heavenly!