Nothing can get too cheesy today. Let’s dedicate today’s recipes to the cheese lovers, the ones who like to add cheese to nearly everything. Well, as far as it’s possible.
First, let me tell you that I’ve never been a cheese lover, neither as a vegan or non-vegan. In my pre-vegan days I only liked mozzarella, goat cheese, manchego, some cheese sauces and dips, and molten cheese on pizzas and in pasta sauce. Anything else made me want to gag. So, when I became vegan, and there were no cheese substitutes on the market yet, I didn’t really care at the time 😉 There was nothing to miss for me.
However, when Daiya and other brands introduced their vegan mozzarella, pepper jack and cheddar, I couldn’t resist trying the mozzarella. Pepper jack and cheddar didn’t really get me excited, although I did try them, but I still wasn’t crazy about the flavor, vegan or non-vegan. I loved using the vegan mozzarella though. I added it to pizzas, pastas, enchiladas, and lasagnas, and I made quesadillas with them.
So, these are the most common ways of adding cheese. Today, I’m going to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner, using Heartbest Vegicheez Three Cheeses (manchego, mozzarella, and cheddar). It melts deliciously. I will also recommend other vegan cheeses I have tried and which taste just as good and are also perfect for the below recipes.
Breakfast
This was easy, quick, and tasty. Perfect to make when you don’t have much time. Prepping took me less than five minutes and cooking time was around 8-9 minutes.
Cheesy Black Beans
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of water
- ¼ red onion
- 1/3 cup of finely chopped broccoli
- 1 teaspoon of curry powder
- ½ teaspoon of black pepper
- 1 package of pre-cooked black beans
- 1/3 cup of Heartbest Vegicheez
Preparation
- Pour olive oil into a frying pan and heat, add curry powder and pepper at once
- Make sure the broccoli is finely chopped. When the pieces are smaller, less cooking time is needed.
- When oil is heated, add broccoli pieces to pan. Fry on low to medium heat for three minutes
- Add water
- Cook for one minute
- Add chopped onion and cook for two minutes
- Add black beans and cook on low heat for two more minutes
- Add the vegan cheese, mix it in, and let it melt
When the cheese has melted, your beans are ready.
Enjoy!
Notes:
Beans provide healthy protein; Heartbest Vegicheez is non-GMO; broccoli brings vitamins A, C, E,K, and B, and also folic acid, not to mention magnesium, iron, potassium, protein, and fiber to the table, and onions are high in vitamin C, contain a flavonoid (a form of an antioxidant), and they are also a good source of fiber, protein, calcium, iron, and folic acid.
I didn’t use salt, because the beans package already included salt
Heartbest Vegicheese is not available on Amazon yet (I got it at Costco in Mexico), but other cheeses that can be used for this meal are: Daiya Mozzarella, Go Veggie Rice Lactose free Shreds Cheese Alternative Mozzarella Style,and Tofutti Soy Cheese Slices Mozzarella
Lunch
Mexican Sinchronizadas
How about making this quick and easy too? Sometimes you don’t have time to prepare an elaborate lunch, right? Or sometimes you come home, tired and famished, and you just want to eat right away. No time or energy to start cooking. I get it. I often come home like that 😉 My work day ends at 2:45 and I arrive home around 3:40. That’s lunch time for me, so I am usually quite hungry by the time I get to my house.
Mexican sinchronizadas are the perfect answer for that. And don’t worry, the recipe is a lot easier than pronouncing the word sinchronizadas 😉 Basically it’s a quesadilla with (vegan) ham, mystery solved.
Ingredients
- Tortillas (the amount depends on how hungry you are – I usually use 6 to make 3 sinchronizadas)
- Go Veggie Mexican Style Dairy Free Shreds or Heartbest Vegicheez
- Lightlife Vegan Turkey Ham
- A comal
Preparation
- Heat the tortillas on the comal, make sure they don’t start “bubbling”.
- Flip them over to heat both sides
- Place one slice of vegan turkey ham on one tortilla
- Top with vegan cheese
- Lay another tortilla on top of ham and cheese
- Heat until the cheese melts
- Don’t forget to flip the sinchronizada over to make sure that both sides are heated
And that’s it, you can repeat the process as often as you like, make a batch of 4 or 5 sinchronizadas. They’re so easy to make, so if you’re still hungry, preparing and heating an extra one just takes two minutes.
Enjoy!
Dinner
Cheesy Basil – Ham Pasta
Shall we take a little more time for this one? Just a little bit, not too much, because I know that in the evening you can be quite exhausted and not in the mood for cooking. Well, this meal won’t take up all evening, and it’s deliciously cheesy.
Ingredients
-
- water (to boil pasta)
- pasta
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- a pinch of salt
- 2 cloves of garlic
- a handful of fresh basil
- 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
- 2/8 cups of white wine (Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay)
- 3 slices of chopped Lightlife vegan turkey ham
- Heartbest Vegicheese or Daiya Mozzarella
Preparation
- Bring water to a boil and add salt
- When water is boiling, put in the pasta and cook for 8 minutes or as instructed on pasta package
- In the meantime, pour olive oil into a small pot, add a pinch of salt, and heat
- Chop the garlic and add it to the pot as soon as the oil has heated
- Cook for four minutes on low medium heat or until garlic has glazed a little
- Chop up basil and add to the pan
- add 1/8 cup of wine and stir
- Add nutritional yeast and mix it in
- Lower heat to low and cook for two minutes. Do not boil
- Add another 1/8 cup of wine and stir
- Cook for three minutes. Do not boil
- Add vegan ham
- Add vegan cheese al gusto. Don’t overdo it, because you don’t want the sauce to get too sticky.
- When vegicheez (or one of the other recommended cheeses) has melted, turn of the stove
- When pasta is ready, drain and serve on a plate
- Pour sauce over pasta
Enjoy! It’s a hearty, flavored, and delicious pasta dish.
Notes: since the wine doesn’t cook that long, combined with the cheeses the taste may come out very hearty. If you don’t want such a strong flavor, you can add a few tablespoons of water while you’re cooking the sauce, it waters down the flavor.
This recipe is for one person. If you’re cooking for two people, double or triple the ingredients. Just don’t go overboard with the garlic 😉 and instead of doubling the amount of wine, I would add more water, but that depends on your taste. If you’re cooking for a larger group of people, just use larger amounts of each ingredient and balance the amounts of wine and water.
So, whenever you have a large assortment of vegan cheeses (like I happen to have right now 😉 ) there’s plenty you can do with it. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments below.
Cheese 🙂

I have several friends and family members that are vegan or vegetarian and they sometimes tell me how hard it can be to be able to have products that were similar to why they had pre-vegan/pre-vegetarian. I’ve also noticed they are big cheese lovers so this post about cheesy items would be a god send for them. I’ll defonitely forward this to them so they can check it out. Great post!
Awesome 🙂 I hope your friends and family members check it out. There are so many vegan cheeses available nowadays, you can basically veganise any meal.
Thank you for this article. I also enjoy cheese. It sounds like you had a very fun day enjoying lots of cheesy Foods. Vegan cheese is probably healthier than Dairy cheese in some ways. Your black bean recipe Is my favorite. Black beans and cheese go really well together. Plus it gets you a lot of protein and healthy nutrients.
I like your you are special today plate. Your pasta dish at the end looks really nice too. I think people will be pinning this on Pinterest a lot because people love Innovative recipes on Pinterest.
I agree, black beans and cheese go so well together. I also love that combination and I make it often 🙂
Pinterest, yes, thanks for reminding me, I’ll pin it right away 🙂
Hi Christine! I really liked cheese and that was one of the very first things I missed. As you have said, when these brands, such as Daiya opened their vegan cheese line, I was really excited.
You may think I’m kidding but I can easily have these three recipes in one day. Won’t get bored with to much cheese.
I want to ask your honest opinion: Which one of these 4 would you label as the very best?
1. Heartbest Vegicheese.
2. Daiya Mozzarella.
3. Go Veggie Rice Lactose free Shreds Cheese Alternative Mozzarella Style.
4. Tofutti Soy Cheese Slices Mozzarella.
Hi, no kidding, but I actually had all three meals today ;-), so I do believe you 😉
Which is my favorite? It’s hard to say, but the ones I use the most often are Daiya and Heartbest.
Your website has some philosophical undertone. And that’s where I got so thrilled to read through to understand your perspective. Much as many may not agree with you the fact is that you have a rational basis, arguably though it may be.
I must also state that the health benefits are indisputable in any case. And to that extent I see the strength in your postulation.
Wish you the best.
Thank you for your comment, and for the compliment 🙂
Uhh yum, yum. I love cheese the diary kind but I would love to try vegan cheese. Thanks for sharing the article, I find veganism very interesting especially how vegan substitue options are growing in popularity. Plant based is for sure the way to go for so many reasons. So, for sure I am going to try your recipes and give the Heartbest Vegicheez Three Cheeses ago. I’m excited actually to give all these products ago!
Hi Rina, these vegan cheese substitutes are delicious, so yes, by all means give them a go 🙂 Let me know which vegan cheeses you like best 🙂
Vegan or non-vegan these are great recipes. The convenience of the preparation and cooking makes them ideal for a whole range of occasions and quick meals for a longer.
Can the replacement of other ingredients, such as red wine for white, have and adverse outcome? The other ingredients seem easily replaceable but not sure of the wine.
The presentation has made me add these to my recipes and am non vegan.
Hi Patrick,
Thank you for adding these to your recipes 🙂
As for replacing white wine with red wine, I also thought of doing that, and I think you can do it. The flavor will just be more intense, I think, much heartier. Ill try it out for sure.
Hi Chistine,
As a non-vegan, but a passionate cook myself, I absolutely liked your recipes – great ideas for quick and satisfying everyday cheese (who doesn’t like cheese of some kind?) – based dishes.
What are these vegan cheeses made of, and why are they better than regular cheese?
Also, I had another question about “Comal” – sorry, I should know, maybe I forgot but what is it exactly? I thought I knew Mexican food, at least a bit.
Thanks
Vincent
Hi Vincent,
Vegan cheese can be made from potato starch, soy protein, nuts, tapioca flour, nutritional yeast, etc, depending on what type of cheese is made.
A comal is a round, flat griddle to heat tortillas on. I’m not sure if there is an English word for it 😉 I’ve lived in Mexico for a long time and most – if not all – Mexican households have a comal, since tortillas are an important accompaniment to many meals 🙂
Great article you have written up here and I really found it worthy of reading. My hubby is a vegan and it has really not been easy to maintaining his food plan so, most times he does wish to settle for the cheese but it does not always pan out like the ones he had in pre-vegan periods. Thankfully you have really given several suggestions up here and I know that he would find these to be very helpful and interesting. Thumbs up for this articke
Hi Tracy,
The cheeses here taste really great, and I am glad you’re sharing this with your husband 🙂 And thanks for the thumbs up! 🙂
Hello Christine,
What a great and informative post. I like the way you detailed this article and the humor that comes with it. I am not a vegan but there is really something in your post that I like very much and that I intend to implement in my next cooking.
I am a full-time worker and as you have so well said so sometimes we go home very tired and cooking becomes a challenge.
The Mexican Sinchronizadas seems very perfect for me.
Thank you for this detailed post. I’ll come back to follow your trick and cook my dish.
Hi Sebastian,
The Mexican sinchronizadas are the perfect recipe when you want a quick meal 🙂
Thanks for visiting my blog!